The conclusion to a rhetorical analysis essay should include a brief summary of the points you have made in your essay and a reframing or restatement of your main thesis statement.
It can be a challenge sometimes to write an effective conclusion because you don’t want to repeat yourself too much, but you also should not be including any major new points in the discussion.
A well-written conclusion wraps up the essay in a neat and satisfying way and leaves the reader with a clear idea of what they have read.
As with any essay, a rhetorical analysis essay needs a clear introduction. This will lay out the outline of your essay and will give a clear statement of your main thesis.
An introduction doesn’t have to be long, but it should link back to the prompt or question and set out the direction for the essay.
Apart from examination essays, it is usually best to write your introduction once you have finished the main body paragraphs of your essay. That way you already know the direction your essay has taken.
The purpose of rhetorical analysis can be one of several things. If you want to learn how to write persuasive, effective speeches or articles, then it is worth studying the art of doing so. Or if your interest is understanding how some people have managed to sway their audience particularly effectively, then you also might want to study rhetoric.
This can be of mere academic interest (e.g., a study of successful—or unsuccessful—marketing or political campaigns to understand why they succeeded or failed).
Or it can be of practical use, so that a campaign or speech can be crafted to be optimally effective. Certainly, studying the art of rhetoric can help anyone who wants to persuade someone to their point of view.
It is also of benefit for all of us to understand how advertisers, politicians, or bosses can seek to manipulate our opinions by their use of rhetoric.
A claim is, as the name suggests, a claim that the author is making, a key point. The evidence that is given to back it up is known as a support, and the link between the two is called a warrant.
A warrant can be explicit (e.g., “We need to reduce adolescent obesity rates because they have contributed to a terrifying spike in early-onset diabetes”) or implicit (e.g., “Adolescents today have higher rates of obesity, and there has also been an alarming rise in early-onset diabetes”). In this case, the reader is invited or expected to draw the link between the two halves of the statement.
To start a body paragraph when writing an essay, you should write a topic sentence that explains the main idea of the paragraph. Often, the beginning of this topic sentence will contain some sort of transition word or phrase.
Topic sentence examplesFirst body paragraph: To begin with, I’ll examine how Moreno’s use of hyperbole in dialogue builds readers’ emotional connection with her characters.
Second body paragraph: Along the same lines, Moreno employs imagery to increase the emotional resonance of her story.
Third body paragraph: Lastly, Moreno’s use of the symbol of the stuffed dog throughout the story invokes the readers’ natural nostalgia for childhood.
A strong conclusion in a literary analysis essay should always include a brief summary of your main points and a restatement and reframing of your overall thesis.
A conclusion can be a challenge to do well, because you don’t want to just repeat yourself, and you shouldn’t introduce any major new idea.
The QuillBot online Notepad can help you keep track of your ideas and plan your literary analysis essay. Additionally, you can use the QuillBot Paraphrasing extension to help you rephrase your ideas to make your point without being repetitive.
Getting the first steps right when writing a literary analysis is like making sure a building’s foundations are done properly. If you get it wrong, it undermines the rest of your work.
The most important first steps are:
Make yourself familiar with the text. The deeper your knowledge, the easier it is to analyze it.
Compose your thesis statement.
Write your topic sentences and put them in the best logical order.
Write your body paragraphs.
Write your introduction.
Write the conclusion.
QuillBot’s free online Notepad can help you keep track of your ideas throughout the essay-writing process. When you have finished your first draft then it’s time to proofread your work, check the grammar and spelling (you can use the QuillBot Grammar Checker), check any citations (try the QuillBot Citation Generator), and check for plagiarism (using the QuillBot Plagiarism Checker).
Put simply, a topic sentence expresses the topic to be discussed in a paragraph in a clear and concise way. It is the first sentence of the paragraph, and the body text expands, explains, and evidences the point expressed.
Writing an effective topic sentence is possibly the hardest part of writing an essay and, at the same time, the most effective way of improving your essay writing.
QuillBot’s free online Notepad can help you keep track of your essay notes, and our Paraphrasing Tool can help you to create effective topic sentences.
There is no absolute rule for this, but in general, a paragraph will be between 150 and 250 words.
If it is much shorter than this, then you need to consider if the point you are making is substantial enough or if you have included enough evidence to support your point.
If it is much longer, then you need to consider breaking it down into smaller points when writing your essay.
That is not to say that a 300- or 350-word paragraph will always be too long. But it is a guideline to help you judge the effectiveness of your essay.
QuillBot’s Paraphrasing extension can help you phrase paragraphs in the most effective way. Additionally, QuillBot’s Word Counter tool can help you track the word count and readability level of your essay.
That depends on what the essay rubric says. Most high school and college essay tasks will come with a suggested length of essay, usually as a word count.
As a rough guide, a paragraph should be between 150 and 250 words, so a 2,000-word essay will comprise between 8 and 13 paragraphs, including the introduction and conclusion.
In high school, it is quite common to be asked for a five-paragraph essay. In this case, the word count is likely to be between 750 and 1,250 words.
Bear in mind that the introduction and conclusion might well be shorter than the main body paragraphs.
QuillBot’s Notepad is a helpful tool to use when planning and writing your essay. Additionally, our Word Counter can help you track your word and paragraph count and other helpful metrics.
