How to Write an Analytical Essay in Nutrition: Your Guide

For an inexperienced person, any topic in nutrition is something that can be easily covered within a few days. For those, who are closely studying the area, it is something that evokes nightmares, migraines, a cold shiver, and tears. Why? It’s that you need to include tones of essential materials in a few pages. Moreover, you are expected to put paragraphs into a definite structure, convey your thoughts step-by-step. Plus, all the ideas are to be supported by evidence. Aren’t these reasons enough to turn the process of how to write an analytical essay into a disaster?

To make things way easier, we’ve made up our minds to provide detailed instruction on writing. And now we are starting with the essay subject or topic, in other words. If you are given the freedom to choose one, grab this chance and make your choice wisely.

Here’s the list of topic that you can look through in search of the idea for your future analytical essay in nutrition:

Fighting Against Fast Food: Do Activists Have Any Chance?
Talking on Expiry Date and Whether or Not We Can Trust It;
Religious Denominations That Place Limits on Food Preferences;
Food as One of the Cultural Phenomena;
How to Influence Children’s Eating Habits in the World of Gastronomic Seductions;
Obesity-Related Factors: Psychological Reasons for Children to Gain Weight;
Why Does This Society Pay So Much Attention to Food?
Veganism. How Normal Is This Nutrition Choice for a Human Being?
Nutrition in the 20th Century vs Food Choice in the 21st: A Comparative Analysis;
Healthy Food Is Not Always Tasty Food;
Nutritional Stereotypes and Ways to Deal with Them;
Does Nutrition Influence Person’s Psychological Condition?

After reading this, it is understandable why writing an analytical work in nutrition isn’t easy: subjects aren’t broad but are rather narrows ones that require respective research and analysis of the found data.

How to Write an Analytical Essay in Nutrition: Practical Tips

Your title should be enticing. If it is, the title puts the person in good moods even before this person actually starts reading it.
Every part of your essay should be regarded as a chapter. Consider your essay a small story conveying ideas, hypothesis, research materials, analysis, and conclusions all on two or three pages.
Make drafts. Some students get surprised there shouldn’t be a draft but draftS. And the time span between the drafts must be a week at least. These seven days is the time for reconsidering and planning how to rewrite an analytical essay in nutrition.
Forget about I or me because it’s we and us. While you’re working on some sort of a rough draft, it is quite OK, but not for a written piece that you have the intention to hand in.
Eliminate page-long paragraphs. General recommendations state that a writer should provide a single idea throughout a single paragraph. Allow us to make a little amendment: even if the idea is vast and the analysis of a nutrition topic requires many words, divide them into two or three paragraphs. What for? Even though you think it is OK to read long paragraphs, a reader who is getting in touch with your work needs a break.
Eliminate 4-lines short paragraphs. They are also called small ones. Such paragraphs don’t thoroughly develop the idea you put in them. If you use short paragraphs in your analytical work, they must be transitional rather than content ones. In any case, they shouldn’t be too long to turn readers away from the point of argument.
Add quotes. Make it one quote per paragraph depending on its complexity and length, of course. Quotes are said to prevent readers from the wrong interpretations of proofs. Every quote is then followed by an interpretation. Better quotes are those that include alliterations, metaphors, and similes. They are drawing more attention and reaching readers better.
Make sure each of your paragraphs has a directive. In other words, a directive is the paragraph’s topic that provides a reader with the paragraph’s general idea that is then connected to a larger argument.
Add transitions between paragraphs. As stated above, the transitions can be short paragraphs that hold no idea. Also, they can be short sentences at the end of each paragraph that connect the first sentence of the following paragraph. As for the phrases like first of all, the next, another thing — they must be forgotten for good if you want to know about how to write an analytical essay in nutrition.

Generally, expert writers agree to the idea that a decent author has to be able to justify each word’s presence, whether or not it deals with food, drinks, eating habits, cultural aspects of cuisine, etc. That’s what supervisors call good analytical work in nutrition.

How to Write an Analytical Essay in Nutrition with a Good Structure

The answer is pretty simple — write in accordance with the rules provided by your supervisor. If for any reason requirements were not specified, you need to analyze, interpret, criticize and conclude in the following manner: introduction, paragraphs of the body part, summary. Other peculiarities depend on the topic. As you are engaged in the subject of nutrition, you need to make your analytical wear many hats. As in the case of politics, tastes in food and views on nutrition habits differ.

1. Introduction

The introduction has always been of top importance since it provides essay readers with the background data that is going to be presented as the main issue of the essay. The introduction serves as an effective engagement tool if only it includes the so-called hook. The hook is a sentence or two (rarely a small paragraph) that actually grabs readers’ attention and makes him/her keep reading the essay.

