essay understand means

The Power of Analysis: Tips and Tricks for Writing Analysis Essays: Home

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• Why is it important?
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Text analysis and writing analysis texts are important skills to develop as they allow individuals to critically engage with written material, understand underlying themes and arguments, and communicate their own ideas in a clear and effective manner. These skills are essential in academic and professional settings, as well as in everyday life, as they enable individuals to evaluate information and make informed decisions.

What is Text Analysis?

Text analysis is the process of examining and interpreting a written or spoken text to understand its meaning, structure, and context. It involves breaking down the text into its constituent parts, such as words, phrases, and sentences, and analyzing how they work together to convey a particular message or idea.

Text analysis can be used to explore a wide range of textual material, including literature, poetry, speeches, and news articles, and it is often employed in academic research, literary criticism, and media analysis. By analyzing texts, we can gain deeper insights into their meanings, uncover hidden messages and themes, and better understand the social and cultural contexts in which they were produced.

What is an Analysis Essay?

An analysis essay is a type of essay that requires the writer to analyze and interpret a particular text or topic. The goal of an analysis essay is to break down the text or topic into smaller parts and examine each part carefully. This allows the writer to make connections between different parts of the text or topic and develop a more comprehensive understanding of it.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the first-person point of view and vivid descriptions of the protagonist’s surroundings to convey the protagonist’s psychological deterioration. By limiting the reader’s understanding of the story’s events to the protagonist’s perspective, Gilman creates a sense of claustrophobia and paranoia, mirroring the protagonist’s own feelings. Additionally, the use of sensory language, such as the “smooch of rain,” and descriptions of the “yellow wallpaper” and its “sprawling flamboyant patterns,” further emphasize the protagonist’s sensory and emotional experience. Through these techniques, Gilman effectively communicates the protagonist’s descent into madness and the effects of societal oppression on women’s mental health.

There are several different types of analysis essays, including:

Literary Analysis Essays: These essays examine a work of literature and analyze various literary devices such as character development, plot, theme, and symbolism.

Rhetorical Analysis Essays: These essays examine how authors use language and rhetoric to persuade their audience, focusing on the author's tone, word choice, and use of rhetorical devices.

Film Analysis Essays: These essays analyze a film's themes, characters, and visual elements, such as cinematography and sound.

Visual Analysis Essays: These essays analyze visual art, such as paintings or sculptures, and explore how the artwork's elements work together to create meaning.

Historical Analysis Essays: These essays analyze historical events or documents and examine their causes, effects, and implications.

Comparative Analysis Essays: These essays compare and contrast two or more works, focusing on similarities and differences between them.

Process Analysis Essays: These essays explain how to do something or how something works, providing a step-by-step analysis of a process.

Analyzing Texts

• General Tips
• How to Analyze
• What to Analyze

When writing an essay, it's essential to analyze your topic thoroughly. Here are some suggestions for analyzing your topic:

Read carefully: Start by reading your text or prompt carefully. Make sure you understand the key points and what the text or prompt is asking you to do.

Analyze the text or topic thoroughly: Analyze the text or topic thoroughly by breaking it down into smaller parts and examining each part carefully. This will help you make connections between different parts of the text or topic and develop a more comprehensive understanding of it.

Identify key concepts: Identify the key concepts, themes, and ideas in the text or prompt. This will help you focus your analysis.

Take notes: Take notes on important details and concepts as you read. This will help you remember what you've read and organize your thoughts.

Consider different perspectives: Consider different perspectives and interpretations of the text or prompt. This can help you create a more well-rounded analysis.

Use evidence: Use evidence from the text or outside sources to support your analysis. This can help you make your argument stronger and more convincing.

Formulate your thesis statement: Based on your analysis of the essay, formulate your thesis statement. This should be a clear and concise statement that summarizes your main argument.

Use clear and concise language: Use clear and concise language to communicate your ideas effectively. Avoid using overly complicated language that may confuse your reader.

Revise and edit: Revise and edit your essay carefully to ensure that it is clear, concise, and free of errors.

• Understanding the assignment: Make sure you fully understand the assignment and the purpose of the analysis. This will help you focus your analysis and ensure that you are meeting the requirements of the assignment.

Read the essay multiple times: Reading the essay multiple times will help you to identify the author's main argument, key points, and supporting evidence.

