Analysis Essay

  you will focus both on textual analysis (close reading of the text itself) and contextual analysis (analyzing the text within its larger cultural context). Overall, your Analysis Essay should offer a clear, coherent, and detailed understanding of how the text works, breaking down the writer's choices and explaining how the writer makes the issue relevant, interesting, and emotionally connected to a community of readers. These questions help to guide discussion and set up the objectives for this unit. What is analysis? What is the purpose and value of analysis in helping myself and others understand issues that are relevant to us? How can I use analysis to explain and break down complex ideas into parts that audiences can understand? How can writing analysis help me clarify my own thinking and uncover important issues that I might otherwise miss? How can I use writing to focus and organize my thoughts, ideas, and main points about issues that are important to me? How can I write ethically -- that is, with careful consideration of the ways I am understanding texts and communicating their value to others?