2. Analyzing a Text
• Three different news sources may all
cover the same story, yet each may
interpret what happened differently. This is
why we need to carefully analyze what we
read or become an analytical reader.
• Text not only conveys information, but it
can influence what we think and how we
think. So we need to understand what text
say and how they say it.
(Page 38)
3. Analyzing a Text Cont.
• Different types of courses will require you
to analyze for different things.
• This unit will deal with detailed guidelines
for writing an essay that closely examines
a text both for what it says and how it does
so with the goal of demonstrating for
readers how—and how well—the text
achieves its effect.
4. Key Features/Textual Analysis
• A summary of the text: Readers may not know
the text you are analyzing, so you have to
include it or tell them about it before you can
analyze it. Texts that are not well-known require
a more detailed summary.
• Attention to the context: Texts are influenced
by and contribute to ongoing conversations,
controversies, or debates, so to understand
them, you need to understand the larger context.
(Page 49)
5. Key Features/Textual Analysis
Cont.
• A clear interpretation or judgment: Your
goal is to lead readers through careful
examination of the text to some kind of
interpretation or reasoned judgment,
generally announced clearly in a thesis
statement. When you interpret something,
you explain what you think it means.
(Page 50)
6. Key Features/Textual Analysis
Cont.
• Reasonable support for your conclusions:
Written analysis of the text is generally
supported by evidence from the text itself and
sometimes from other sources. The writer
supports his/her interpretations by quoting words
or passages from a written text or referring to
images in a visual text. The support your offer
for your interpretation needs only to be
―reasonable‖—there is never one way to
interpret something. It just requires proof of how
you reached your interpretation.
• (Page 50)
7. A Guide to Writing Textual
Analyses
• Choosing a Text to Analyze: Most of the time
you will be assigned a text or type of text to
analyze. If you must choose a text to analyze,
look for one that suits the demands of the
assignment—one that is neither too large or
complex to analyze thoroughly nor too brief or
limited to generate sufficient material. You can
also examine three or four text by examining the
elements they have in common.
(Page 50-51)
8. Considering the Rhetorical
Situation
• Purpose: Why are you analyzing this text? To
demonstrate that you understand it? To persuade
readers that the text demonstrates a certain point?
Or are you using the text as a way to make some
other point?
• Audience: Are your readers likely to know your
text? How much detail will you need to supply?
• Stance: What interests you about your analysis?
Why? What do you know or believe about the
topic? How will your own beliefs affect your
analysis?
• (Page 51)
9. Considering the Rhetorical
Situation Cont.
• Media/Design: Are you writing an essay
for a class? Is it to be published in a
journal or magazine? Something for the
Web? If you are analyzing a visual text,
you will probably need to include an image
of the text.
(Page 51)
10. Generating Ideas and Text
• In analyzing a text, your goal is to understand
what it says, how it works, and what it means.
You will need to read, respond, summarize,
analyze, and draw conclusions from your
analysis.
• Read what the text says: Start by carefully
reading to get a sense of what it says. Skim
to preview, reread for main ideas, then
question and annotate (jot down notes).
(Page 52)
11. Generating Ideas and Text
Cont.
• Decide what you want to analyze: Once
you have carefully read the text, think
about what you find most interesting or
intriguing, and why. Does the language
interest you? The imagery? The structure?
The context? You might begin your
analysis by exploring what attracted your
notice.
(Page 52)
12. Generating Ideas and Text
Cont.
• Consider your initial response. After you have read it,
what is your initial response? What’s your reaction to the
argument, the tone, the language, the images? Do you
find the text difficult? Puzzling? Do you agree or
disagree with what the writer says? How you react can
color your analysis. Consider the intellectual and
emotional reactions. Identify places that trigger or
account for your reactions. Think about what accounts
for your reaction.
• Consolidate your understanding of the text by
summarizing what it says in your own words. You may
need to do an outline of the main ideas.
(Page 52)
13. Generating Ideas and Text
Cont.
• Study how the text works: Texts are made up
of several components like words, sentences,
images, and punctuation. Visual texts have
images, lines, angles, color, light/shadow, and
sometimes words. All elements can be used in
various ways. To analyze them, look for patterns
in the way they are used and try to decide what
those patterns reveal about the text. How do
they affect the message? Write a sentence or
two describing the patterns you see and how
they contribute to what the text says.
(Page 52-53)
14. Generating Ideas and Text
Cont.
• Analyzing the argument: Every text makes an
argument and provides some kind of support for
those claims. In important part of understanding
the text is to recognize its argument—what the
writer or artist wants the audience to believe,
feel, or do. Consider the text’s purpose and
audience, identify its thesis, and decide how
convincingly it supports that thesis. Write a
sentence or two summarizing the argument of
the text, along with your reactions to or
questions about that argument.
• (Page 53)
15. Generating Ideas and Text
Cont.
• Think about the larger context: Texts are
always part of larger, ongoing conversations.
You need to do additional research to determine
where the text was originally published, what
else was happening or being discussed at the
time the text was published or created, and
whether or not the text responded directly to
other ideas or arguments. Write a sentence or
two describing the larger context surrounding
the text and how it affects your understanding of
the text.
