Analysis Questions

The following questions can help one begin to analyze a text before writing about it. An essay does not need to discuss all of these ideas, but it is good brainstorm about all of them in preparation for focusing one's ideas for an essay.

Biographical information about the creator of the text

• 1. What relevant details can you find about the creator and how is this information relevant to the text?

Ethos

• 1. How is it that the creator is believable?

  2. What makes him or her the right person, the only person, to tell this story or explain this idea?

  3. Where does this person’s credibility come from?

  4. Why should we listen to what this person has to say?

  5. What evidence supports your answers to these questions?

Pathos

• 1. Where is the creator most connecting with the auidence: either emotionally or on a values level?

  2. Where is the audience most connected, or drawn in? Use examples (quotations, descriptions of scenes or sounds) to explain your ideas.

  3. How is the creator trying to connect particularly with his or her audience? Use examples (quotations, descriptions of scenes or sounds) to explain your ideas.

Logos

• 1. Is the text trying to convince you of something based on facts and logical argumentation?

  2. If the answer to #1 is yes, what is the text trying to convince you of?

  3. What kinds of evidence are there in the text to do this convincing? What facts, stories, supporting anecdotes, statistics, logical reasoning, analogies, or other kinds of evidence can you find?

Organization and Style

• 1. How is the text organized? (Notice what ideas are discussed first; think about why those ideas are first while others come later. Look at how the author chooses to begin and end, look at paragraph breaks and use of white space in a piece of writing. Listen to the verses and chorus of a song and the different sounds and tempos of the music. Look at the lighting of scenes, the camera angles, the juxtaposition of images, the soundtrack (and much more) of a video or movie.)

  2. Why do you think the creator of the text has chosen to organize his/her text this way?

  3. How does it help prove his or her point or make the text more convincing?

  4. How does it affect the audience?

Figurative language or devices

1. Are there any symbols in the text? If so, what meaning do they add to the text?

2. Are there any similes or metaphors in the texts (comparisons of unlike things)? If so, what meaning do they add to the text?

3. How does the text use imagery (appeals to the five senses) to get its message across?

Tone

• 1. What adjectives describe the emotional feel (tone) of the text?

  2. Where do you find evidence of this tone?

  3. Does the tone change within the text?

  4. If the answer to #3 is yes, where does it change, and why?

  5. Why is this tone the right one to use for this topic or audience?

Publication and Audience

• 1. Where and when was this published or first made available and is that important to how we understand the text?

  2. Who was the audience at that time? What do you know (or what can you infer) about this audience? How is this knowledge of audience important to understanding the text?

  3. How do you know this was the audience?

  4. Why do you think the creator of the text might have chosen this particular audience?