Analysis

1. Analysis The uses of Analysis

2. Why is Analysis important? • Most academic papers require some kind of analysis as part of the prewriting or organizing process or as a part of the paper itself.

3. Why is Analysis important? • People analyze things to determine the similarities and differences, to classify them, and to synthesize them.

4. Why is Analysis important? • They analyze their initial response to a text to find a thesis for a critique or a topic for further research.

5. What does “Analysis” mean? • To analyze simply means taking something apart and examining its parts or components • For example, I could analyze my sandwich by looking at each item on it: Toasted white bread Tomatoes Honey ham Swiss cheese Romaine lettuce Kraft mayonnaise

6. Applying Analysis to Readings • Analyzing a reading simply means that you divide the reading into its important parts or important ideas. • Sometimes a reading will have subheadings, which make it easy to divide into parts to analyze. People will frequently circle or highlight ideas in a text in order to help them analyze the reading.

7. Analysis vs. Synthesis • Q:What is the difference between Analysisand Synthesis? • A:Analysis focuses upon the item itself. Synthesis combines one idea with other ideas in order to create a new idea or draw a conclusion.

8. Analysis vs. Synthesis Syllogisms use synthesis: • All mustaches are signs of wisdom. • Mr. Weaver has a truly glorious mustache. Therefore, Mr. Weaver is truly wise.

9. Analysis vs. Synthesis • To synthesize a reading, I would compare the ideas in one reading to the ideas in another and then write about how I thought the ideas compared. After reading “38 Who Saw Murder,” I read a database article about bystander apathy. To synthesize that information, I then wrote about how bystander apathy played a role, but was not the only problem, in “38 Who Saw Murder.”

10. Analytical skills in college • Academic writing assignments call for several different kinds of analysis, but we will discuss the basic concept of analysisunder three general headings: • rhetorical analysis • process analysis • causal analysis

11. Rhetorical Analysis Examining how the text approaches the audience

12. Rhetorical Analysis To analyze the rhetoric of a text is to figure out how it persuades its readers-how it goes about accomplishing that task.

13. Rhetorical Analysis • Rhetorical analysis is not directly concerned with whether the text's assertions are correct.

14. Why listen to Hitler? • Hitler was able to persuade a great number of people to join him in a cause that is today widely denounced. How did he do it?

15. Why listen to Hitler? • Kenneth Burke, one of the great American rhetoricians of the twentieth century, asserts that analyzing Hitler's rhetoric is a worthwhile task. Why????

16. Why listen to Hitler? • Burke says it doesn't matter that you might vehemently disagree with Hitler's motives or his arguments;in conducting a rhetorical analysis of his texts, you can learn a lot about the means by which people are persuaded.

17. Rhetorical Analysis Questions • What is the contextof this text?Where was it published, and when? • Who is the intended audience for this text? • Sometimes that question can be answered from the context, and sometimes there are clues in the text that tell you who the writer imagined his or her readers to be.

18. Rhetorical Analysis Questions Final Exam Essay Prompt: Write an interpretive response to the text, focusing on the author’s tone, or attitude toward the subject and the audience.

19. Rhetorical Analysis Questions • Does the text demonstrate a respect for its audience? • What stance does it adopt toward that audience- one of teacher, colleague, supplicant?

20. Rhetorical Analysis Questions • Does the text demonstrate a respect for its audience? • Is the text superior to the audience? • Is it the equal of its audience?

21. Rhetorical Analysis Questions • Does the text demonstrate a respect for its audience? • Is it afraid of or hostile towards its audience? • Does it welcome the audience into the discussion, or exclude them from it?

22. Rhetorical Analysis Questions • By what means does the text seek topersuade its readers of the thesis? • By… • appealing to their emotions, their fears? • citing authorities? • recounting personal experience, observation, or research? • building the author's own credibility as an authority on the subject or as a generally knowledgeable person? • using empirical data--statistics, tables, graphs, and the like?

23. Rhetorical Analysis • Does the text give options for the conclusions readers reach, or does it portray all who disagree with it as ill-informed or even villainous?

