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Analysis - the detailed examination of the elements or structure of something
Work - an activity, such as a job, that a person uses physical or mental effort to do
why is analysis so hard?
why is analysis so hard?
Work takes mental effort and time, learning how to analyse texts is no exception.
In every subject you will have to analyse, sometimes it is with texts and at other times it is using data. In Chemistry, analysis can be the identification and measurement of the chemical constituents of a substance or specimen. In Maths, analysis could be concerned with the theory of functions and the use of limits, continuity, and the operations of calculus. Yet, in all subjects, when we analyse, we are breaking ideas down in order to understand them at a deeper level. You need to find out from your subject teacher how analysis is understood and developed in their subject.
Metacognition is important for any analysis work as it emphasises that it is crucial for your learning that you understand what you are trying to do in order to be able to do it.
top tip 1. - show off
top tip 1. - show off
When you analyse, you want to demonstrate that you have understood what you have read and examined. In written analysis, you will strengthen the quality of your work if you offer specific passages from the text/your reading as evidence. Rather than simply dropping in quotations and expecting their significance and relevance to your argument to be self-evident to the reader, you need to show off what you know.
Top Tip 2 - take an approach
Top Tip 2 - take an approach
Having a structure or specific questions to ask yourself is a good way to begin to develop your analytical skills.
1. Always start by reading through your work & giving yourself time to think.
2. Try to spot the basic ideas, events and names as you read.
3. Thinking through your personal reaction to what you have examined is important, although you do need to go back and remember what it is you are being asked to do.
4. Once you have identified and considered the most important ideas you need to return to locate specific evidence and passages which relate to these ideas.
5. You then need to begin to write and explain what you have learnt.
6. Each subject could have different expectations of how you need to do this. This may be explicit to your success so make sure you find out what these are.
top tip 3 - Have an execution plan
top tip 3 - Have an execution plan
- If in doubt, start with what you do know - a basic sentence which offers an observation or assertion about what you have read.
- Providing the context for the passage without offering too much summary is a good way to show you have thought about what you have read.
- If you are going to cite the passage, make sure you do so using the format you have been taught in lessons.
- Follow the passage with some combination of the following elements:
- discuss what happens in the passage and why it is significant to the work as a whole;
- consider what is said, particularly subtleties of the imagery and the ideas expressed;
- assess how it is said, considering how the word choice, the ordering of ideas, sentence structure etc., contribute to the meaning of the passage;
- explain what it means, tying your analysis of the passage back to the significance of the text as a whole.
- Repeat!
spot the difference
spot the difference
Below are two analysis paragraphs. What differences can you spot and which techniques have been used? What makes one much better than the other?
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.
Example 2: This quotation contains a central concept of Freud's psychology: humans are driven by the pleasure principle and are at their happiest 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.
Meet mr bruff
Meet mr bruff
Have you visited Mr Bruff's You Tube channel? - Mr Bruff is an English teacher who has made a lot of videos for a number of books which are studied as part of GCSE and A Level English Literature exams in the U.K. All of them focus on analysis. Watch some of them to give yourself an idea of how a subject expert breaks texts down in order to show his learning and understanding.
Another video, this time by Mr Salles - it gives some great hints on how you can learn those quotes using retrieval techniques - interesting ideas!
These two English teachers focus on both English Literature and Language, but they are preparing their students for AQA exams.
An Addition for 2020 is a Mrs Rumsey who talks through the texts as she annotates them. She is recommended by students for any English Literature text and for the English Language anthologies. She is crucially preparing her students for Edexcel IGCSE which is the exam board followed here at CHS.
the textbook challenge!
the textbook challenge!
Could you explain how to read a textbook effectively for learning? If you don't you have failed the textbook challenge! You need to find out more here.
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