This document discusses what analysis is and how to analyze texts. It defines analysis as examining elements of something complex to understand its structure and nature. Analysis requires more than just describing - it means exploring relationships between ideas and supporting arguments. The document provides examples to illustrate the difference between simply describing a text versus analyzing it. It also offers tips for strong analysis, such as having a clear thesis, considering opposing views, and using concepts to develop insights beyond just restating what a text says. Quotations should be properly integrated and explained rather than just stated. Overall, the document provides guidance on how to move beyond superficial descriptions and develop deeper analytical skills.

1. Jennifer Andreae – Centre for Academic Writing

2. What is Analysis?
analyse | analyze, v.
To differentiate or ascertain the elements of
(something complex) in order to determine its
structure or nature, and hence to explain or
understand it; to examine closely and
methodically for the purpose of interpretation; to
subject to critical or computational analysis
(OED)

3. What is Analysis?
Description ≠ Analysis
However, description is a necessary
part of an analysis.
It gives your analysis context.

4. What is Analysis?
Example 1: This quotation comes from Freud's
Civilization and its Discontents. Here, Freud implies that
man will only be happy when living according to the
pleasure principle. The pleasure principle leads people
to do or desire things that bring them pleasure. Freud
presents a good point here, and he uses many
examples throughout the text to support it.

5. What is Analysis?
Example 2: This quotation contains a central concept of Freud's
psychology: humans are driven by the pleasure principle and are
most happy when fulfilling its demands. As Freud notes elsewhere
in the text, the ego and superego play the roles of
watchdogs, keeping the demands of the pleasure principle in
check through the moderating influences of experience (Freud's
reality principle) and morality. For Freud, this battle within the
personality gets reflected in a society. The society passes laws that
limit our freedom, and therefore our happiness, but encourage
order and morality. Freud notes that the exchange of happiness
for security is, in the end, worthwhile and necessary to
maintaining a civilization.

6. What is Analysis?
What is the difference between these
two paragraphs?
• The first one tells us what Freud says, while the
second one considers how and why Freud comes to
these conclusions about the pleasure principle.
• Description - reports the findings
• Analysis - examines and explains the findings; explores
the relationship between ideas; supports your thesis by
showing how your data and/or research confirms your
argument

7. Where can I get some?

8. Analysis and your
Thesis Statement
Strong essay =
thesis statement + analysis
I argue that...

9. Analysis and your
Thesis Statement
I argue that intensive high school grammar
courses are necessary for all students who are
considering post-secondary education.
Intensive high school grammar courses are
necessary for all students who are considering
post-secondary education.

10. Analysis and your
Thesis Statement
Thesis statements must be logical.
I argue that Shakespeare was the greatest playwright
ever.
This is certainly an argument, but impossible to prove
(and therefore illogical), avoid words ending with –
est, and always and never.

11. Scope of analysis
• must be based on sound evidence, be it
secondary research, or your own
interpretation of the material.
• consider as much relevant information as
possible, including claims that oppose your
analytic perspective.
• must be logical.

12. Scope of analysis
Thoughtful insight… not outrageous claims!
This video of Charlie Sheen clearly demonstrates
that he is an alien from Mars.
These sales figures indicate that the increasing
sales of all-inclusive holiday packages in
December are directly related to the decreased
sales of boots in November.

13. Reading for analysis
I always read with a pencil in my hand so I can
jot down my impressions of the text and any
questions I may have.

14. Reading for analysis
Things to consider:
Is the information covered fact, opinion, or
propaganda? It is not always easy to separate fact
from opinion. Facts can usually be verified;
opinions, though they may be based on factual
information, evolve from the interpretation of
facts. Skilled writers can make you think their
interpretations are facts.

15. Reading for analysis
Things to consider:
Does the information appear to be valid and
well-researched, or is it questionable and
unsupported by evidence? Assumptions should
be reasonable. Note errors or omissions.

16. Reading for analysis
Things to consider:
Are the ideas and arguments advanced more or
less in line with other works you have read on
the same topic? The more radically an author
departs from the views of others in the same
field, the more carefully and critically you
should scrutinize his or her ideas.

