As a student, you will probably be required to write a variety of essay types, such as descriptive, persuasive or rhetorical analysis essay. The character analysis essay is one of the papers you will receive at least once during your education, which is why you must learn how to write this paper if you want to boost your academic performance.
What is a Character Analysis Essay?
When assigned this paper, many students ask the question: ‘What is a character analysis essay’?
Character analysis essay is a type of essay that requires your full understanding of the characters in question. This essay serves to understand both the protagonists and antagonists by creating their profile and aiming for detailed analysis.
Before you turn to creating the proper character analysis essay format, you must understand the goal of this type of paper.
If you want to write a good character analysis essay, you need to understand your story’s characters, their thoughts, and actions, and the world they live in. The most important purpose of this type of essay is to dissect who the character is, how he was shaped and what we can learn from his actions and life.
Learning how to write this type of essay requires thorough research with attention to dialogue, plot, and narrative. In order to write it well, you need to turn into a literary analyst who presents the roles of each character in the story. Great writers aim for characters with a variety of facets and focus on these complexities.
How to Write a Character Analysis Essay
Our experts at xpertwriters.com created a short guide on how to write a character analysis essay step by step. Starting from how to start a character analysis essay to how to end with a strong conclusion, you will find that the process is not that complex when you have steps to follow.
- Pick a Character
In most cases, professors assign the characters with the task. However, in the case where you get to choose, make sure to find a character with a strong role in the story. You don’t really have what to write about a person who appears flat.
Have you picked your character? If you have narrowed the choice down, eliminate characters by reading the story with them in mind. Once you have set a focus, you will notice new things even if you have read the story before.
Finally, take notes. As you read about your character, write down all important elements that add to their story. This will help you choose the main idea and write the outline.
- Make a Character Analysis Essay Outline
Once you have decided on the main idea, outline the supporting material. Plan the order and location of all the characteristics you have chosen for the paper. This will help you get organized and maintain the effective flow of writing.
- Write the Introduction
A character analysis essay introduction serves to inform the reader on the character you have chosen and explain their role in the literary work.
Your introduction should provide the following elements:
- The topic of the analysis
- Some background information that will intrigue the reader
- Your thesis idea
- Write the Body Paragraphs
As is the case with every essay, the character analysis essay should also include body paragraphs. In this case, the body of your paper should serve you to:
- Describe what the character looks like
- Discuss their background
- Analyze the language they use
- Write about their personality
- Analyze their relationship with other characters
- Describe how the character changes, influences others or grows throughout the story
- Craft the Conclusion
A character analysis essay conclusion is same as any essay conclusion – a short and concise summarizing of the presented data and analysis. In few sentences, describe what you have learned and how that influences others.
Tips and Tricks on How to Write Character Analysis Essay
While writing a character analysis essay, remember to:
- Support all your writing with evidence
This means that you should incorporate evidence for all the points you make, but only if it is relevant to the story. Using quotes from the story can do a great job at supporting your ideas and increasing your credibility.
- Point, illustrate and explain
Also known as the PIE method, these steps are a must for evidence in writing. Make sure to make a point, use quotations to illustrate it and explain how the quote in question makes that point.
- Use your own words to anchor the quote
Do not leave a quotation alone in its own sentence in your essay. Use your own words and anchor the quote into a sentence.
- Never over-quote
The rule is to add only 10% of quotation in an academic paper, so limit yourself to this percentage. If you use too many quotes, this will get you a poor grade.
Are you ready to write your character analysis essay? All you have to do is learn the rules and tips for writing it, you will be able to finish a brilliant paper before the set deadline.