• (Page 53)
16. Generating Ideas and Text
Cont.
• Consider what you know about the writer or
artist: What do you know about the person who
created the text? How does this influence your
understanding? Knowing his/her credentials,
other work, reputation, stance, and beliefs are all
useful in helping to understand the text. Write a
sentence or two summarizing what you know
about the writer and how that information
influences your understanding.
(Page 53)
17. Generating Ideas and Text
Cont.
• Come up with a thesis: When you analyze a
text, you are basically arguing that the text
should be read in a certain way. You need to
identify your analytical goal: do you want to
show that the text has a certain meaning? Uses
certain techniques to achieve its purposes?
Tries to influence its audience in a particular
way? Relates to some larger context in some
significant manner? Should be taken seriously or
not? Draft a tentative thesis statement.
(Page 53-54)
18. Generating Ideas and Text
Cont.
• A thesis statement is a declarative
sentences that usually has three areas or
subtopics about the main topic that will be
covered in the body of your paper.
19. Ways of Organizing a Textural
Analysis
• Examine the information you have to see
how it supports or complicates your thesis.
Look for clusters of related information that
you can use to structure an outline. It can
be structured two ways: discuss the
patterns or themes that runs through the
text, or analyze each text or section of text
separately.
20. Ways of Organizing a Textual
Analysis Cont.
• Thematically:
– Introduce the text (summarize or describe)
and give any needed context. State thesis.
– Analyzing the text (identify a theme or pattern
and use the examples from the text with
appropriate context or source evidence of
support)
– Restate the thesis, relating it to larger issues
(how the text works and what it means)
21. Ways of Organizing a Textual
Analysis Cont.
• Part by Part
– Introduce the text (summarize or describe and
give any necessary context—state your
thesis)
– Analyze first section of the text; analyze the
next section of the text; continued as needed.
– Restate the thesis, relating it to larger issues
(how the text works; what the text means)
22. Writing Out a Draft
• Your goal should be to integrate the various
parts into a smoothly flowing, logically organized
essay. It’s easy to get bogged down in the
details. Consider writing one section of the
analysis first, then another and another until you
have drafted the entire middle; then draft you
beginning and ending. Start by summarizing the
text and moving from there to your analysis and
then to your ending. You will need to support
your analysis with evidence from the text and
other texts.
(Page 55)
23. Writing Out a Draft Cont.
• Draft a beginning: Introduce or
summarize the text and give your thesis
statement last.
– Summarize the text: Give a brief summary.
– Provide a context for your analysis: you
might mention the larger context of the text.
– Introduce a pattern or theme: If there is a
larger context that is significant for analysis,
you might mention it in your introduction.
24. Writing Out the Draft Cont.
– State your thesis: The thesis is the main idea
sentence for the entire paper and it is usually
one declarative sentence with three aspects
or subtopics you will cover in the paper.
25. Writing Out a Draft
• Drafting the ending: Think of what you
want your readers to take a away from
your paper.
– Restate the thesis or say why it matters.
• Say something about the implications of your
findings.
• Come up with a title: The title indicates
something about what your analysis is
about, and it makes the reader want to
read your paper.
• (Page 56)
26. Considering Matters of Design
• If you cite written text as evidence, be sure
to set long quotations and documentation
according to MLA style.
• If your paper is lengthy, consider
headings.
27. Getting Response and Revising
• Is the beginning effective?
• Does the introduction provide an overview of your
analysis and conclusion?
• Is the text described or summarized clearly and
sufficiently?
• Does each part of the analysis relate to each other?
• Are quotations written accurately and documented?
• Is there clear evidence to support your interpretation?
• Is the ending clear?
28. Editing and Proofreading
• Is the thesis clearly stated
• Check all quotations, paraphrases, and
summaries for accuracy and
documentation.
• Are transitions used for flow from one idea
to the next?
• Proofread for grammatical issues.
29. Reading Strategically
• Preview the text: look over it by skimming and looking at
the title, subtopic headings, first and last paragraph, and
first sentence of all the paragraphs.
• Considering the Rhetorical Situation—is the purpose to
entertain, persuade, or inform? Who is the audience?
What genre will the information be presented in?
• What stand does the writer take? (Critical? Curious?
Opinionated? Objective? Passionate? Indifferent?)
• What medium will be used to present the information?
30. Reading Statically Cont.
• Thinking about your initial response: What are
your initial reactions? What accounts for your
reactions?
• Annotating: highlight key words, phrases,
sentences, connecting ideas; write in questions
and comments in the margins; note what is
noteworthy or questionable. Question anything
the author says that you do not agree with. Take
notes. Read below the surface.
31. Reading Strategically Cont.
• Playing the believing and doubting game:
– List or freewrite as many reasons as you can
think of for believing what the writer says and
then as many as you can think of for doubting
it. Look at the world from the writer’s
perspective and try to understand why he/she
said what he/she did. Look for flaws in his/her
reasoning and be ready to refute them.
