How to Write an Analytical Essay in Leadership Studies: All You Need in One Article

Since you have chosen leadership studies as one of your subjects, completing an analytical essay shouldn’t be a big deal, should it? But let’s make things a bit clearer: leadership is something that refers to one of the top aspects of human life — one’s quality of leading people. Without leadership, the progress of human civilization wouldn’t be possible. And like everything that touches upon human nature, studying leadership, researching it, writing papers on it and succeeding is tough.

Rule Number One

Prior to deciding what exactly you’d better write about, we suggest you get deeper into the focus of the leadership studies. The primary concern of the leadership studies is the phenomenon of leadership in various groups of people around the globe. The discipline wonders what leadership really is in different contexts of modern society — from the point of view of a family or team, college or university, nation, etc.

Upon intending to successfully talk on leadership in your essay, you need to apply all efforts and grasp the basics of being a leader, having the power and authority, influence and followers. Only this way can lead your analytical essay in leadership studies to success and admiration.

How to Write an Analytical Essay in Leadership Studies: Getting Ready

Ask experienced writers what they think about writing an analytical essay in leadership studies and they will tell you that the hardest thing is to get ready for drafting. The so-called preparation stage requires time and effort, covers the setting of goals and researching, noting down and changing minds. But choosing the topic is, perhaps, the toughest aspect to begin with.

1. Step one — looking for the topic

Some students know what to write about only because their supervisors have provided them with engaging topics. Others (whether they are lucky or not) need to look for topics themselves. If you are still in search but you are starting to give up, here is the list you can look through and find something relevant (or distantly resembling) to what you want to write:

• Clear Signs of a Real Team Leader;
• Managing Staff Through Building Top Soft Skills;
• The Problems That Leader Face and (Un)Successfully Deal With;
• Leaders and People Who Surround Them: How Important Is It to Build an Effective Team?
• Becoming a Successful Influencer: Top 5 Steps to Make;
• Body Language as the Tool That Shapes Who You Are — A Leader or a Shadow;
• The Puzzle of Team Motivation;
• What’s a Born Leader and Does This Notion Have Place in the Modern World?
• What Is More Important in a Modern Leader: Skills or Charisma?
• Examples of Historical Leaders and Life Facts That Influenced Their Growth;
• Does Leader Listen, Talk, or Both?
• The Opposite Side of Being a Leader: Responsibilities, Social Pressure, Hatred, etc.
• Leader vs Inspirer: Giving Real-Life Examples;
• Do Leadership Skills Poison Personal Life?
• Why a Person May Not Want to Be a Leader;
• Authoritarianism vs Leadership: A Thing Line;
• Leadership Skills for Gaining Confidence Instead of Ruling;
• 100% Leadership Skills Lack and Its Effects on Everyday Life.

While making your decision on the topic for further development, give way to the one that reflects the most essential issues, is fresh and interests you as well. Why is your interest so important? The matter is that an uninterested writer becomes the creator of a boring analytical essay in leadership studies.

2. Step two — thinking about the creation of the thesis

Though a thesis statement is often regarded as a very short part of a large essay, it is as important as the entire research. Actually, the thesis has a huge interest in the whole structure of the essay and becomes a clear reflection of the aims a written intends to reach.

What must be done? Take some time to think over the problems that you believe have to find a solution in your analytical essay. Gather them together — and voila, the thesis is ready!

A high-profile thesis is characterized as debatable and controversial. It actually requires a huge research work. The shaping of the thesis is generally conducted according to the following structural pattern: opinion statement, reasons, and categories that define the stated opinion, and wisely suggested topical aspects.

3. Step three — making notes is crucial

Analytical comes from analyze and analysis. It means that the essay has to include your thoughts and ideas. That’s why, whenever any idea comes to your mind, you need to note it down. This step partially belongs to the preparation stage and partially to the writing one. How so? It’s just that you need to be prepared for the upcoming number of ideas and thoughts during the writing process too: as practice shows, in the course of creating a draft, some students change their mind, redo the outline, conduct another research and come to a brand-new analytical approach.

4. Step four — finding proof

In other words, you are researching, investigating, and testing to ensure there is the required backup for your work. Don’t think it should be shallow research: we are talking about a deep one. And the source of proof should be mostly primary.

Please, note that if your leadership topic is somehow connected to a historical topic, the proof must be straightforward data only. The proof must be taken from findings conducted earlier. If your topic has nothing to do with the history, use quotes as the relevant evidence.

5. Step five — coming up with a plan

Now, sort all the gathered information into logically organized paragraphs called a plan. With a clear plan at hand, it is easy to use the correct facts/figures/opinions in the correct place. The minimum number of paragraphs that should be included in your essay is five.

Another crucial point about the plan is that it must be approved by your supervisor before you actually start writing your analytical essay in leadership studies. He/she can make some amendments to do suggestions and you will craft the plan accordingly.

