Introduced in the middle of the 20th century, SWOT analysis has become a staple of personal and business strategic planning. Its simplicity, coupled with actionable insights produced, ensures it remains a sought-after tool among business owners, startup hopefuls, and business school students. Today, we’ll go over the basics of how to write a SWOT analysis paper to help you complete this task.
The what and why of SWOT analysis
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The former two are considered internal factors in SWOT analysis writing or those that you can affect. The latter two are external factors you have no control over. Alternatively, strengths and opportunities are positive factors, while weaknesses and threats are negative factors. As such, a SWOT analysis paper typically includes a two-by-two matrix that lists all the data across the four squares.
Although most companies are typically aware of their benefits and shortcomings, a formal SWOT analysis helps structure pre-existing knowledge and formulate actionable insights to emphasize the strengths and make the most of opportunities while mitigating threats and reducing weaknesses.
How to conduct a SWOT analysis
If you have no idea how to write a SWOT analysis, it may seem like an insurmountable challenge at first glance. But it’s really much simpler than you imagine, even if you have to write an analytical essay about your findings afterward. In essence, you only need to take three steps.
Step 1. Define the goal
There’s no sense in learning how to make a SWOT analysis unless you have a specific objective in mind. Setting a clear goal is vital, as factors you consider strengths may turn out to be weaknesses for a different objective. For example, for a product geared towards Millenials, a strong Twitter (X) presence can be a benefit, but it will be a weakness or an insignificant factor for a product aimed at Gen Z.
Here are a few sample objectives you can achieve through analysis:
- Assess the viability of a new product in current market conditions
- Choose the best school to apply to get to the top of the field
- Decide if a startup needs to scale or pivot to generate more profit.
The more specific and detailed your goal is, the better your SWOT analysis will work, so don’t skip this step as a waste of time.
Step 2. Collect data
Research is another overlooked step of how to do SWOT analysis. Although you can skip internal research to identify strengths and weaknesses, you will at least need to run a brainstorming session to come up with all the possible factors to list in each quadrant of the matrix. At the same time, if you’re working on a SWOT paper for a large enterprise, you’ll need to collect internal data and analyze it before formulating strengths and weaknesses.
On the other hand, external factors will definitely require research. For businesses, it usually involves analyzing the niche, investment climate, competition, etc. Individuals will need to research relevant data. For instance, if you want to choose the best school to advance your career, you’ll likely need to study student reviews, LinkedIn profiles, etc. to see where each college’s graduates landed.
Step 3. Fill in the SWOT matrix
After you get all the data, it’s time to learn how to write a SWOT analysis matrix. You cannot simply dump your research findings into corresponding squares and hope for the best. Your matrix should be accessible at a glance so that you can generate actionable insights based on what you see.
Here are a few things to remember when formulating SWOT factors:
- They must be specific. It’s not enough to state that the product is popular, you should include data on sales numbers and the customer portrait to make the data usable.
- They must be based on evidence. Instead of trusting the company’s or school’s claims, seek out independent student reviews to get a clear picture.
- They must be prioritized according to your objective. If your goal is to increase sales, emphasize the factors that have the biggest impact, like pricing, customer service, etc.
The filled matrix doesn’t mean your work is done. After all, without assessing the implications of each square, they are useless. That’s where a SWOT analysis essay comes in, with a goal to interpret the findings and generate recommendations.
How to write a SWOT analysis paper
There’s no secret to how to write a SWOT analysis paper. For all the preliminary research you must conduct to get to this point, writing the paper based on your findings should be easy. And if you run into trouble, you can turn to one of our experts with a simple request of write a paper for me, and we’ll happily take over. But if you’re ready to brave the task on your own, follow this three-step guide.
Outline the paper
Before you jump into SWOT analysis writing, create a rough plan. Like any other academic piece, it should have an introduction, body, and conclusion.
