The World Economic Forum puts analytical thinking at the top of the 10 skills that will be in demand among employers in 5 years. Therefore, developing the ability to think analytically is not just a whim, but a requirement of the era.
Analytical thinking is a person’s ability to analyze a specific situation, compare facts, and draw conclusions based on the data obtained. Having the analytical way of thinking, a person decomposes information into fragments, structures the data, and figures out their correlations to each other. This approach allows us to make the best of all possible decisions.
People with an analytical mind know how to work with databases, analyze information, get to the root cause, examine an issue from all angles and draw conclusions. That’s why people who are good at math are often called analytical thinkers. They can easily do the math, calculate options, and work with large amounts of data.
British scientists Harrison and Bramson claim that such people are inherently logical, detailed, and cautious in solving problems. In order to make a decision, they create a mental roadmap. They always need to gather as much information as possible.
That’s why writing professional papers (https://pro-papers.com) like analytical essays is a great way to develop an analytical mindset and become skillful with logical reasoning, which is an indispensable asset in adult life.
Critical Thinking Approach Guidelines
As a rule, in order to solve a problem in an analytical way you need to break it down into several steps:
- get the information and take a look at the task as a whole;
- decompose it into several components;
- examine each element: highlight the positive and negative aspects;
- prioritize;
- choose the most appropriate option or method of solving the problem.
Analytical essay
The purpose of writing an essay is to evaluate the ability of students to express their own thoughts in writing and the degree of development of independent creative thinking.
An analytical essay is an essay that analyzes a problem or presents an opinion based on a specific fact. The subject of the analysis may be a work of fiction, a historical event, a scientific phenomenon, etc.
In order to write a perfect analytical essay you’ll need to:
- formulate thoughts clearly and concisely;
- structuretheinformation;
- isolate cause-and-effect relations;
- argue your points and illustrate them with examples.
The first step is to thoroughly research the topic of the essay. In the meantime, highlight the important notes, points of view, standards and all the needed details.
Then, determine your attitude to the subject of the essay and formulate it briefly in a thesis statement. Try to answer the question, “What am I trying to prove?”
Find additional arguments to help prove your point. Arguments can be facts contained in the subject of the essay, phenomena of social life, events, life situations and life experiences, scientific evidence, references to the opinion of critics and scientists, etc.
Write an essay outline. The standard outline of an analytical essay consists of 5 paragraphs (it can be more if the structure of your paper is more complicated and you need to dive deep into the topic):
- Introduction;
- Thesis, arguments;
- Thesis, arguments;
- Thesis, arguments;
- Conclusion.
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EssayText
Introduction. Contains a thesis statement, a briefly formulated opinion about the subject of the essay if it is required by an assignment. It should not be written in the first or second person, abuse exclamation, or question marks, though a rhetorical question is allowed.
Main paragraphs always include a thesis statement in the first sentence. Each paragraph should consist of 1) the main sentence introducing your argument 2) an analysis or explanation of your argument3) an example in favor of your argument and the thesis statement.
When making arguments, you should separate quotations and paraphrase. A direct quotation is always given in quotation marks, fully cites a passage of quoted text (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/punctuation/quotation_marks/index.html), and is supplemented with a reference to the source. A paraphrased thought allows a summary of the source text, showing only the main information, but still requires a reference to the source.
Conclusion. Not only should it reiterate a thesis statement, but also show the validity and influence of the arguments given in creating that statement.
Tips to check your essay:
- Check it for basic spelling and punctuation errors;
- Read the essay out loud to find weaknesses, stylistic errors, unfitting constructions, etc.;
- Doublecheck the facts, titles, names, etc.
Additional recommendations
- Formulate the thought clearly and concisely, avoid vagueness.
- Do not overuse quotations from sources;
- Make sure your essay folds logically and is consistent;
- Do not overload the introduction and conclusions, use the main body of the paper to demonstrate your position and convey the main arguments;
- Avoid casual language, use expressive language only when appropriate, stick to the formal style.
Good luck with your analytical essay!
