EXAMPLE COMPLETED WAYS TO DEFINE GUIDE
STEP 1
Write your question, as it is now.
Why is the main plot of Disney films about a romance between young adults, when children
are its main audience?
STEP 2
Delimitation of Question
Can I, or do I want to, answer for all time? No
I want to keep my samples to a reasonable amount of films, for analysis.
Rephrase “Animated full-length Disney feature films from
1930–2000”
Can I, or do I want to, answer in all places No
Rephrase “In the United States”
Can I, or do I want to, answer for all people? No
Rephrase “In the United States”
Can I, or do I want to, answer in all instances? No.
Some Disney films are not about romance, but most are.
Rephrase “Most, but not all, Disney films”
STEP 3
Rewrite your question with the rephrased delimitation.
Why is the main plot of most, but not all, full-length Disney animated films, made between
1930 and 2000, in the United States, about romance between young adults, when the main
audience is children?
STEP 4
List any term whose definition is up for question, especially those that are abstract.
Always keep your question in mind. Treat all phrases as terms. For example, “fashion
sense” would be treated as a whole term, instead of defining “fashion” and “sense”
separately.
82 REASON TO WRITE
• Romance
• Plot
• Children
• Main Audience
• Young Adults
STEP 5
Define each term as a type of definition, except for Dictionary.
Exemplar: Define by example
Term: Romance: “Romeo and Juliet” is a romance
Term: Main audience: Young males age 18-24 are the main anticipated audi-
ence of a horror film.
Term: Plot: In “Cinderella” stories, a young and beautiful young
woman in negative circumstances escapes those circum-
stances by meeting and marrying a prince.
Term: Young Adults: College students are often young adults.
Term: Children: Children are students in elementary school.
NOTE
See how exemplar definition tends to put the term into a particular context, because
you must find examples of the thing you are defining, in the world?
This makes this kind of definition very useful to you, as a writer.
For example, the definition for “main audience” provides valuable information,
because it clarifies that there is always an intention behind making stories. That
intention is to have an effect—not on all people, but on a certain kind of audience.
That’s important to remember in answering your question.
However, exemplar definition should not be the only way you define a term, because
it’s often only one particular example. Your analysis may require a range of examples,
or examples of a specific type.
For example, “Romeo and Juliet” is not the only romantic story out there, and doesn’t
fit Disney plots, because Romeo and Juliet always die in the end—every time. No
Disney film has ever had one of the lovers die—only parents and villains.
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say 83
Analogical: Define in relationship to something else
Term: Romance: Romance is the yearning heart united with its desire
Term: Main Audience: The main audience is the dupe of the story
Term: Plot: A plot is the satisfaction of uncertainty
Term: Young Adults: Young adults are old enough to step on the tracks, and
Term: Children: young enough not to see the train coming.
A child is an empty page
NOTE
See how analogical definition tends to encourage muddy thinking? That’s because
analogy is related to metaphor, and metaphor is an associational (illogical) compari-
son of things that are unlike one another.
For example, in the definition for “romance,” one gets wine-bottle language. Remem-
ber that in academic discourse, a “heart” would be a biological organ—it does not
yearn. It pumps blood.
The third definition for “plot” gives a writer some insight into what plots do: they
resolve uncertainty. That’s good to know. However, for the most part, analogical defi-
nitions tend to be traps that encourage imprecision in definition, instead of clarifica-
tion. Use this kind of definition with extreme caution.
Synonymous: Define a term by related words
Term: Romance: Romance is love
Term: Main Audience: A main audience is the viewers
Term: Plot: A plot is a story
Term: Young Adults: Young adults are older teens.
Term: Children: A child is a baby
NOTE
See how synonymous definition actually moves the writer away from precision? No
word is equal to another, or we would just have kept the original. Romance is not
just love: it’s a specific kind of idealized love between two persons who are of an age
appropriate to establish such a bond, and who are not related to one another.
84 REASON TO WRITE
In other words, synonyms just mean more words to define. Synonyms are so rarely
useful that it’s better to abandon them altogether when defining terms.
Negative: Define a term by what it is not
Term: Romance: Romance is not friendship
Term: Main Audience: A main audience is the not the unintended audience
Term: Plot: A plot is not a true history
Term: Young Adults: Young adults are not children
Term: Children: A child is not an adult
NOTE
See how negative definition can give you valuable information? For example,
keeping your question in mind, if children are the main audience of these Disney
films, wouldn’t it makes sense that they might value friendship over romantic
love? Or that children might want to watch a story that tells of the adventures of
characters their own age? Or that children might value adventure stories more
than romantic stories?