The opening paragraph of the SWOT analysis paper must highlight your objective and its importance. The body paragraphs will include the biggest chunk of your work and emphasize the impact of external and internal factors on your chances of achieving your goal. The final section should provide recommendations for reaching the objective based on your analysis.
While the outline may seem obvious and unnecessary, it can help you order your thoughts and keep you from straying off topic. Besides, you can make the plan as detailed or as sparse as you want, depending on your writing style. For example, you can plan topic sentences for each paragraph and fill them out with details once you’re ready to get writing.
Analyze internal and external components
The biggest mistake you can make when working on a SWOT analysis paper is to reduce it to a list of positives and negatives. Instead, you need to analyze where the strengths and weaknesses stem from and how to emphasize the former and reduce the latter. Moreover, a SWOT analysis essay should include your understanding of the relationships between the internal and external factors. For instance, once you are aware of the threats and opportunities, you should analyze how the strengths and weaknesses can affect them.
If you’re unsure how to do SWOT analysis, think of it as a cause-and-effect essay. It can be easier to formulate your findings as “IF-THEN” statements. For example, if the company's brand image improves, then it can increase its market share and reduce the risks of suffering during the recession. The key here is to always keep the analysis objective in mind and only focus on those combinations of internal and external factors that address this goal.
Generate recommendations
Many guides on how to create a SWOT analysis overlook the significance of this final step, though it is, in fact, the ultimate product of the exercise. With your objectives in mind, you can use your analysis to formulate recommendations for achieving those goals. For example, if your goal is to get into an Ivy League university, your recommendations should probably include improving class grades, engaging in relevant extracurriculars and volunteer work, and writing an application essay to paint you in the best light.
You shouldn’t finish a SWOT analysis paper with a list, but outlining two or three most impactful suggestions is a good way to wrap up your analysis. At the same time, you can save other recommendations and keep them in a separate file to be used in future iterations of the SWOT analysis.
SWOT analysis paper applications
Now that you know the basics of how to write a SWOT analysis, let’s go over a few examples of when it can be helpful in personal and professional environments.
Business planning
As it was initially developed for this purpose, SWOT analysis is an essential tool for most businesses, small and large. It can answer a variety of questions, including:
- How to increase employee operational efficiency?
- Should the company launch a new product?
- Will a new location generate extra revenue?
- Does a business need a brick-and-mortar location?
- Is it time to lay off employees or hire new ones?
As we’ve discussed, to answer each of these questions, a separate SWOT matrix will be necessary, though you can usually formulate general recommendations by stating strategic goals, such as increasing revenue stream or market share.
Marketing strategy
Sales and marketing departments, as well as creative marketing agencies, utilize SWOT analysis to develop winning strategies. Once the team is aware of the product’s strong and weak sides, they can predict the marketing opportunities and risks and address them in the marketing campaign. For example, if the product is geared toward people with a lower-than-average income, highlighting the reduced cost compared to the competition can be helpful. At the same time, the marketing campaign should explain how the value for money remains high despite the lower price.
Personal development
While teachers aren’t likely to assign a personal SWOT analysis paper, it can be a helpful exercise for strategically-minded people. The insights you get from a short brainstorming and analysis session can have a powerful impact on your personal life and career. Here are a few questions a SWOT analysis can answer for you:
- Which school to choose to secure your financial future?
- Should you skip college and start your career early?
- How do you get a raise at your current job?
- Which position to apply for to ensure better career prospects?
- How do you network to meet the right people to move your life forward?
Need more help with SWOT analysis writing?
We cannot fit a library’s worth of recommendations for how to write a SWOT analysis paper into this short post. But hopefully, you got enough helpful tips and examples to get started and complete your academic, professional, or personal SWOT analysis quickly and painlessly.
If you need more help, don’t hesitate to reach out for help. Our experts are here for you when you decide you’re ready to pay someone to do your homework. Explain your task, and we’ll instantly take over and deliver a thorough analysis to your inbox within 24 hours if necessary.
