1. Analysis: Breaking Down to Construct Meaning

2. Why do we write?
Let’s think of writing as the recording of our thoughts in search of understanding. In fact, the word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer: "to try" or "to attempt".

3. What is analysis?
The breaking of a subject down to construct new and in-depth meaning
Goes beyond the like/dislike, agree/disagree variety of thinking and the cutting and pasting of information
A form of detective work that pursues something puzzling, something you don’t have the answer to
Analysis finds questions where there seem to be none and makes connections that might not have been evident at first

4. Large Dog Analogy
You are being followed by a large dog. Your first response, other than breaking into a cold sweat, is to analyze the situation. What questions do you ask?
What does being followed by a large dog mean for me, here, now?
Does it mean the dog is vicious and about to attack?
Does it mean that the dog is curious and wants to play?
If we break things down as we analyze, we do so to search for meaningful patterns, or to uncover what we had not seen at first glance—or just to understand more closely how and why the separate parts work as they do

5. Good news: analysis is surprisingly formulaic!
Together we will cover 5 different steps—or moves, in our case—to ensure thorough analysis of a subject:
The Five Analytical Moves

6. Move 1: Suspend Judgment
Saying something is boring, weird, stupid, or just not worth your time reflects more on you then the subject.

7. Move 1: Suspend Judgment (cont.)
Suspending judgment is a necessary precursor to thinking analytically
Our tendency to judge shuts down our ability to see and think
Calling something boring says less about the subject of study and more about the mind of the beholder
Being willing to break something down, asking questions, and taking an exploratory approach should be your first step
You should seek to understand the subject you are analyzing before deciding how you feel about it

8. Move 2: Define Significant Parts and How They’re Related
1) Divide the subject into its defining parts, its main elements or ingredients
Large Dog
dragging a leash, has a ball in his mouth, and is wearing a bright red scarf.
2) Consider how these parts are related, both to each other and to the subject
Breaking the larger subject into these defining parts, you would try to see the connections between them and determine what they mean, i.e. the nature of the dog:

10. Moving away from generalities
Analytical writing pays close attention to detail
Often, our responses to a play, a speech, or a sporting event are too general; we comment on the entire piece or event:
“Great game.”
HOW ANALYTICAL IS THIS RESPONSE?

11. Becoming more specific
“They won because the offensive line was giving the quarterback all day to find his receivers”
“They lost because they couldn’t defend against the safety blitz”
OR (because this is IB lit, am I right?)
The ironic downfall of the main character arises from a probable plot, not a cheap device of the playwright, such as tokens or memory; therefore, its conclusion is successful by Aristotelian standards.

12. Move 3: Make the Implicit Explicit
One definition of what analytical writing does is that it makes explicit (overtly stated) what is implicit (suggested but not overtly stated) Analysis converts these “suggestions” into direct statements

13. 1) What is the subject here?
2) What are its defining parts?
3) What can we infer about what it implies?

14. Move 4: Look for Patterns
Look for patterns of repetition
Repetition is a sign of emphasis—this thing is significant!
If you notice something repeating, let’s say a motif, like the yellow wallpaper, look for the strand of language associated with it: “strangling” “suicidal” “bars” “prison”
Next, you must think, How might this pattern lead to an idea?
From this you might infer that the story is concerned with imprisonment, feeling strangled and helpless—to the point of suicide, etc.

15. Move 4: Look for Patterns (cont.)
2) Look for binary opposition
A binary opposition is a pair of elements in which the two members of the pair are opposites; binary means “consisting of two”
Some frequent examples we encounter are:
Nature/civilization; public/private; voluntary/involuntary
Binaries are central to locating issues or concerns because they contain an inherent conflict
The Bishop on his boat and Santiago’s “mainland” community, is a good example of a binary

16. Move 4: Look for Patterns (cont.)
3) Look for anomalies
Anomalies: things that seem unusual, seem not to fit; a deviation from the normal order
Anomalies are important because noticing them often leads to new and better ideas
An example would be the repetition of ironic character names in Chronicle of a Death Foretold

17. Move 5: Keep Reformulating Questions and Explanations
Great! You’ve broken down your subject into its defining parts, noted connections, made inferences, noticed some patterns and made even more inferences from that You’re getting somewhere, you can feel it! But where?
Oddly enough, you will have to answer this question with, well, more questions. I’ll explain in a minute!
The purpose of analytical writing, again, is “to try” and search for understanding, to figure something out.
SO KEEP IN MIND, when you begin writing . . .

18. You are not expected to know:
Where exactly you are going
How all of your subject’s parts fit together
How the whole thing will turn out

19. Move 5: Keep Reformulating Questions and Explanations (cont.)
The key is to be patient and know that there are procedures—in this case, questions—you can rely on to take you from uncertainty to understanding!

21. Questions geared toward helping you locate the meaning of various patterns and details
Move: Define significant parts; Make the Implicit Explicit
Which details are significant? Why?
What does the detail mean? Why?
What else might it mean?
Move: Look for Patterns
How do the details fit together? What do they have in common?
What does this pattern of details mean?
What else might the same pattern of details mean? How else could it be explained?
Move: Look for Anomalies and Keep Asking Questions
What details don’t seem to fit? How might they be connected with other details to form a different pattern?
What does this new pattern mean? How might it cause me to read the meaning of individual details differently?

22. "Lift not the painted veil which those who live“ by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Lift not the painted veil which those who live  Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,  And it but mimic all we would believe  With colours idly spread,—behind, lurk Fear  And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave  Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear.  I knew one who had lifted it—he sought,  For his lost heart was tender, things to love,  But found them not, alas! nor was there aught  The world contains, the which he could approve.  Through the unheeding many he did move,  A splendour among shadows, a bright blot  Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove  For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.

23. Directions
1) Read over poem once 2) Read again and annotate patterns you notice 3) Draw connections between the patterns you notice and make inferences about their meanings. 4) Discuss your findings with your partner(s) 5) Locate a move question that is most relevant to your findings and discuss it. 6) Now, what meaning or message is the poem implying? Make the implicit explicit. 7) When you get a rough answer, tease out what stylistic devices help make this implicit meaning explicit. 8) Combine the results from steps 6 and 7 to make a claim.