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Chapter 6
Analysis
Many students will successfully master the summary and the critique, the first of which focuses on restating, and
the second of which focuses on restating and evaluating. Students may be mystified, however, when their
instructors ask them to analyze—to use (not merely to summarize or critique)—a reading selection as a tool for
understanding phenomena in the world: their own experience, other readings, current events, objects in nature,
and more. Chapter 6 explains how to analyze reading selections.
The chapter begins by showing students how to identify in source material a principle or definition that they can
use as an analytical tool. Students who understand that the purpose of an analysis is to reveal something will
understand how two authors, using different analytical tools, can explore very different views of the same
subject.
A common student error at this point, as with the critique, is to produce a summary rather than an analysis. The
boxed “Guidelines for Writing Analyses” break the analysis down into four parts, each of which is important to
the success of the finished analysis. Emphasize that students must reach a valid conclusion based on the
principle or definition used to construct the analysis. They must commit themselves to and defend a claim.
Students should also check to make sure that they have delivered what they promised when introducing their
definition or principle. Once the analytical principle or definition has been discussed, it should be applied
systematically throughout the paper. Students reviewing their work in peer groups can ask each other if the
analysis provides insight that goes beyond the obvious.
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STUDENT WEB RESOURCES
HUNTER COLLEGE: WRITING ABOUT A
RT
This Hunter College handout provides pertinent questions for students to consider when analyzing painting,
sculpture, or architecture.
THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT WORLD WIDE WEB R
ESOURCES
At this UCLA Library site, Esther Grassian provides criteria to consider when analyzing Web sites and sources
from Web sites.
P
SYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON R
UMORS
This is a comprehensive summary of the history of psychological research on rumors written by Temple
University professors Ralph L. Rosnow and Eric K. Foster.