Writing Body Paragraphs: How to ‘Layer’ Your Analysis

If you’re here, you’ve most likely interacted with the Matrix Education English Literary Techniques Toolkit!

Why You Need to ‘Layer’ Your Analysis 

The purpose of an essay is to convince your reader that your argument is the most correct argument that exists. To create an undeniable argument, your body paragraphs require foolproof analysis. Alright, so what does it mean to ‘analyse’?

According to the Glossary of Key Words, to ‘analyse’ means to “identify components and the relationship between them”. In your English studies, to ‘analyse’ means to conceptually connect the language and literary techniques you identify to the evaluative argument of your thesis statement and topic sentences.

Common Analysis Mistakes

So, why the emphasis on ‘layering’ analysis in your essay’s body paragraphs? Well, when you don’t layer your language and literary analysis, there will inevitably be argumentative ‘holes’ in your essay. When you fail to ‘layer’ your analysis, your reader will not be convinced by your proof. There are three main argumentative mistakes high school students make when it comes to writing essay analysis:

Randomised Analysis

Think of ‘randomised analysis’ as a conceptual cacophony – your body paragraphs have no organisation, no conceptual flow, and no through-line from your analysis to your topic sentence. This erroneous style of analysis occurs when students are not sufficiently familiar with their texts. As a result, ‘randomiser’ students might write any technique they can think of into their body paragraph, even when the technique has nothing to do with their topic sentence! 

Only Small, Sentence-level Analysis

This style of analysis takes a close-reading of a text to the extreme. This kind of ‘magnifying glass’ English student is likely to be extremely familiar with their text to the point where they fail to conceptualise a holistic argument. You might be a ‘magnifying glass’ analyser if you’re someone who fills their entire body paragraphs with microanalysis like diction, repetition, alliteration, and personal pronouns. The problem with this extremely close reading of your text is that you might never zoom out enough to, for example, conceptually connect a single instance of repetition to your topic sentence’s argument. 

Only Big, Structural Analysis

The final style of erroneous analysis happens to students who focus on the ‘big picture’ of their text(s), but never zoom in close enough to prove their argument. You can tell you’re a ‘big picture’ analyser if your body paragraphs rarely mention language techniques that occur at the sentence level. ‘Big picture’ analysers tend to focus on plot, narrative structure, and characterisation instead of looking at a text’s literary and language elements. If you’re a student who finds themselves explaining the plot or character, you might be committing this analytical mistake!  

Have you made any of these analysis mistakes before? 

These three essay analysis mistakes share a common thread – they all make your body paragraph sound like a list of things you know about the text, rather than an argument you’re making. 

When writing literary and language analysis, make sure to ask yourself: Does my body paragraph sound like a list? If your body paragraph sounds like a list rather than holistically layered proof, then you may need to return to the drawing board. Remember: any analysis you write out must demonstrate how your topic sentence proves your essays’ overarching thesis statement. 

Practical Strategies to ‘Layer’ Your Analysis

Now that we know why it’s important to layer your analysis instead of ‘listing’ your language and literary techniques, let’s discuss the practical strategies which will help you achieve a layered body paragraph.

Step One: Differentiate Literary Versus Language Techniques

The first step to layering analysis is to pre-plan the techniques you will use in each point. Remember: not all techniques are made equal. You cannot base your entire argument on repetition, alliteration, or onomatopoeia. Why? These are examples of micro techniques. 

There are two types of techniques: ‘big techniques’ (literary techniques like motif, metaphor, and imagery that add figurative meaning to a text) and ‘small techniques’ (language techniques like repetition or hyperbaton that exist on the sentence level). To achieve well-layered analysis, you need a mixed bag of big and small techniques. 

But there’s a catch! This mix of techniques can’t be random – you need to ‘sit’ your smaller techniques within your bigger, prioritised techniques. Look at it this way: a series of smaller techniques will ‘construct’ your prioritised technique. 

This article began by mentioning four techniques:

Allusions. Analogies. Anaphora. Alliteration.

This list of techniques actually decreases in order of priority! You can think of the blue techniques as literary techniques and the green as language techniques. 

Before even writing your body paragraph, see if you can scaffold a flowchart of literary and language analysis. Have a look at the example below that’s based on analysing an extract from Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; boy mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum. 

The two scaffold examples would constitute two separate TEE analyses. The maroon boxes represent prioritised techniques while the green boxes represent smaller techniques. 

Step Two: Make Direct References to the Text

Creating foolproof analysis requires more than just mentioning the techniques you’ve identified. You should also situate your techniques in relation to the text. Your analytical sentences should interweave direct quotes from the text to prove that the techniques you’ve identified are accurate and important when it comes to proving your argument. 

For example, The simile of the Maycomb ladies being “like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum” creates sticky, dessert imagery that emphasises just how hot the Maycomb summer is.  

Notice how the quote from the text is incorporated within the grammatical sense of the sentence. This sentence also has two literary techniques (the simile and the dessert imagery) sandwiched around the quote itself. Even at the sentence level, this example has layered analysis that situates itself alongside a direct reference to the text. 

Step 3: Piece Your Analysis Together

Earlier, we mentioned the importance of having an ‘argumentative flow’. A practical strategy to ensure that all your points of analysis flow from 1) one point to the next, and 2) one sentence to the next is:

Make sure to ‘pick up where you left off’. To ‘pick up where you left off’ means mentioning the key idea of your previous sentence/ point as the beginning of the next sentence/ point. Let’s have a look at what ‘picking up where you left’ looks like within the essay analysis context.

The table below has two examples of the same analytical point; the first example doesn’t refer back to the previous point’s key idea, the second one does. 

What’s the Difference? 

Layering your analysis into cohesive units of meaning allows your argument to conceptually flow from your topic sentence to your literary and language analysis, and from your analysis to your linking sentence. Think of it this way: your smaller techniques sit within your prioritised techniques, and your analytical component (your body paragraphs) sits within your evaluative argument (your thesis statement). 

It may help to visualise your holistic essay as a series of nesting dolls!