PLANNING AN ANALYSIS As you read an article (or book, or report), you will respond to the material; you will

form opinion about the ideas. Analysis requires more: 1. Why do you agree (or disagree) with the author? 2. What support do you have for your opinion? To analyze means to observe carefully, to take an idea apart, and discover how you think and feel about it. To communicate the results of your analysis to an audience, you must be able to show the audience why your opinion is worthwhile. You support your opinion with facts, examples, physical description, and/ or personal experience.

The Process of Writing an Analysis of Written article Read the article (book, articles, report) and make as many critical questions as possible related to the text. Below are the examples of critical questions.
Do you agree with the author? Why or why not? Where are specific parts of the text with which you agree or disagree? Why? What experiences from your own life cause you to believe or disbelieve what the author has written? What basic beliefs and assumptions do you share with the author? Why? How might this affect your reading? Why? What questions come to mind as you read each paragraph? Why? How do you feel about the author? Why? Does the author seem credible? Why or why not? Based on your reading, what else do you need to learn about the subject? Why? What must you do to find out what you need to learn?

 Read it again, marking the points you would choose to discuss (respond to). Decide on an overall thesis that you agree or disagree ( or perhaps agree and disagree) with the main points of the article. Begin to generate support for your opinion. Construct topic sentences for the body paragraphs of your essay; each topic sentence will agree or disagree with a single point in the article. Gather support for the opinions you wrote in your topic sentences: use facts, examples, physical description, and/ or personal experience.

Whatever the assignment, if both a summary and an analysis are required, the general format will remain the same: 1. The first paragraph (introduction) should include:
Name of the material read (book, article) Name of the author(s) Main ideas of the written material (brief summary) Your main idea ( your statement of opinion, your response to the material).

2. General progression for the body paragraphs

First main point (second main point, etc.) to be analyzed is summarized briefly Quoted material to illustrate that summary (optional) Your response to that main point (the topic sentence): notice that your topic sentence is NOT the first sentence in the paragraph. Support your topic sentence from your own experience or reading

3. Conclusion
Statement of your conclusions after reading and thinking about the written material. What points can you make? Where did the article lead you?