How to Write an Analytical Essay in Leadership Studies: Structuring

• Essay intro

Any analytical essay starts with a well-designed introduction part that conveys the background data to essay readers. For making the intro successful, profound writers often include a couple of hook sentences that are most favored for grabbing the audience’s attention. And what can draw attention better than:

• A fact strongly supported in textbooks;
• A funny joke that wins the heart of the reader;
• Statistical figures that shock and shake;
• A rhetorical question that makes you think over the answer even though you already know it;
• A metaphor, simile, or any other sophisticated literary term;
• A known quote that shows the depth of the analysis.

As no specific style can be applied to the intro part, to be on the safe side, feel this abstract with checked background information.

So, there’s the hook, the narrowed background facts… What comes next? There must be a transition sentence that slowly leads to the thesis statement.

• Essay body

It’s the structural piece that has its own structure. When combined into one, the paragraphs of the body are aiming at proving the thesis statement. When taken apart, each paragraph concentrates on one specific aspect/issue/proof.

Say you are analyzing the evolution of a projected leader. Your thesis is built around his/her evolution, while the body deals with:

• The focus on self-development;
• The focus on support from family, friends, colleagues;
• The focus on how the evolution of his/her leadership characteristics impacts him/her mentally.

Now, consider the structural arrangement of the body paragraphs. Each paragraph has a topic sentence, supporting proof, the analysis of the supportive proof, a conclusion.

In rough, you open a paragraph with a straightforward introduction to the idea. Then you provide evidence and explain (in 2-3 sentences) how it supports the idea presented in the opening sentence. You continue by analyzing the found figures and facts. Finally, you explain the significance of this idea.

Upon reading a paragraph, your reader is expected to have a clear understanding of the idea, argument, and analysis. As for the length of the paragraph, it can vary depending mainly on the complexity of your analytical essay in leadership studies.

• Summing up

The analytical essay’s conclusion is set to tie up the written work into one piece in leadership studies. Usually, it takes up to 3 sentences to finish the essay, but in these sentences, you have to restate the thesis, give a summary to the main ideas of the assignment and finish by an overall statement that describes the significance of your work.

After researching, creating an outline and drafting, you have to perform a final check:

1. Look for mistakes. Some students read to look for mistakes, others launch automatic programs that can do the check-up for them. For optimal results, we suggest you combine the two options.
2. Read and do it in a high voice. Reading out loud helps students to have an idea of whether or not the essay or some of its logically arranged paragraphs are easy to understand.
3. Re-check historical proof. This suggestion is applied to analytical essays that contain names and dates. Work with names by checking if they’re correctly spelled. Work with dates, rechecking their relevance on the Internet (browse official sites only).

Students can doubt their proofreading skills just because when you are checking own works, major mistakes are so easy to escape. If that’s the case with you too, you can ask your friends or a senior student to look through the work and estimate it accordingly.

How to Write an Analytical Essay in Leadership Studies: Do’s and Don’ts

It’s great when you prepare the assignment in accordance with all the requirements. It’s awesome when you follow the structural suggestions. But it is even better when you are eager to make your piece exciting.

We suggest you look through the two lists — the do’s and don’ts of a proper analytical essay in leadership management.

Don’ts

• Do not add weighty information or arguments when you are crafting the introduction part of the written assignment.
• Do not make your concluding part burdensome. You actually need up to three sentences to summarize your analytical essay. This number of sentences works even for large works.
• Do not include the thesis statement which doesn’t pose any interest to readers even if your personal interest in it is huge.
• Do not sacrifice the logic of the structure and the sequence of paragraphs of your analytic work.
• Do not add evidence that seems too blurry, have no support in multiple sources, or are too old-fashioned.
• Don’t exceed the number of words specified in requirements.

Dos

• Provide only authentic examples that serve as the reflection of leadership qualities.
• Include your personal leadership experience between the lines.
• Take time to conduct proper research as this is 60% of work done.
• Always stick to the structure — your analytic work is no place for creativity.
• Provide the list of references at the end of your essay, including all data sources you addressed either for facts or inspiration.

Studying leadership in college or university is the process that is both interesting and challenging. On the one hand, every hour is filled with new valuable information. On the other one, tasks like this make you panic. Don’t! You possess knowledge. You have access to libraries and their books. The Internet connection is better than the water supply. Use all these tools and how to write an analytic essay in leadership studies will be a pleasurable experience.

References:

• Atkinson, T. (2018). Using the Creative Cognition Approach in Essay Assignments in Leadership Education. Journal of Leadership Education, 17(1), pp.152–161.
• Howe, W. (1995). Leadership and Spun Leadership in the O.J. Simpson Case: Towards an Ecology for Leadership Studies. Journal of Leadership Studies, 2(1), pp.13–35.
• Wilson, S. (2017). Thinking differently about leadership a critical history of leadership studies. Cheltenham, Uk Edward Elgar Publishing.