Take notes: As you read the essay, take notes on key points, quotes, and examples. This will help you to organize your thoughts and identify patterns in the author's argument.

Take breaks: It's important to take breaks while reading academic essays to avoid burnout. Take a break every 20-30 minutes and do something completely different, like going for a walk or listening to music. This can help you to stay refreshed and engaged.

Highlight or underline key points: As you read, highlight or underline key points, arguments, and evidence that stand out to you. This will help you to remember and analyze important information later.

Ask questions: Ask yourself questions as you read to help you engage critically with the text. What is the author's argument? What evidence do they use to support their claims? What are the strengths and weaknesses of their argument?

Engage in active reading: Instead of passively reading, engage in active reading by asking questions, making connections to other readings or personal experiences, and reflecting on what you've read.

Find a discussion partner: Find someone to discuss the essay with, whether it's a classmate, a friend, or a teacher. Discussing the essay can help you to process and analyze the information more deeply, and can also help you to stay engaged.

• Identify the author's purpose and audience: Consider why the author wrote the essay and who their intended audience is. This will help you to better understand the author's perspective and the purpose of their argument.

Analyze the structure of the essay: Consider how the essay is structured and how this supports the author's argument. Look for patterns in the organization of ideas and the use of transitions.

Evaluate the author's use of evidence: Evaluate the author's use of evidence and how it supports their argument. Consider whether the evidence is credible, relevant, and sufficient to support the author's claims.

Consider the author's tone and style: Consider the author's tone and style and how it contributes to their argument. Look for patterns in the use of language, imagery, and rhetorical devices.

Consider the context : Consider the context in which the essay was written, such as the author's background, the time period, and any societal or cultural factors that may have influenced their perspective.

Evaluate the evidence: Evaluate the evidence presented in the essay and consider whether it is sufficient to support the author's argument. Look for any biases or assumptions that may be present in the evidence.

Consider alternative viewpoints: Consider alternative viewpoints and arguments that may challenge the author's perspective. This can help you to engage critically with the text and develop a more well-rounded understanding of the topic.

• Last Updated: Jun 21, 2023 1:01 PM
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Identify, Explain, Analyse … essay question words

If you’re struggling with essay questions and wondering what they mean and how to answer them, you’ve come to the right place. While writing essays can be difficult, it’s important to do thorough research and present your arguments convincingly. However, understanding the different question words such as ‘discuss’, ‘examine’, and ‘justify’ is crucial to crafting a well-structured essay. Many students need help understanding the question requirements, but our guide on essay question words will help you avoid this pitfall and excel in your essay writing.

what are Question words?

Question words like ‘analyse’, ‘evaluate’ and ‘explain’ in essay titles indicate how to structure your essay. These words often require critical responses of varying degrees, while some may only require a descriptive answer. It’s important to always adhere to the question words regardless of their nature, as failing to do so can result in irrelevant and low-scoring essays. For instance, a question asking to compare the British and French upper houses of parliament requires more than just pointing out the differences between the two systems.

To avoid such mistakes, it’s recommended to read this guide. The guide categorises the question words as either ‘descriptive’ or ‘critical’ depending on their nature, which will help you identify the type of response required for your essay. Regardless of your level of knowledge in the subject area, misinterpreting the question words can lead to poor essay writing.

Question words that need a critical approach

Certain interrogative words necessitate a crucial response, and the extent to which your responses must be critical varies based on the specifications of the inquiry. We have outlined these distinctions for you below:

When essay questions use the term ‘analyse’ about a particular argument or topic, they require a comprehensive dissection. You must break down the topic or argument into its basic components. Additionally, you must conduct a critical examination of each of these parts. To do so, you should draw upon important debates and evidence to explore the arguments for and against the topic and consider how the different parts of the topic or argument are connected. Your analysis should not simply summarise key debates in the literature; rather, you should take a clear stance based on the evidence and tie your position to the literature.

To respond to an essay question that uses this particular term, the primary objective is to offer your own opinion or judgment about the accuracy of a set of research findings or an argument. You may also need to show the degree to which you concur with a argument or specific hypothesis. It is important to present information from various academic sources that support both sides of the argument. After providing an overview of the evidence, you should clearly state your position and support it with the evidence that led you to your conclusion.

