text analysis
Analyzing a Text
Both Time and U.S. News and World Report cover the same events, but each magazine interprets them differently. Saddam Hussein was supporting terrorists—or he wasn't, depending on which politician is speaking. This example demonstrates why we need to be careful, analytical readers of magazines and newspapers, ads, political documents, even textbooks. Not only does text convey information, but it also influences how and what we think. We need to read, then, to understand not only what texts say but also how they say it. Because understanding how texts say what they say is so crucial, assignments in many disciplines ask you to analyze texts. You may be asked to analyze sensory imagery in James Joyce's "Araby" for a literature class or, for an art history course, to analyze the use of color and space in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. In a statistics course, you might analyze a set of data—a numerical text—to find the standard deviation from the mean. This chapter offers detailed guidelines for writing an essay that closely examines a text both for what it says and for how it does so, with the goal of demonstrating for readers how—and how well—the text achieves its effects.
Key Features of Textual Analysis
A summary of the text. Your readers may not know the text you are analyzing, so you need to include it or tell them about it before you can analyze it. Because Safire's text is so well-known, he describes it only briefly as "Abraham Lincoln's words at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery." Texts that are not so well-known require a more detailed summary. Both Rubin and Lantry include the texts—and images—they analyze and also describe them in detail.
Attention to the context. Texts don't exist in isolation: they are influenced by and contribute to ongoing conversations, controversies, or debates, so to understand the text, you need to understand the larger context. Rubin describes Leslie's development and names several song
Both Time and U.S. News and World Report cover the same events, but each magazine interprets them differently. Saddam Hussein was supporting terrorists—or he wasn't, depending on which politician is speaking. This example demonstrates why we need to be careful, analytical readers of magazines and newspapers, ads, political documents, even textbooks. Not only does text convey information, but it also influences how and what we think. We need to read, then, to understand not only what texts say but also how they say it. Because understanding how texts say what they say is so crucial, assignments in many disciplines ask you to analyze texts. You may be asked to analyze sensory imagery in James Joyce's "Araby" for a literature class or, for an art history course, to analyze the use of color and space in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. In a statistics course, you might analyze a set of data—a numerical text—to find the standard deviation from the mean. This chapter offers detailed guidelines for writing an essay that closely examines a text both for what it says and for how it does so, with the goal of demonstrating for readers how—and how well—the text achieves its effects.
Key Features of Textual Analysis
A summary of the text. Your readers may not know the text you are analyzing, so you need to include it or tell them about it before you can analyze it. Because Safire's text is so well-known, he describes it only briefly as "Abraham Lincoln's words at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery." Texts that are not so well-known require a more detailed summary. Both Rubin and Lantry include the texts—and images—they analyze and also describe them in detail.
Attention to the context. Texts don't exist in isolation: they are influenced by and contribute to ongoing conversations, controversies, or debates, so to understand the text, you need to understand the larger context. Rubin describes Leslie's development and names several song