AbstractChua and Tang reported a method based on the Volterra series to find the amplitude and frequency of the unknown fundamental wave component of a steady‐state oscillation resembling a sinusoidal wave generated in a self‐starting oscillation circuit. In the present paper, the method is used to find the higher‐order terms so that the harmonic components generated from the term related to the determination of the fundamental component can be found relatively easily. Formulas for the determination of such quantities are derived. Next, this method is used for the analysis of the van der Pol oscillator for which the detailed nature of the solution is available. The validity and the limitation of the application are studied. From the results, it is shown that reasonably accurate solutions can be derived for an oscillation waveform close to a sinusoid as well as a distorted one containing harmonic components. In this method there is no need to derive the differential equation for the oscillator. Insteady, only the algebraic equation found from the circuit diagram must be solved. Finally, this characteristic is used for analysis of an RC phase shift oscil