1. Analysis

2. What is an analysis?
A type of argument in which you study the parts of something using an analytic tool
A principle or definition on the basis of which the subject of study can be divided into parts and examined

3. Example: The Wizard of Oz Harvey Greenberg’s psychological analysis:
“At the dawn of adolescence, the very time she would start to distance herself from Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, the surrogate parents who raised her on their Kansas farm, Dorothy Gale experiences a hurtful reawakening of her fear that these loved ones will be rudely ripped from her, especially her Aunt (Em-M for Mother!).”

4. Example: The Wizard of Oz Peter Dreier’s political analysis:
“[The Wizard of Oz] was originally written as a political allegory about grass-roots protest. It may seem harder to believe than Emerald City, but the Tin Woodsman is the industrial worker, the Scarecrow [is] the struggling farmer, and the Wizard is the president, who is powerful only as long as he succeeds in deceiving people.”

5. Where do we find analyses?
Academic writing
Experimental and lab reports
Research papers
Process analyses
Literary analyses
Essay exams
Workplace writing
Grant proposals
Reviews of the arts
Business plans
Medical charts
Legal briefs
Case studies

6. What is an analysis? Your challenge will be to convince readers that:
1. the analytic tool you choose is a good match for the object of study (the issue)
2. the analytic tool is being used systematically an insightfully to divide the object into parts, in order to make a statement about the whole

7. Example: Cultural and Educational Policy Studies Education Sociology
Philosophy
History
Comparative

8. How to write analyses
***the analytical tool you choose must make your chosen piece of writing EASIER to understand, NOT harder
Locate and apply an analytic tool
Locate an analytic tool – a principle or definition that makes a general statement about the way something works
Systematically apply this principle or definition to the subject under consideration

9. Guidelines for writing the analyses
Create a context for your analysis
Locate an analytic tool: a principle or definition that will form the basis of your analysis
Analyze your topic by applying your selected analytic tool to the topic’s component elements
Conclude by stating clearly what is significant about your analysis

10. Developing an organizational plan
Turn the key elements of your principle or definition into a question
Develop a paragraph-by-paragraph logic of your paper
Typical logic of analysis:
The write introduces a specific analytic tool
The writer applies this analytic tool to the object being examined
The writer uses the tool to identify and then examine the significance of some aspect of the subject under discussion

11. Draft and revise your analysis
Are the facts accurate
Are my opinions supported by evidence
Are the opinions of others authoritative
Are my assumptions clearly stated
Are key terms clearly defined
Is the analysis logical
Are all parts of the analysis well-developed

12. Draft and revise your analysis
Write an analysis, not a summary
Make your analysis systematic
Answer the “so what” question
Attribute sources appropriately

13. When your perspective guides the analysis
Your analytic tool may in fact be your cultural or personal outlook, perspective, or interests
In this case, you are still probing the parts in order to make sense of the whole of your issue
It should still be carefully structured and analyzed one part at a time
*** remember, the goal is to reveal something about the issue
*** remember, the goal of an analysis is different from an evaluation