When presented with a question that uses the term ‘justify,’ it is necessary to clarify the reasoning behind your argument by providing evidence that influenced your perspective. You must persuasively present your evidence in your response, showcasing valid reasons for adopting your stance. Additionally, it would be best to address opposing arguments before concluding your argument. This demonstrates a balanced view of the topic and a broad understanding of the relevant literature. To do this effectively, a critical approach is necessary. You should explain why alternative arguments are insufficient and why your argument is superior.

• Critically evaluate

To respond to a ‘critically evaluate’ question, you need to express your opinion on the validity of an argument or research results. To achieve this, you must evaluate the statement or research finding carefully and critically. Your essay response should be assertive and present your thoughts on the accuracy of the topic in question. It is important to support your claims with enough evidence and present a balanced analysis by critiquing alternative perspectives. In addition, it is important to draw evidence from various sources to make your essay response more convincing. To conclude, state your position clearly, explain your reasoning, and provide evidence that influenced your perspective. Finally, it is important to justify your position by presenting a well-reasoned and convincing argument to the reader.

If you encounter a question that includes the term ‘review,’ you are required to undertake a critical examination of a particular subject or argument. This involves summarizing the main themes or points and analyzing them in a critical manner while expressing your viewpoint. In essence, questions that use the term ‘review’ require you to assess the validity of the essay question.

For instance, if the question prompts you to review the literature on electoral reform in Great Britain, you should provide an overview that includes any significant arguments or issues that emerged. Next, you must logically and analytically comment on this material. This includes stating your agreement or disagreement with other scholars’ views and discussing contrasting perspectives. To support your assessment, it is essential to provide evidence, and you should clearly state your position.

Review answers should not be descriptive; instead, they must showcase high analytical skills. The objective is not to repeat the ideas of other scholars but to critically evaluate their work.

When faced with an ‘assess’ question, your task is to evaluate a particular argument or topic’s value, strengths, or weaknesses. Unlike other essay questions, ‘assess’ questions require you to consider multiple viewpoints rather than just expressing your opinion. To create a compelling argument, it is essential to express your ideas on the subject matter explicitly and substantiate them with evidence obtained from secondary sources in literature. The reader should be able to comprehend the robustness of your evaluation through evidence that supports your stance. Besides, it is crucial to recognize the limitations of your argument and tackle any opposing viewpoints that may emerge.

When you come across a ‘Discuss’ question word, you must provide a comprehensive answer encompassing all facets of the argument or research topic. To demonstrate your reasoning skills, you should utilise evidence to support or oppose the argument/research topic.

To conduct a comprehensive examination of the topic, it is advisable to take into account various viewpoints articulated by other researchers. After considering the key arguments presented in the literature, present your perspective on the topic. Clearly expressing your stance and substantiating it with all the relevant evidence is critical.

To conduct a comprehensive investigation of a research topic or argument, it is essential to closely examine the crucial facts and significant issues. Therefore, ‘examine’ question words necessitate an analytical approach. It is also crucial to provide some background information to explain why these issues and facts are important. Have other scholars examined these issues and facts differently? If so, it is necessary to note these differences, the reasons behind them, and compare them to your approach.

In contrast to other question words, the questions that use the term ‘examine’ are more focused and less broad, as they require you to analyse specific evidence or facts in a critical manner for your analysis.

• To what extent

This kind of question requires you to assess your level of agreement with a statement given in the question. To achieve this, you must conduct a thorough analysis of the subject and the evidence cited to support your stance. To address such questions, you must demonstrate your knowledge of the topic and use a critical approach to present your argument. You should examine both sides of the issue and present contrasting evidence. However, you must explain why specific evidence or information is more relevant in supporting your answer.

Question words that need a descriptive response

Sometimes, certain question words only need a description as a response, and this is true for the words listed below:

This question requires you to clearly define the subject matter, providing a detailed explanation of its meaning. If there are multiple definitions of the subject, mentioning them and explaining why you’ve chosen to use a particular definition is important. If there is disagreement among scholars regarding the definition, you should discuss this as well. Make sure to provide multiple meanings if they exist, demonstrating your familiarity with the literature.

