30 Chapter 19: What is Analysis?
Part 4: Chapter 19
The genre of analysis encompasses several different aspects of examination. Completing an analysis begins the moment you carefully read or review a form of text. In developing an analysis, you may be asked to locate different components of the text and consider the impact or effect of the text. As a student, you may be asked to complete a literary analysis or a textual analysis. Both of these types of analysis will require you to investigate and evaluate ideas thoroughly. A literary analysis might ask you to review a text and argue your interpretation of the text. A textual analysis requires the same close attention to detail but will focus more specifically on the meaning of a text.
Analysis is an interesting and complex genre that can, at times, feel overwhelming, but it’s important to recognize that you have developed many of the tools you need to analyze throughout your life, both as a student and a participant in your community. The textbook A Guide to Perspective Analysis introduces new tools to help you further develop the analysis skills you already have.
Writing an analysis can seem difficult. Below, you will read about Jeff, a college student who has been assigned an analysis essay. Jeff is encountering obstacles similar to what many students may experience.
Jeff is not happy. His clock shows 2 a.m., but his computer screen shows nothing. For the last four hours he has tried to start an essay on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but he just doesn’t know where to begin. “It’s Professor Johnson’s fault I’m in this mess,” he thinks to himself. “My other teachers always told me exactly what and how to write, but Professor Johnson asked us to focus on what each of us finds important about the play. Frustrated, Jeff thinks, “If this is true, how do I know when I’ve found the right interpretation?” And Professor Johnson made it even more difficult for Jeff by instructing her students not to summarize the plot or give unsupported opinions, but to come up with their own interpretations, show why they are important, and justify them through close readings of particular scenes. “No one has ever shown me how to do this,” Jeff grumbles to himself as he gulps down his third cup of coffee.
In actuality, Jeff already possesses the ability to write an analytical essay. He would have realized this if he had considered the discussions and activities he engaged in during the previous week. In planning a date and in thinking of the best way to convince his parents to send him more money, Jeff had to carefully evaluate a variety of situations to develop a point of view that he then had to justify why it mattered. In each of these instances, he made plenty of assertions, statements that present points of view; used examples, specific passages, scenes, events, or items that inspire these points of view; gave explanations statements that reveal how the examples support and/or complicate the assertions; and p