How to Write an Essay on Odysseus

To understand classical literature better, you have to analyze it for yourself because being a passive reader will hardly do you any good. That is why professors often ask students to write Odysseus essay, giving them the opportunity to analyze a piece of classic. If you are not one of those students who order their works from essay writing services, here are some tips how to submit a great work written by you and get a high mark for it.

Read the book

What are the chances of doing a good job if you do not know what you are writing about? You should be diligent in reading Homer's The Odyssey. When you come across unfamiliar phrases or references, look them up in the Internet. It is not only about your grade; it also contributes to your general knowledge.

Unfortunately, nowadays we do not always have much time to read bulky books. It is even more difficult with The Odyssey, as you will need roughly 11 hours to read it unabridged! When the situation is critical, and only a couple of days (or even hours) are left, familiarize yourself with The Odyssey summary. But it is always better to read at least a couple of pages of the original work to pay attention to the author’s style of writing.

Find the analysis

The text of The Odyssey has already been existing for many centuries, attracting the attention of scientists from all places and epochs. Right now the volumes of analytical works devoted to this poem considerably outnumber the volume of the text itself. When you are writing an Odysseus Hero essay, for example, you can easily access numerous analytical papers on this character and on the book in general. Many of them are available online, which means you do not even have to leave your computer.

You can get a special insight on the subject by merely reading other people’s works. They could have noticed something that was left unnoticed by you, or they could have found a different interpretation of a certain episode. It is always easier to base your research on somebody else’s that to begin everything with a tabula rasa.

Look for similar works

It is a bit different from the previous tip. Analyzing similar works means finding the essays on the exact topic that you need but not copying them. You can borrow the structure of such an essay or select several quotes that you want to use, but do not go too far! Copypasting the whole parts from the Internet will result in a bad grade and the accusation of plagiarism.

You should only resort to relying on similar works when you cannot control the situation otherwise (you run short on time, you have not read the whole book etc.) because the side effect of reading somebody else’s essays is the inability to produce your own thoughts. It may seem like you are trapped in the author’s beliefs, which prevents you from developing your personal ideas.

Examine the subject from different angles

Basically, this is what all essays are about – looking at something from a different perspective. Exceptionally talented researchers became a success because they could see something that no one else had seen so far. Try to write about such aspects that you have not come across when following two previous tips. You can be guided by other works, but remember that you have to produce your own.

There is another advantage in analyzing the subject from various angles. You never know what approach looks appealing to your professor. Maybe he supports a specific point of view, which makes him highly biased against other opinions. If you happen to include the point of his liking, you significantly increase your chances of success.

It sounds great, but how to achieve it? Read the full version of The Odyssey when working on such a paper as, for instance, Odysseus Epic Hero essay, and pick the examples that illustrate your point of view. Chances are that you will be the first one to emphasize these particular lines from the ancient poem, which will provide you with scientific novelty as well.

Include your opinion

Although your opinion is very important in the world of academia, it definitely should be structured. Including the phrases like “I think” or “I believe” at the beginning of a sentence will not do the job. For example, when writing Odysseus is a Hero essay, you must produce various forcible arguments to prove that the man was actually a hero.

Try to find other researchers who have the same point of view as you. Include their quotations into your scientific work, but make sure you include the references as well in order to avoid issues with plagiarism. Moreover, do not be afraid of arguing with other researchers (only if you have a solid basis on which to build your disproof, of course). It always raises the importance of your work in the eyes of a professor.

Revise the essay

The contents of your essay is the priority for you, but you should not underestimate the importance of its formal elements. The work has to be well structured, the formatting homogeneous. In other words, make your essay look presentable because formal criteria have their influence on the final score too.

Grammar revision is another crucial moment. If you feel that grammar is not your friend, always check your text with online services or software before submitting it. MS Word will do the job fairly well, marking both your misprints and actual mistakes.

However, to bring the revision process to the highest level possible, you should hire an editor. The reasons are numerous. One of them is that a human being can notice issues with similarly spelled words that have different meanings. In most cases software will not consider them as mistakes. Find a company that helps with essays and browse through their list of services to check whether they can help you with editing.

Thus, the goal for writing a successful essay on Odysseus can be achieved step by step. First, you should read the book under consideration. Second, look for similar essays and analytic works in the Internet to get more perspective. Third, do not forget to state your own opinion in the essay. And last but not least, check the work for grammar, spelling and stylistic mistakes. Good luck with your scientific activities!