The information that is given in the intro section is not summary or prompt but it supports the core idea of the written assignment and:

One — has the core argument on nutrition.
Two — makes the focus on the issue without mentioning any relevant data.
Three — doesn’t try to dramatize the topic.
Four — doesn’t have many exclamations or questions.
Five — is deprived of the first and second person when being written.

Upon writing an introduction part of your work, proceed to the body of the essay.

2. Body in a few paragraphs

The paragraphs of the main part of your analytical essay in nutrition should be very argumentative, interlinking with the main idea of the topic and giving a deep insight into the studies and analyzed issues. Every new paragraph is the support of the analysis on one claim.

Say your essay includes more than one argument, thus more than a single analysis, then the number of paragraphs in the body must match the number of arguments and their analysis. We’ve stated above that each new paragraph opens with a topic sentence. Now, we’d like to add to what has been said and provide a detailed structure according to which each paragraph has to be built to:

Topic/main sentence. It deals with a short discussion of what is included in a paragraph. It deals with the clear introduction of the core subject. Upon reading it, the audience understands what information is going to be presented in the next sentences. Thus, readers will be set accordingly.
The analysis. As long as the essay in nutrition is analytical, it is obvious that the body part must include sentences of analysis. Here you go with your main arguments that build a comprehensive analysis of the proof. The proof has to support the entire topic. Analysis, being deep and profound, however, should not be long. Usually, it is stated in two sentences. Yet, the approach to its presentation must be rather creative.
The evidence. Only after the analysis is well-presented you need to provide evidence. Under the evidence, we mean a rather comprehensive data found in different information sources and supported by trials of known researchers. At the end of the evidential part, you must write a small sentence that will link the next paragraph.

Once one argument and its analysis are successfully completed, start with the next one, again and again, until the arguments are over.

3. Conclusion

It’s the summary of the effective presentation of several arguments in the body. Close the essay with a sentence or two sentences which, however, must restate the key points of your essay and sum up everything written above. The final sentence should not sound blurry because they add value to your assignment and show how significant it is.

4. Paraphrasing and quoting

By providing others’ research results, you paraphrase their works. It is quite OK since paraphrasing in this way serves as the backup of your analysis. Nevertheless, not all of the words can be or should be paraphrased — it is better to quote them.

Place the piece of a phrase or text as it is, clear and original. Don’t forget about the quotation marks. By providing others’ quotes (especially if it’s someone known and respected in the area of nutrition studies) you make your work persuasive. As to the form of quoting, it depends on the formatting style chosen by your supervisor.

How to Write an Analytical Essay in Nutrition: The Proofreading Stage

As all the ideas are put in the paper, you need to perfect your essay. The upgrading consists of several essential techniques. When they all are followed, the upgrading is 100% successful.

1. Step one — checking for errors

Your essay in nutrition will never be taken as solid or trustworthy if there are spelling or grammatical mistakes in every word. Prior to finally submitting your analytical work to your supervisor, check the essay for errors. To date, there are online programs that help to check the text within seconds. Usually, a shallow check is free. For a profound one, they offer to pay the fee.

2. Step two — read your work out loud

This step should never be omitted because reading out loud helps in identifying the shortcomings of the paper like vague phrases and complex words that should better be simplified or substituted. While reading and listening to yourself, you will see all these shortcomings at once.

3. Step three — are details in their places?

Recheck the piece for structural and contextual compliance with the requirements from your professor: the essay format, the number of pages, the word count, the list of references, correctly and timely mentioned locations, names or dates — everything should be checked once again.

4. Step four — ask your friend to read it and evaluate

Before finally handing in the analytical essay in nutrition, have the paper evaluated by someone else. You may ask your friend, your family member, or a senior college mate with necessary writing skills. It usually happens so that we fail at finding our mistakes, while a second reader sees all of them. As the reader to honestly evaluate your work, mark the weak or blurry points, give hints to possible improvements.

5. Step five — check for plagiarism

The usual problem a student faces is the plagiarised pieces in his/her works. Remember that quotes aren’t taken as plagiarism, but we can say the same about other parts of your analytical work. Use online plagiarism checkers and eliminate the copied pieces if needed.

This guide on how to write an analytical essay in nutrition should become your best friend during the period of crafting the written assignment. Follow the given recommendations, conduct thorough research and don’t be afraid to analyze the issue as you see it and not as someone expects you to. In this case, you’ll succeed.

References:

F., P. and Bacci, M.L. (1992). Population and Nutrition. An Essay on European Demographic History. Population (French Edition), 47(4), p.1057.
Koh, E.T. and Owen, W.L. (2000). Introduction to nutrition and health research. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Kretchmer, N. (1995). How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 62(6), pp.1292–1293.

How to Write an Analytical Essay in Nutrition: Instructions for Students in Need