Obstacles to Writing Good Literary Analyses

Obstacles to Writing Good Literary Analysis Essays

We believe there are 4 main reasons why students struggle to write good literary analysis essays.

First, students sometimes lack motivation. They may fail to see the reason for writing about literature and think that analysis "ruins" a story. They just want to read for entertainment. We think that writing about literature can open your eyes to brand new ways of understanding language and the world. Writing about literature also can help you improve your critical thinking and writing skills which will pay big dividends once you're on the job market.

Students may also be intimidated by the idea of analyzing literature. They may be unsure how to identify literary elements in a story or how to come up with original ideas about how and why the author chose to use those devices. Our site teaches students to closely read the text and take notice of key elements. We show students how to develop a working thesis statement, and even include examples from our own essays as a guide.

When students lack confidence they often get anxious and stressed and this prevents them from really digging into a work and explaining how it operates. We address this cause in our site by sharing our own anxious experiences and explaining how we overcame them.

Finally, we believe that some students struggle with writing about literature because they don't budget the time necessary. They may just start the day before and think they can pull it all together overnight. Language is one of the most difficult things to write about and it's not realistic to think you could pull together a good essay that fast. You'll produce a more interesting, complex piece and learn a lot more if you can budget your time. Our process will help you do that.