Reading Like a Writer: How to Analyze and Learn from Well-Written Essays

Good writers are almost always passionate readers. This is how they tailor and improve their skill. It’s not just about the talent – it’s about dedication and practice, too. What many don’t understand is that reading is more than a hobby. It can also be a great way to boost your writing skills and learn more through the words of another writer. In this article, you’ll learn why analyzing an essay is important and how to do it right.

Reading Like a Writer: What Does ‘Analyze’ Mean in an Essay?

When you read like a writer, you are doing active reading with more attention to detail and use of various techniques. By doing this, you’ll basically analyse essay writing to gain a better understanding of what the writer intended, how they wrote, and what methods they used in the process.

How to Analyze in an Essay: Tips and Tricks

Now that you know what this means, let’s go through the steps for analyzing well-written essays by reading like a writer.

Step 1: Find Well-Written Essays

This should go without saying – if you want to learn from other people’s writing, you need to find well-written texts that can teach you. There’s a simple way to do this, and it will also help you reduce the academic workload in the process. When you struggle with a task, you can hire professional writers at a help platform to craft a top-notch essay for you. Hiring an essay helper is more than a safe deal and a way to meet hard deadlines. You can get back to their writing after you submit it and analyze it to learn how good papers are written.

Step 2: Re-Read the Writings You Love

To practice your writing skills, choose a book you absolutely love. The book you love is a great example of what you want to achieve in your writing. It is also engaging and fun to you, so you won’t have a problem re-reading it to analyze it better.

The books you find particularly interesting are the easiest to analyze because you’ll enjoy the process. There’s no shame in reading them a second, third, or a tenth time. In fact, this will help you find information and details you missed the last time, helping you understand the writer’s work even better.

Step 3: Do Active Reading

Have you done active reading before? This is the process of reading something with the goal to find the details in the text, understand it, and remember all the pertinent information in it. Active reading takes more time compared to traditional reading, and demands more focus and involvement in your part.

If you want to learn to write better, active reading is key to it. This includes annotations, notes, and even separate research on the essay or book you are analyzing.

Reading for pleasure has many benefits, but if you want to get the best out of the experience, try active reading whenever you can. This means that you will leave no stone unturned, focus on every little detail of the content, and note down everything you find interesting or important.

Step 4: Examine the Overall Structure of the Piece

Ideally, you should read the same piece of content at least twice to analyze it properly. If you have the time for it, start by examining the overall structure and story in the book or essay. What is it about? What are the main points in the piece?

When you read, you can write things down and take notes. You can write down the main points the first time you read the essay and fill in the gaps when you read it the second time. Reading and writing activate different brain parts, and this will keep you engaged and help you master the skill of writing more efficiently.

Step 5: Break Down the Story

In the previous step, you focused on the main characteristics and general parts of the essay. Now it’s time to break down the piece into smaller parts and examine them in detail.

Let’s say you noted down an important scene. Re-read that part and try to figure out what the protagonist wanted to achieve in that scene. What did they do? How did the writer tackle this part and described the scene? What does this part reveal about the main purpose of the essay or how does it contribute to its conclusion?

Final Thoughts

If you learn to read like a writer, this will involve different areas of your brain, strengthening it in the process. Active reading gives you a whole new perspective of what you are reading, and teaches you how you can improve your own writing skills. Knowing that, the next time you struggle with writing a paper, start analyzing other people’s work. This can inspire you, motivate you, and teach you how to write better.

Author’s Bio

Carly Benson is a professional content writer for an academic service. She delivers academic content to students who need help. She specializes in writing educational guides that are published on various journals and blogs online.