• Demonstrate

To effectively answer ‘demonstrate’ questions, it is necessary to provide numerous examples, evidence, and logical arguments. The main objective is to show how a particular research topic or argument is legitimate by offering evidence and arguments to validate your claim. Emphasise your position when addressing such questions. It’s crucial to provide solid evidence to build a strong case.

To answer a “describe” question, it is essential to provide a comprehensive understanding of the primary features of a research topic impartially. As the responses to these questions are primarily descriptive, providing a narrative-style account or depiction is crucial. Rather than focusing on the fundamental meaning of the subject, “describe” questions emphasise its specific qualities, which should serve as the foundation of your answer.

In ‘elaborate’ questions, providing a comprehensive and detailed account of an argument or a research topic is necessary. Such questions typically require descriptive responses, so you must show that you have conducted thorough research to substantiate the information you provide.

To answer ‘explain’ questions, you must detail a research topic or argument. Pretend you describe it to someone who knows nothing about the subject and provide as much detail as possible. You should also define any jargon or key terms that you use. Additionally, you should support your claims with academic research. Your response should demonstrate your clear understanding of the topic or argument and present a coherent interpretation to the reader. To achieve coherence, it is helpful to consider the ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ questions and structure your response logically.

It is important to approach “exploratory” essay questions with a questioning attitude. Objectivity is crucial because you must present all viewpoints before stating your arguments. A detached, unemotional tone is often more effective than an assertive, argumentative tone. The objective is to provide a comprehensive description of an argument or research topic by analyzing its different components.

When presented with an essay question that uses the term ‘identity’ in relation to a research topic or argument, your task is to provide a succinct and well-structured explanation of the main ideas. This is similar to what has been done in this paragraph.

To respond to these questions, you must usually provide various examples, such as graphs, figures, tables or specific research data and evidence. The purpose of including these examples is to showcase your understanding of the topic and to provide additional explanations or support for your answer.

To provide an outline answer, you must present a structured summary of an argument or a research topic. Including only the main points and essential supplementary information is essential instead of getting bogged down in minor details. Ensure that your response is presented in a clear and organised manner.

When you’re tasked with summarising a research topic, you must provide a concise version of its main points or facts. Your focus should be on the most important information, and you should leave out all minor details. Summaries are usually short and straightforward, conveying the primary facts clearly and efficiently. The goal is to present the main points briefly and impactfully.

This means to elucidate a topic or argument and make it more understandable. This may involve clarifying a topic or an argument by presenting it in simpler terms. These questions need you to clarify or simplify a complex subject or topic. It is crucial to maintain coherence when answering such questions and to present your response systematically.

You must find commonalities between two or more discussion topics if asked to’ compare’. To go beyond a simple comparison, you should attempt to comprehend the origins of the similarities and their importance. Additionally, you should highlight differences, but your essay should focus on establishing similarities.

To answer ‘contrast’ questions, you need to highlight and explain the disparities between multiple subjects of discussion rather than their similarities, unlike ‘compare’ questions. The main focus should be on outlining the differences and identifying what distinguishes them from one another. When dealing with ‘contrast’ questions, keep these broad queries in mind.

By providing an explanation of the meaning of essay question words, we hope to offer guidance on how to approach them in your essay writing . Additionally, here are some tips to keep in mind when answering essay questions:

Firstly, make sure you fully comprehend the question and understand what is required of you. Thoroughly examine the question words and their meaning before you start planning your response.

Secondly, read the question multiple times and attempt to uncover any underlying assumptions or subtext. Highlight key phrases and create a basic outline of your response. This outline doesn’t need to be complex, but it will help you structure your response coherently.

Finally, before submitting your essay, review it carefully for inconsistencies and grammatical or spelling errors. It may be helpful to have a professional editor examine your work to provide fresh insights and identify areas for improvement.

Author Bio: Mark Edmonds is a seasoned academic writer and a proud member of the Academic Assignments team. With over a decade of experience in assignment writing services , Mark has helped numerous students achieve academic success through his expertise and guidance. He holds a Master’s degree in English Literature and has a keen eye for detail, which enables him to craft top-notch assignments that meet the highest standards of academic excellence.

