Guidelines for Analysis Essay
"Words Don't Mean What They Mean"
Introduction
Your introduction should include the following information:
- The first sentence should be a one-sentence summary of the main point of the essay, including the title of the essay and the author's name.
- The introduction should also include background information about the author and information about the publication where the essay was first published. The information about the author and the publication should include information from at least one additional internet resource (not just information from Language Awareness.)
- Finally, the introduction should include a preview of what the main points of your essay are going to be. This is your thesis statement.
- The introduction should not be more than 175 words long.
Body
1st body paragraph should be a summaryof Pinker's essay.
- Your summary should not be longer than 175 words.
- It should include a summary of the main points of the article.
- Remember that this essay is not just a summary. It is also an analysis. If most of your paper is summary, not analysis, you will have to write it all over again for the second draft.
The second paragraph will be your analysis (or 2nd and 3rd, depending on what you want to say and how you want to organize your essay.) There are many different ways that you can analyze the essay using the questions on pp. 10-13 in Language Awareness.
- How well does the author relate to the audience (to the original intended audience or to the audience of this textbook or maybe even to the international student audience)?
o The vocabulary used (Too difficult/simple? Too formal/informal? Too culturally-specific?)
o The examples used(Easy/difficult to understand? Too culturally-specific?)
- What is the writer's attitude toward this topic? (your choices are not limited to the attitudes on p. 11.)
- How well does the author present his/her main points
o Is the purpose of writing the essay clear? How well does the author achieve his/her purpose?
o Are the main points clear and obvious or is it difficult to discover the main points?
o Does the essay have a clear organization-introduction, conclusion, topic sentences for the paragraph?
- What kinds of evidence does the writer use to support his/her main points?
o Is the evidence interesting?
o Does it relate to the audience?
o Do you believe what the writer is saying? Does it sound reliable and true?
- Overall, is the essay effective? Give examples to support why or why not.
Conclusion
Your conclusion should briefly restate the main point of Pinker's essay and briefly summarize your analysis of hisessay.
Use APA format (including cover page and a reference page) The References page must include the citations for this book (for the whole book and for the specific essay), as well as any other references that you use.You should use at least one additional source to find a little additional information on the author and/ or the original publication.If you are not sure how to cite a reference, you can check your etextbook(Writing Matters) inMcGraw Hill Connect (Chapter 19) or look on the OWL Purdue Website (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ ). If you use information from any sources besides the original essay-such as for author or audience information-you must cite those as well.
You also need in-text citations within the paper for any information that you use or refer to from the book-such as examples to support your analysis points.
You MUST give examples to support your analysis points.
If you cite information that is in the essay itself, you should give credit to the author of the essay. If you cite information from the background information of the book, you should give credit to the editors.
If you are citing a website that does not have an author, you will have to cite the name of the article or website.
The text of this essay should be 600-700 words, not including the cover page and reference page.
General Comments:
- Make sure you cite the paragraph or page of the essay when you are referring to examples from the book.
- Anything that you say in the essay that is not cited as coming from somewhere else will be assumed to be your ideas or your opinion. You DO NOT have to say, "I think..." or "my opinion is..."
- Make sure you have included all of the requirements from the assignment.
- Use APA formatting
- Do not use contractions, like don't, can't, or isn't.
- Do not use 1st and 2nd person pronouns, like I, me, you, we, us, our. You can use pronouns related to he, she, it, or they.
- You should use very few quotations. Most of the information should be in your own words. If you use quotes, they should be less than 5 words-just a phrase.