Is this analysis? How do I analyze?

Are you telling your reader something more than they would understand if they just read the articles myself? – Summary vs analysis “The artifact is used to….” –summary “The artifact is used to….which shows that…” –analysis!! Analysis--the reason that you put that idea in your project. What do you want the reader to gain/learn from that idea? Why did you think it was important?

Example: Glee vs Smash Thesis: “Despite their stylistic similarities, Glee and Smash are very different shows because their intended audiences are different.” – How would we convince the reader of this? By using facts about the shows to support our claims, and by analyzing those facts to show how they support our claims.

Needs Analysis and Detailed Support Point: “Glee and Smash’s different musical choices demonstrate that they are aiming at different audiences. Glee includes covers of popular music, while Smash includes covers as well as original musical theater pieces.” – So? What do those two things (the claim and the following statement) have to do with each other? – Don’t leave that up to the reader. It’s your job to tell them what you think the relationship is. – Not enough analysis here. That’s what we could get ourselves if we looked at a song list from the two shows. What can we add?

Added Analysis “Glee and Smash’s different musical choices demonstrate that they are aiming at different audiences. Glee includes covers of popular music, while Smash includes some covers as well as original musical theater pieces. This shows that the intended audience of Glee is a younger audience who are fans of today’s hits, and that Smash’s audience may be older, more appreciative of the musical theater style, and less familiar with the popular music of today. ”

Now add supporting details Our last slide has some good analysis, but no support: the reader might think that the author just made that up. The author should add how many original musical theater pieces were included in Smash, and also might list some of the really popular songs included on Glee (like “Somebody That I Used to Know) (source: Wikipedia) The author might look at the covers used in Smash, and point out that the most recent song was written in 2006.

A Note The analysis I just demonstrated worked as an example to show the process. But was it good? Could someone write a piece contradicting it? Why inquiry works better than starting off with a thesis?