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Developing Deeper Analysis & Insights

Analysis is a central writing skill in academic writing. Essentially, analysis is what writers do with evidence to make meaning of it. While there are specific disciplinary types of analysis (e.g., rhetorical, discourse, close reading, etc.), most analysis involves zooming into evidence to understand how the specific parts work and how their specific function might relate to a larger whole. That is, we usually need to zoom into the details and then reflect on the larger picture. In this writing guide, we cover analysis basics briefly and then offer some strategies for deepening your analysis. Deepening your analysis means pushing your thinking further, developing a more insightful and interesting answer to the “so what?” question, and elevating your writing.

Analysis Basics

Questions to Ask of the Text:

• Is the evidence fully explained and contextualized? Where in the text/story does this evidence come from (briefly)? What do you think the literal meaning of the quote/evidence is and why? Why did you select this particular evidence?
• Are you selecting a long enough quote to work with and analyze? While over-quoting can be a problem, so too can under-quoting.
• Do you connect each piece of evidence explicitly to the claim or focus of the paper?

Strategies & Explanation

• Sometimes turning the focus of the paper into a question can really help someone to figure out how to work with evidence. All evidence should answer the question--the work of analysis is explaining how it answers the question.
• The goal of evidence in analytical writing is not just to prove that X exists or is true, but rather to show something interesting about it--to push ideas forward, to offer insights about a quote. To do this, sometimes having a full sentence for a quote helps--if a writer is only using single-word quotes, for example, they may struggle to make meaning out of it.

Deepening Analysis

Not all of these strategies work every time, but usually employing one of them is enough to really help elevate the ideas and intellectual work of a paper:

• Bring the very best point in each paragraph into the topic sentence. Often these sentences are at the very end of a paragraph in a solid draft. When you bring it to the front of the paragraph, you then need to read the paragraph with the new topic sentence and reflect on: what else can we say about this evidence? What else can it show us about your claim?
• Complicate the point by adding contrasting information, a different perspective, or by naming something that doesn’t fit. Often we’re taught that evidence needs to prove our thesis. But, richer ideas emerge from conflict, from difference, from complications. In a compare and contrast essay, this point is very easy to see--we get somewhere further when we consider how two things are different. In an analysis of a single text, we might look at a single piece of evidence and consider: how could this choice the writer made here be different? What other choices could the writer have made and why didn’t they? Sometimes naming what isn’t in the text can help emphasize the importance of a particular choice.
• Shift the focus question of the essay and ask the new question of each piece of evidence. For example, a student is looking at examples of language discrimination (their evidence) in order to make an argument that answers the question: what is language discrimination? Questions that are definitional (what is X? How does Y work? What is the problem here?) can make deeper analysis challenging. It’s tempting to simply say the equivalent of “Here is another example of language discrimination.” However, a strategy to help with this is to shift the question a little bit. So perhaps the paragraphs start by naming different instances of language discrimination, but the analysis then tackles questions like: what are the effects of language discrimination? Why is language discrimination so problematic in these cases? Who perpetuates language discrimination and how? In a paper like this, it’s unlikely you can answer all of those questions--but, selecting ONE shifted version of a question that each paragraph can answer, too, helps deepen the analysis and keeps the essay focused.
• Examine perspective--both the writer’s and those of others involved with the issue. You might reflect on your own perspectives as a unique audience/reader. For example, what is illuminated when you read this essay as an engineer? As a person of color? As a first-generation student at Cornell? As an economically privileged person? As a deeply religious Christian? In order to add perspective into the analysis, the writer has to name these perspectives with phrases like: As a religious undergraduate student, I understand X to mean… And then, try to explain how the specificity of your perspective illuminates a different reading or understanding of a term, point, or evidence. You can do this same move by reflecting on who the intended audience of a text is versus who else might be reading it--how does it affect different audiences differently? Might that be relevant to the analysis?
• Qualify claims and/or acknowledge limitations. Before college level writing and often in the media, there is a belief that qualifications and/or acknowledging the limitations of a point adds weakness to an argument. However, this actually adds depth, honesty, and nuance to ideas. It allows you to develop more thoughtful and more accurate ideas. The questions to ask to help foster this include: Is this always true? When is it not true? What else might complicate what you’ve said? Can we add nuance to this idea to make it more accurate? Qualifications involve words like: sometimes, may effect, often, in some cases, etc. These terms are not weak or to be avoided, they actually add accuracy and nuance.

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