It’s also good to know that not all people who view a film are the ones for whom it
is intended. Parents may not go out on a date and choose to watch a Disney film,
but they’re certainly around when their kids watch Disney films. That makes parents
an audience that the speaker (Disney) did not necessarily intend, which is called a
secondary audience.
Etymological: Define a term by its origin
Term: Romance: Original definition: “verse narrative.”
Term: Main Audience: Audience: A hearing, related to a Judicial hearing
Term: Plot:
Plot: Story structure, related to: a secret plan, scheme, out-
Term: Young Adults: line, conspiracy
Adult: Grown up, related to adult-: debauch, corrupt, fal-
sify, debase (e.g.: adultery, adulterate)
Term: Children: Child: a young human, related to womb, pregnant, and
chield (servant)
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say 85
NOTE
Obviously, a foray into etymological definition can often be limited in its immediate
uses. However, it is sometimes a source of important information.
For example, the reason that the original meaning of “romance” was “verse narrative”
is because marriage was not thought of as an exclusive heterosexual union based
upon a primary emotional/sexual bonding before early Medieval times (11th Century
France), where it begins as a topic of poetry for the upper class. These tales of courtly
love were still not what we would think of as “romance,” however, and referred to
stories having to do more with honor than mutual attraction, for its own sake.
Chivalry love did establish a hetero-normative emotional connection, although no
word meaning “homosexuality” existed until the 1860’s.
The concept of an exclusive and unique emotional bond does not even begin to form until
the 17th century, and coincides roughly with the rise of the novel as a form of literature.
Romanticism introduces both: 1) the idea of a man or woman, by himself or herself,
as incomplete, without a romantic partner of the opposite gender, and; 2) the idea of
men and women, in relationship, as inherently antagonistic to one another.
It would certainly be important to note that the modern notion of heterosexual
“romantic love,” as we understand it—that is, as an emotional bond central to an
individual’s life experience—is believed to have originated in the late 19th/early
20th century.
Stipulative: Define a term in a way that stipulates a clear definition within the
context of your writing, and in relationship to your question.
Term: Romance: The idealization and expressions of the emotions that
attend a specific pairing between unrelated adults, and
that is often depicted as resulting in marriage.
Term: Main Audience: The specific type of person to whom a message is targeted.
Term: Plot: The introduction and resolution of the main conflict in
the story.
Term: Young Adults: A human roughly between the age of 16 and 21.
Term: Children: A human roughly between the age of newborn and 12
years of age.
86 REASON TO WRITE
NOTE
The opportunity to have control over what one means by a given word in a stipula-
tive definition can be a relief once you realize how many different ways there are to
define a word. The nice thing about stipulating your definition is that, as long as it is
a reasonable definition, it allows you to tailor the definition both to what you mean,
and to what your question needs, in order to answer it.
STEP 6
Rewrite your critical question, in which you stipulate each of your terms/phrases.
The result will be lengthy, but will help you to situate your question both within a
context, and to help you, as writer, to have a solid sense of what, exactly, you are ask-
ing. Condense, when you can, without losing the specifics.
Original:
Why is the main plot of Disney films about a romance between young adults, when children
are its main audience?
Delimitation of Question:
Why is the main plot of most, but not all, full-length Disney animated films, made between
1930 and 2000, in the United States, about romance between young adults, when the main
audience is children?
With Stipulative Definition:
Why is the main issue to be resolved, in most, but not all, full-length Disney animated
films, made between 1930 and 2000, in the United States, about the emotions that attend an
exclusive pairing between unrelated young adults between the ages of 16–21, often depicted
as resulting in marriage, when the specific type of person to whom the message is targeted is
between the age of newborn to 12 years old?
7 the shortcut
O nce one understands the general ideas behind these exercises, one can skip a
portion of the long process of going through every step each time one writes
a paper. Here is a basic outline of how to learn to think about a question, using the
skills in those exercises.
Original question: “How has technology changed human social interaction?”
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say 87
DELIMITATION
Since I can’t answer that question for all time, I’ll make it: “modern” technology.
Since I can’t answer that question for all people/places, I’ll make it “in the United
States.”
STIPULATE TERMS
modern
I will define my timeframe as beginning with the routine use of the personal computer.
technology
I will define it as both:
1. an object designed or re-purposed in order to allow the performance of a
specific action
2. the use of such an object to aid the flow of people, goods, and information
changed
I will define this as altered from a previous state—neither good nor bad, just different
human social interaction
I will define this as purposeful verbal and non-verbal communication between two or
more speakers, even if the speaker is not present at the time of transmission
3. REFINE QUESTION
The following illustrates what happens when one begins to ask: Who? What? Where?
