Literary Analysis: Writing Style and the Author’s Mind

Many people (and myself) believe that to become a good writer in a genre, one must first read and analyze texts in that genre for inspiration. In the context of high school, if you want to learn to write good essays, you should first read good essays and analyze them. For me, the two important questions of essay analysis are: 1) what is the author trying to accomplish and 2) what writing techniques are they using to accomplish them. These are questions of theme and literary devices/writing style. 

When you read a text, every paragraph and chapter should trigger questions like the following:

• Why did the author write the paragraph/chapter in this way?

• How is the author trying to affect the reader?

• Why has the author written this story?

• How do I feel/think about what is happening in the text?

• How would I describe their writing style? 

• Can I identify separate elements of their style like the use of colorful imagery or statistical evidence? 

• Why have they chosen to use this specific writing style? 

• What do I think/feel about the work as a whole?

Questions like these will help you as a reader to better understand the texts you are analyzing and the mind of the author. As a goal, when you read, you should try to comprehend the messages in what you read and the mind of the writer.