The Writing Process: The Analytical Essay
For many students, an English class’s most daunting assignment is the analytical essay.
A common factor of that struggle is the instinct to work in what’s essentially a backwards and “collapsed” order: while typing their first (and often only) draft, students are not only trying to figure out what they want to argue but also trying to “find evidence” for their argument.
This series of documents guides writers through a Writing Process that is more logical, more fluid, and more fruitful. It emphasizes argument integrity first, so that when students finally open up a new document, their only decisions are how to phrase things, not what to say.
Four Documents
The Writing Process Overview
The Writing Process Step #1:
From Prompt to Argument Tree
The Writing Process Step #2:
The Argument Tree
The Writing Process Step #3:
From Argument Tree to Essay
A one-sheet overview of the whole process, from Prompt to Submission.
A one-page document outlining how to gather relevant textual material and then come up with interesting claims about it.
A one-sheet document outlining how to visually map your claims and evidence, so you can understand how all parts of your argument work together in support of an overarching thesis.
A one-sheet document outlining how to translate your two-dimensional Argument Tree into a one-dimensional column of organized, paragraphic prose.
A one-page overview of the full Writing Process.
A one-page document outlining how to work from Essay Prompt to Argument Tree.
The first page of the one-sheet document outlining Argument Trees
The first page of the one-sheet document outlining how to translate an Argument Tree into an Essay's ordered paragraphic prose.