How? When? Why? I would begin to map specifics within the question that lead to
more refined areas of inquiry. I may not follow every link—just one’s that I find of
interest.
88 REASON TO WRITE
With this map, I haven’t even scratched the surface of my original question. However,
I don’t have dig that deep before more specific questions start to arise, across various
disciplines and areas of inquiry:
Public Policy What factors impact upon the possibility of public
transportation as viable transportation for the majority of
workers in the United States?
Science How has paternity testing changed the definition of
parenthood?
Sociology What is the purpose of technology in relationship to mak-
ing the life of individuals easier, and to what degree does it
achieve that goal?
Psychology What tensions are caused in virtual reality between private
and public selves?
Business What strategies are used to control consumer experience
within retail space?
Education In what ways does standardized testing serve as both a defi-
nition of, and also a measure of, learning?
Visual Studies How does advertising sell mass-produced objects based
upon an image of individuality?
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say 89
SECTION II
ANALYSIS
ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE
ARRANGEMENT
91
Chapter 5
Performing analysis
1 94TWO PRINCIPLES OF ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 99OPINIONS, FACTS, AND ANALYSIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 TYPES OF ANALYSIS: GENERAL 101ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 106ANALYSIS AND ROLLER SKATING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 109FORMALIST ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6 112RHETORICAL ANALYSIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7 114REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8 116PERFORMING ANALYSIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
STEP 4 ANALYSIS GUIDE, OR HOW TO ROLLER SKATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Example Analysis Guide 119. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
93
1 two principles to analysis
O nce a writer has established and refined a critical question, the next step is
to begin to answer that question. In many cases, however, when a person is
confronted with a question, there is a certain tendency to answer that question right
away—even if the person who answers is not sure that the answer being offered is
actually true, or is simply a guess. In other words, when it comes to answers, people
tend to be in a hurry.
Being in a hurry makes a short paper and a shallow answer. Snap judgments sum up
an issue and make an instant decision: right/wrong, good/bad, loved it/hated it. It
will cause the writer to draw conclusions before the writer has really found out what
is going on.
A question worth asking has to be answered carefully, and that means the writer has
got to suspend judgment long enough to perform a thoughtful analysis. This analysis
will eventually serve as the body of the essay; it provides the step-by-step chain of
reasoning by which a writer outlines his or her conclusions, to a reader. A part of
critical thinking is recognizing that analysis takes time. If it didn’t, everyone would
have all the answers, right away.
The first answer that pops into one’s mind is probably not the best answer, because
we draw knee-jerk conclusions from that part of our evaluative cognitive processes
that stores prejudgments and cultural ideology. The impulse to answer a question
right away is exactly what a writer must resist, in this case.
In the relationship between critical thinking and analysis, there are two fundamental
principles to follow, and they are counterintuitive:
• All Analysis Begins with the Obvious
This is probably the single most important principle to follow when performing
analysis on a question. Analysis is painstaking and exhaustive, and the answer
to a given question lies not in searching for broad truths, but in discovery of
patterns that arise from breaking down the object of analysis into its constitu-
ent parts. One should begin with the most obvious elements. This means that:
1) One must pretend that there is no such thing as the obvious; 2) One must
proceed as if nothing is without significance.
Analysis of detail is what make critical thinking look like a magic trick. For
any single detail that we take for granted, or dismiss as a given, or ignore, we
94 REASON TO WRITE
lose an opportunity for insight. The most critically cogent analyses occur not
because the writer found some obscure fact that others missed. Rather, it is
because most people routinely miss the obvious.
• The Best Analysis is done by Extra-Terrestrials
A vital part of critical thinking as it applies to analysis is integrating the notion
of the need to work around what you think you already know. To really perform
analysis, one must readjust one’s pattern of thinking and approach a question
with an attitude of deliberate ignorance, as if one has never encountered it
before. One must pretend one doesn’t understand a darned thing about it.
This is a critical thinking tool that gen- DEFINITION
erates what is called a defamiliarization
effect. Answers to questions often only defamiliarization effect: from
come after we bypass the filters we have in art and literary theory, a moment
place that offer easily accessible answers. In of sudden insight created by the
other words, good critical writers look at denaturalization of a common
a question as if they just stepped off of the experience or typical way of
Mothership. understanding something.
Of course, offering such general principles are fine, in theory, but without an exam-
ple, they to end up filed in our brains somewhere under:
“I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.”
