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Anexkahn · 05-24-2005, 01:58 AM

Not knowing specifically what subject this analysis work falls into, its hard to give specific advice as a scientific analysis of texts can take a different life than for say analysis of literature.

I took a series of classes dealing with analysis of literature in college. Really didn't like it, but found that the essays wern't really too hard to come up with after the first couple.

I heavily used the google knowledge base to find out any major points regarding the work beforehand, and then usually narrowed my focus to specific points and found passages to support those ideas throughout my essay. I also found myself asking alot of questions i knew the answer to, but then found passages to back them up and prove the point.

Generally its a good idea to prove every main point you are trying to make, unless you are stating a point in the non-absolute. For instance you could say something like "xyz work has been considered by many to be the greatest work of abc author" without further analysis because it is generally accepted fact. But if you were to say something like "such and such passage indicates that so and so is blah blah" thats a point that needs further analysis and proving why should be interpreted as such.

One thing that i found always helped me out writing these is to keep a list of action phrases to use when presenting your analysis. sentence starters like: This is evidenced by, this can be seen when, the author makes mention are all good lines to incorporate. I usually tried to keep quite a few of these around and it helped me keep things flowing.

Another way to attack the essay is to find cool quotes or phrases during your reading and base your analysis on those, whatever they may be. Make stuff up if you need to, as long as it is supported by the passages you choose it should be a valid point capible of being legitimately argued and you may win bonus points with the instructor grading them because you brought out a new angle of the work instead of re-capping the same typical 3-5 points that every other essay submitted hit on.

goodluck!

05-24-2005, 01:58 AM	#2 (permalink)
Anexkahn Crazy Location: whOregon	Not knowing specifically what subject this analysis work falls into, its hard to give specific advice as a scientific analysis of texts can take a different life than for say analysis of literature. I took a series of classes dealing with analysis of literature in college. Really didn't like it, but found that the essays wern't really too hard to come up with after the first couple. I heavily used the google knowledge base to find out any major points regarding the work beforehand, and then usually narrowed my focus to specific points and found passages to support those ideas throughout my essay. I also found myself asking alot of questions i knew the answer to, but then found passages to back them up and prove the point. Generally its a good idea to prove every main point you are trying to make, unless you are stating a point in the non-absolute. For instance you could say something like "xyz work has been considered by many to be the greatest work of abc author" without further analysis because it is generally accepted fact. But if you were to say something like "such and such passage indicates that so and so is blah blah" thats a point that needs further analysis and proving why should be interpreted as such. One thing that i found always helped me out writing these is to keep a list of action phrases to use when presenting your analysis. sentence starters like: This is evidenced by, this can be seen when, the author makes mention are all good lines to incorporate. I usually tried to keep quite a few of these around and it helped me keep things flowing. Another way to attack the essay is to find cool quotes or phrases during your reading and base your analysis on those, whatever they may be. Make stuff up if you need to, as long as it is supported by the passages you choose it should be a valid point capible of being legitimately argued and you may win bonus points with the instructor grading them because you brought out a new angle of the work instead of re-capping the same typical 3-5 points that every other essay submitted hit on. goodluck!