24. "Lincoln knew the reactions of frontiersmen, who made up the jury. When his turn came, his plea was brief: 'Gentlemen of the jury, because I have justice on my side, I am sure you will not be influenced by this gentleman's pretended knowledge of the law. Why. he doesn't even know which side of his shirt ought to be in front!'

25. Rhetorical Analysis Questions • How does the text establish that itsevidence actually supports the argument-- or does it assume that you, the reader, automatically agree that this evidence is valid and sufficient?

26. Rhetorical Analysis Questionscont’d • How is the textorganized? • For example, does it include numbered lists of evidence?

27. Rhetorical Analysis Questionscont’d • Do readers get the "whole picture" from this text? • (Keep in mind that no text can cover every aspect of its topic; but on the other hand, when a text seems to suppress key informationor perspectives, that is itself a part of its argument.)

28. Rhetorical Analysis Questionscont’d • Whom does the text portray as the enemies of its argument? Whom does it portray as its friends?

29. Rhetorical Analysis Questionscont’d • To what extent does the text consider counterevidence--alternative points of view? • Are these given serious consideration, or are they "shot down" without a trial?

30. Rhetorical Analysis Questionscont’d • To what extent does the textacknowledge thecomplexity of the issue--or does it try tomake it seem that the issue is a simple one, with only one "right" answer?

31. Rhetorical Analysis Questionscont’d • What does the text leave out? • (If you know something about the issue, ask yourself whether the text is suppressing counterevidence or complexity.)

32. Process Analysis How-to do it & How it’s done

33. Process Analysis • Malcolm X’s “My First Conk” (a reading in Patterns) describes the process of straightening his hair. He describes, step-by-step, how one conks hair. • “My First Conk” is a Process Analysis—a careful examination of the steps taken to achieve a result. http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/home.php http://jolique.com/hair/turning_heads_conks_curls.htmIf you’re interested in hairstyles and ethnicity, here’s another website you might find interesting. (Malcolm X with “conked” hair) from The Official website of Malcolm X

34. Process analysis has 2 general formats: • 1Directivestep-by-step instructions provided for a reader to follow. • For example, “How to organize a closet effectively” or “How to grow a healthy lawn” Process directions are written with the expectation that the person reading them will perform the task described. • 2Explanatory a description of how something is/was done. • For example, “How a nuclear power plant generates electricity” or “How ships were built in the 1850’s” Unlike the process directions,no one expects the reader to perform the steps presented. Process explanation describes how something is done or what happened--History is a process explanation, as is “My First Conk.”

35. Is a narrative also a process explanation? • Yes – however, when one thinks of a narrative, usually one imagines a first-person story filled with details.

36. first, second, third, etc. next then following this finally after afterwards, after this thus, subsequently simultaneously, concurrently Useful transition words for process analysis:

37. Causal Analysis Why something happens…

38. Causal Analysis • Causal analysis examines the reasons behind an event. Sometimes called cause-and-effect analysis, it differs from process analysis in that it analyzes not how something occurs, but why. • (note: “Causal” comes from “cause”—it is not the same as “casual”, meaning informal)

39. Causal Analysis(cont’d) • Usually that "why" analyzes events that have already happened (as in history and anthropology), but sometimes (as in political science or economics) it may try to predict what will happen, and why.

40. Causal Analysis(cont’d) • What’s debatable about cause? • You assert your opinion (or “claim”) about • The main cause • Contributing cause(s) • Immediate cause(s) • Remote cause(s)

41. Causal Analysis Example Causal Analysis(cont’d) Suppose a student is performing poorly. • The student’s parents may think the main cause of her poor performance is all the time she spends with her boyfriend. • The boyfriend may think she is spending too much time chatting online with her friends, and he points to the computer as the main cause. • The student’s teacher may think the student’s main problem is that she does not check her work and makes careless errors that cost her points. • However, the student may simply dislike school and not want to attend.  this is the true main cause!!

42. Causes are debatable!! Note how everyone sees the main cause differently—therefore, the main cause is DEBATABLE. Causal Analysis examines what lies behind certain events/incidents—we use causal analysis to determine what causes accidents, certain behaviors, the spread of disease, extinction of a species, attractions/relationships to form etc…

43. Analysis Review Remember… Rhetorical Analysis Process Analysis Causal Analysis

44. End of presentation.