Summary and Analysis Part 1

Analysis To analyze means to break a topic or concept down into its parts in order to inspect and understand it, and to restructure those parts in a way that makes sense to you. In an analytical research paper, you do research to become an expert on a topic so that you can restructure and present the parts of the topic from your own perspective.

What Is Analysis? ANALYSIS is examination, evaluation, and interpretation of original opinion, reading between the lines, connecting to other knowledge, etc. This means it is more than giving your opinion.

Analysis is NOT summary Analysis is NOT summary. This may seem obvious, but it is easy to write several pages of summary and think you have analyzed the topic in depth because it is all factual and fills the page requirement. Summary does not go beneath the surface; analysis does. summary and analysis are not interchangeable.

For example, you could analyze the role of the mother in the ancient Egyptian family. You could break down that topic into its parts— 1. the mother's duties in the family, 2. social status, 3. and expected role in the larger society and research those parts in order to present your general perspective and conclusion about the mother's role.

Summary (Story Example) Short summary of Cinderella: Once upon a time, there was a young girl whose father died leaving her with her evil stepmother. She made her cook and clean until one day her fairy godmother came and turned her into a princess so she could go to the ball and meet the prince. At midnight, she turned back into a maid and in her haste to leave the party, she lost her slipper. The prince was so enchanted with the girl that he did a search to find whoever the slipper would perfectly fit. So, when he discovered that Cinderella fit the slipper, they lived happily ever after.

Analysis: You can’t argue that Cinderella is a serving girl but you can argue that Cinderella is a feminist story about oppression of women and a male dominating society You might agree or disagree with that. That is what analysis is. An argument for particular interpretation of a text.

For example, say you go and see a movie and you hate it For example, say you go and see a movie and you hate it. You think it is the worst movie ever. or you love it. You think it’s the best movie ever made. If you are going to write a review for The New York Times about it. You can’t just say this is the worst movie ever made. You have to break it down into elements and how they have contributed to its badness. What was wrong with the lightening, the acting or the script or all of these different elements. Same goes for a text.

To return to the example of Cinderella, maybe I want to look at the characters of Cinderella, the heroine and her evil stepmother. I decide that Cinderella is representative of a weak-willed woman who goes from relying on her father, to searching for another man to take care of her. She is incapable of seeing herself except through the eyes of men, and engages in traditional female roles and behaviors.

On the other hand, the evil step mother is the representation of a truly feminist character who is not afraid to assert her dominance over the other women on her household. She assumes the traditionally male role of head of household after her husband’s death and makes many executive decisions.

This analysis might seem farfetched, but it is making an arguable claim, which is very important. You may agree or disagree with this analysis. The work of analysis is to move from summary and description to analysis and finally to argument.

More Ways to Think of It Summary = observation Analysis = Conclusion If you think of it this way, eventually those observations become your evidence ( in the form of quotes, summaries and paraphrases). However, you need conclusions about those observations to eventually formulate an argument.

Content Matters… Answer these questions in your analysis: For all Main ideas/arguments: Does the writer support the main idea effectively? Comment on the kinds of support he uses. Is his support convincing? Why? Why not?-Expert opinion? A range of relevant sources of information? Wide ranging world examples?... What are the implications of the argument/issue?

Language Matters… Does he use persuasive language to convince the audience? (give examples from the text-quote phrases/words that convey powerful images/meanings/attention grabbers etc.) Is the language audience specific? (examples to show audience can understand ideas)

Further analysis…. What do you think of the issue discussed in the article? Do you find similar attitudes/trends in your culture? Can you suggest possible solutions fro improving the situation?

The main aim of a summary is to let the reader know the main, interesting points of the story. It is like a trailer in this sense that tries to force the viewer to watch the whole movie • There is no evaluation or judgment in case of a summary while the main purpose of an analysis to pass critical remarks and opinions

Narrow your focus Sometimes it is a perform of analysis (especially a longer text) if you focus on a particular aspect of that text. There are many possibilities for narrowing focus: character, theme, images, symbols, metaphors, language, etc.

“She brings home the bacon, but can he fry it up “She brings home the bacon, but can he fry it up?” from a Bazaar July 2009