Gather Categorize Focus Structure

Ask questions: What do you already know? What is it you don’t know? What don’t you understand? What isn’t clear? What seems curious? What are you reminded of?

Ask questions: The questions we ask are shaped by how we think, the way we have come to see things.

Ask questions: The questions we ask are shaped by how we think, the way we have come to see things. Depending on what we are looking at, we bring certain beliefs or dispositions to the discussion.

Ask questions: The questions we ask are shaped by how we think, the way we have come to see things. Depending on what we are looking at, we bring certain beliefs or dispositions to the discussion. We filter out some things and let in others.

If we’re unaware of our filters, they can bias our questions, but if we’re aware of how filters operate, we can use them and make our own to help us perform our analysis.

In literary analysis, we have a range of filters we can use to examine a text: Textual Archetypal (Journey) (Trickster) Psychological Biographical Cultural/historical

Catch 22 Rupert Brooke’s War Poetry Wilfred Owens’ War Poetry Shock or War article Differing Points of View from Flyboys Saturday Evening Post – Induction Theory Literary Terms/Quotes/Questions The concept of the journey Suicide is Painless or Reach Out The Coupe de Gras Trickster

Group items by similarities, by things they have in common.

These similarities become the criteria by which you select and group your data.

Group items by similarities, by things they have in common. These similarities become the criteria by which you select and group your data. This selective process is the creation of filters.

When we add two or more filters, we are confronted with multiple, sometimes paradoxical, sets of information.

To explain how all these sets of data can operate in the same context, we need a statement that reconciles them all.

You must first identify the problem before you can propose a solution

-You must first identify the specifics of what is happening before you can create an explanation for what it happening

-What we are after is an explanation for how things work: that is the focal idea that guides our study

-Once we have identified the focus, then we decide how to explain it to others

We need an inductive statement.

"These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume." "More light and light it grows, more dark and dark our woes!" ( ) […] Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract to-night: It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be Ere one can say 'It lightens.’

0. she doth teach the torches to burn bright her eyes in heaven Would through the airy region stream so bright That birds would sing and think it were not night. [Love is] a smoke raised with the fume of sighs ; [Juliet’s] beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light.

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage With purple fountains issuing from your veins quick sparks and glowing furious glead... from your beauty's pleasant eyne, Love caused to proceed Which have so set on fire each feeling part of mine That lo, my mind doth melt away, my outward parts do pine

Therefore love moderately; long love doth so; Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. (2.6.1)

This is a statement that clarifies how all the categories work together. It is an explanation.

This explanation enables us, at last, to make sense of the thing we are studying.

This is what analysis is: Gathering data and finding its patterns until we understand how the patterns work together

We understand

We have found meaning

This explanation becomes the center point, the focus, of our discussion now.

When we write, this focus can be a thesis, an argument, a theme, a tone.

The structure is based on the way we choose to present the explanation to our audience.

The focus becomes the thing that holds our structure together.

The structure is based on the way we choose to present the explanation to our audience. The focus becomes the thing that holds our structure together. Within the focus is “the golden thread.”

The structure is based on the way we choose to present the explanation to our audience. The focus becomes the thing that holds our structure together. Another concept within the focus is “the golden thread.” The golden thread is made clear by phrasing that reminds the reader of our focus.

Gather your data

Organize your data into categories by similarities

Gather your data Organize your data into categories by similarities Inductively determine the idea that connects several of your categories

Gather your data Organize your data into categories by similarities Inductively determine the idea that connects several of your categories Make this idea your focus (thesis, argument, theme, tone)

Gather your data Organize your data into categories by similarities Inductively determine the idea that connects several of your categories Make this idea your focus (thesis, argument, theme, tone) Build your structure around your categories and connect them with a golden thread based on your focus