Is the essay itself related to an exam question?
If yes, then all you need is four or five paragraphs of analysed content (i.e. evidence with techniques) which is related back to the question.
That is, it can be four from a list of sentences, paragraphs, quatrains, couplets, visual techniques, cinematic techniques or what-have-you.
Adv. English essays go like this:
INTRO
ANALYSIS PARA 1
ANALYSIS PARA 2
ANALYSIS PARA 3
ANALYSIS PARA 4
CONCLUSION
An analysis paragraph has:
Your thesis (the point you want to make, like Hamlet's opinion that life is black and white)
Context of evidence (This is shown in Hamlet's soliloquoy in Act 3, as Hamlet discusses the idea of suicide)
Evidence (quote, like 'To be or not to be, that is the question')
Then the hard bit:
Technique of the evidence that you twist around to match your thesis (The juxtaposition of two opposites in 'to be' and 'not to be' show that Hamlet sees life as black and white - that is, either one is living or one is not).
Back to easy bit:
Repeating your thesis (As a result, living is seen as portrayed in absolute terms/black and white.)
If you just want to make a general overview of the text, the things to look out for are (using Hamlet again):
- Author (Shakespeare)
- Text type (play)
- Setting (the Danish royal court)
- Historical context (Elizabethan England)
- Plot summary (Daddy Hamlet tells junior to stick it to Claudius, Hamlet kills pretty much everyone but Claudius, then he kills Claudius)
- Characters (Hamlet, Claudius, Polonius and all that)
- Common interpretations (Aristotelian, Romanticist, Political, Feminist etc.)
Techniques are only ever used to serve a bigger purpose in the story. Bigger purposes like atmospheres or messages (or anything worthy of its own paragraph) are only ever 'proven' by showing and explaining the technique that gives you your opinion on the atmosphere.
In an example, a sunny atmosphere is set by, say, imagery (a bright light in the sky) or a metaphor (a massive beacon overhead).
Atmospheres, settings, plot, character development and all that are only ever achieved through techniques. There is always a technique underneath something that catches your eye in a story. All you have to do is identify it. Then you can bend the motherfucker to your will.