17. Reading for analysis
Things to consider:
Is the author's point of view objective and
impartial? Is the language free of emotion-
arousing words and bias?

18. Using concepts to
develop analysis
While you read your source, think of
which larger concepts are at play.

19. Ti-Jean and his mother lived in the middle of a Concepts:
forest, vast and dark. isolation,
absence of
support or
protection, fear
Their cottage was little more than a shed – its floor only Concepts:
beaten earth, its walls pierced by the weather. At night suffering, illness,
they heard the wolves howling close by. One day, Ti- poverty, death,
Jean and his mother fell ill. They suffered days and weakness
nights of fever. One dawn, before the stars faded, Ti –
Jean’s mother died, but the boy, although weak,
recovered.
He understood that he must leave. Thus, carrying his Concepts:
meager belongings, the boy left the cottage and began loneliness,
to walk. danger,
uncertainty
(maybe hope?)

20. Using concepts to
develop analysis
A summary states the facts.
Summary: Ti-Jean lived in the forest with his
mother. They were very poor and
undernourished, suffered a great deal and fell
sick. His mother died, and since Ti-Jean was
all alone, he left the cottage.

21. Using concepts to develop analysis
An analytical approach examines the story but also
makes insights that go beyond the text – not just what
the story says, but how we interpreted it.
In the French Canadian folk tale “The Adventures of Ti-
Jean,” Ti-Jean’s career begins in poverty and isolation, fear
and suffering, culminating in the illness that causes his
mother’s death. Alone in the world, weakened by
fever, the orphan must nonetheless leave his precarious
shelter and find his way out of the forest in order to
survive.

22. Exploring relationships between ideas
In essays that use multiple sources:
Organize body of essay by themes, rather than one
section per source
This structure forces you to analyse the material
because you have to compare different approaches to
the theme.
If you break your essay down by source, you run a much
higher risk of summarizing the content of the source
rather than examining what it means in the context of
your essay

23. Exploring relationships between ideas
Introduction Introduction
Article A - themes Theme 1 – Articles A, B, & C
Article B - themes Theme 1 – Articles A, B, & C
Article C - themes Theme 1 – Articles A, B, & C
Conclusion Conclusion

24. Exploring relationships between ideas
Consider the coverage of your material:
Is it a primary or secondary source?
Does the work update other sources, substantiate other
materials you have read, or add new information?
Does it extensively or marginally cover your topic?
You should explore enough sources to obtain a variety of
viewpoints.

25. Using quotations effectively
Quotations can be used to give authority to your analysis.
However, if you want to use a quotation, you need to
properly integrate it in your paragraph:
1. Make sure you fully understand the meaning of your
quote
2. Introduce your quote to give it authority
3. Integrate it into your essay
4. Explain why you’ve used the quote/show why it
augments your evidence.

26. Using quotations effectively
In the Early Modern period, people were thought bathing
was dangerous.
In the Early Modern period, people were warned that
bathing was dangerous.
In the Early Modern period, people took baths. “Publicke
bathes and hot-houses must be prohibited, for that in
these, mens bodies are weekend, and made more
yielding and pervious to the pestiferous aire” (Pare, 829).
People were warned that bathing was dangerous.

27. Using quotations effectively
Not only did public baths serve as a gathering place for
great numbers of people, but there were also the effects
of the heat and water to consider. In an address to city
councilors, Ambroise Pare, the king’s personal physician,
advised that “Publicke bathes and hot-houses must be
prohibited, for that in these, mens bodies are weekend,
and made more yielding and pervious to the pestiferous
aire” (Pare, 829). Warnings about the risks associated with
public bathing, such as Pare’s rapidly became established
in mainstream thought, and by the mid-sixteenth century
the custom of bathing – either at a public bath or at home
– had virtually disappeared.

28. If you are having a hard time getting started, here
are some questions you can ask yourself about the
text, event, or person you are writing about:
What does X mean? What is the significance of X?
How is X made or done? How did X happen?
How should X be made or done? What kind of person is X?
What is the essential function of What is my personal response to
X? X?
What are the causes and/or What is the value of X?
consequences of X?
How is X like or unlike Y? What case can be made for or
against X?

29. Help at York University
Centre for Academic Writing