About The Skeleton/Outline

When planning your essay you should think about how you will break it down into PARAGRAPHS.

Your first section will always be your INTRODUCTION, which will always contain at least

At the least, your introduction needs a thesis. Keep in mind that your thesis needs to be fairly broad. It needs to be something that will challenge you to prove. Hopefully, your introduction will contain more than a thesis statement. You may also need

Your thesis is, however, the most important aspect of the analytical essay. It is what the whole paper will be about. So do not sacrifice the clarity of your thesis to make some general statement that does not relate to the thesis. Keep in mind with anything you add to the introduction that you need to bring it around somehow to relate to your thesis.

You will probably need to break down your thesis. Most theses are complex and will contain more than one idea for you to prove. For example, if your thesis claims that a character changes in some way, let's say from good to bad due to the forces of society, you will know you have to prove first that he is good and then that he is bad and then prove that it is society's fault. So you need to prove three things, not just one. Generally, the order in which you state ideas in your thesis is the order in which you should write about them in your paper. The paragraphs that follow will be determined by the ideas related to your thesis that you need to prove in order to prove your thesis.

Each paragraph needs to have a focus, a TOPIC SENTENCE, which is like a mini-thesis that is RELATED TO YOUR MAIN THESIS. Remember, like your thesis, your topic sentence is an OPINION, your opinion, which you need to PROVE. Just like every paragraph in your paper needs to relate to your thesis, every sentence in your paragraph needs to relate to your topic sentence.

Decide which QUOTES from your evidence/analysis sheet support which topic sentence. Remember, topic sentences, like thesis statements, are only your opinions. You must use the quotes as evidence in PROVING your opinions. Remember, though, the quotes alone do not prove anything. YOU must prove it.

You prove your opinions by EXPLAINING the quote and ANALYZING it. BE SPECIFIC about WHAT IN THE QUOTE is significant. BE SPECIFIC about what leads you to your conclusion. Don't give us a long quote and say "THIS shows that society corrupted him." Tell us WHICH WORDS show that. Also, be specific and careful in your reasoning--telling us WHY and HOW these things mean what you say they mean.

WARNING: DON'T THINK IT'S OBVIOUS! Thinking that something is obvious will keep you from proving what you need to prove. And if it really is obvious, you shouldn't be writing a paper about it--choose a less obvious thesis.

Make sure your analysis SUPPORTS THE TOPIC SENTENCE AND THE THESIS. Don't just prove to us that your character, for instance, "looked like Jesus" if you're trying to prove that he is a "good" person; as obvious as it may sound, you must tie this information into your thesis about his being good. This quote points out a physical similarity, but you must say that the physical similarity suggests a moral similarity, that looking like Jesus is being like Jesus, so he is good, which is part of your thesis. That is the logic of your argument. And try not to get off track. If you don't agree with that analysis, then the quote probably won't support your thesis and you shouldn't use it. Sometimes you have very interesting observations about the text but they do not relate to your thesis. Stay focused. Don't include these extraneous observations. However, there are times when you will need to revise your thesis to fit the evidence. Just remember that once you modify your thesis you will may have to modify your topic sentences, your analysis, and your conclusions. Everything must now support your new thesis.