The previous statement could stand in as an example of an effect of defamiliariza-
tion, because it combines two idiomatic sayings.
The first is “to burn one’s bridges,” meaning: to act in a way that produces conse-
quences one cannot undo.
The second is “to cross that bridge when one comes to it,” meaning: to delay working
through an issue or idea until it becomes a matter of urgency.
The combination of the two could mean, then: “To delay understanding until that
delay cannot be undone.”
Therefore, in the interest of arguing for delay in coming to an answer when perform-
ing analysis, and in the interest of arguing against delay in understanding why, a bet-
ter example would be one in which something familiar would be presented as if one
did not already understand it.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 95
The following example is drawn from philosopher Jacques Derrida, concerning what
he has to say about something as simple and straightforward as a gift. So, what are
the three most obvious things that can be said, in general, about a gift? They could be:
• A gift is an object or service transferred from one person to another…
• …with no expectation of anything in return, such as payment or compensation…
• …often meant to convey affection
In other words, most people, if asked the question: “What is a gift?” would imme-
diately offer the answer: “Usually, it’s something you give to someone else, for free,
most of the time because you are fond of that person.”
If one were to perform analysis on this familiar way of understanding what a gift is,
one might come to a different series of conclusions regarding what we think we know
about a gift. To begin to create a defamiliarization effect in relationship to what we
think we know about a gift, imagine the following situation:
You give a gift to your friend. Without explanation, your friend takes it
and immediately turns around and walks away.
What kind of reaction is this most likely to produce in the one who gives the gift?
One would anticipate that most people would feel, at the very least, hurt, if not angry.
That is because we all know, if we slow down and think about it, that we actually do
expect something in return for a gift, even if it is an expression of gratitude. This
implies that gifts are not, in fact, something that one gives away for free, but rather
something for which one expects something, in return.
Of course, saying “thank you” hardly seems like equal compensation for goods or
services. However, that is because we have not yet dealt with the issue of receiving a
gift, and, in doing so, incurring debt. Here is another situation:
You approach your neighbor to ask if she can watch your dog while you
spend a few days out of town. She cheerfully agrees to do so. You spend
the time away, and return to find your dog well-fed, exercised, groomed,
and in good spirits. You thank her.
A month later, your neighbor calls to say that her regular dog sitter is
ill, and she has plans to go out of town for over the weekend. She could
cancel, but asks if you would mind taking care of her dog while she is
away. You tell her you have plans to go to a new restaurant in town, and
regretfully and politely refuse.
96 REASON TO WRITE
Again, the question becomes: what would be the anticipated reaction in such a
scenario? If gifts are given without expectation of return, then you would not feel
guilty in refusing, and your neighbor would not feel resentment at your refusal. Yet
the more likely reaction would be one of guilt, on the one hand, and resentment, on
the other. Nobody is going to kneecap anyone, but these are both signs of a debt that
has not been honored.
What this means, then, is not only that we expect others to say “thank you” when
we give them something, but also that the act of saying “thank you” usually trans-
lates roughly into: “I owe you, and you can collect at your leisure.” Here is another
situation:
It is graduation day, and two students who have spent some time
together outside of class meet at the ceremony. Student 1 gives student 2
a concert t-shirt from a band they both like. Student 2 gives Student 1
a new sportscar.
Even if Student 2 were wealthy enough to give new cars away, at random, the gift
creates a radically unequal debt, one that Student 1 would probably find difficult to
repay.
People foolish enough to gift cars to casual acquaintances would probably find that,
in a shallow relationship, the recipient may be perfectly willing to drive away in her
or his new car, and never look back. However, the gift would still be perceived as
radically inappropriate. It would probably signal either an emotional attachment that
is inappropriately excessive and probably unreturned, or a sign of mental imbalance.
If a relationship is not a deep relationship (as between spouses, or family members),
people can be suspicious of extravagant gifts, and even outright refuse them, for fear
of incurring gift-debt they cannot repay. They may be apprehensive that they would
be asked to repay in a way that they would otherwise not willingly choose.
Even in a deep relationship, such as a close friendship, routine unequal gift-giving can
create an interpersonal crisis, especially if one person in the relationship is capable of
giving gifts of greater monetary value than the other, and actually does so. Whether
deep or shallow, casual or obligatory, gift-giving usually must be precisely balanced,
as in the following situation:
Anna has very recently become casual friends with someone who she
knows will also be celebrating Christmas, which is in a week or two. She
is in a dilemma: If she gives her new friend a gift, and the new friend
does not give her a gift, she could be embarrassed, having overstated the
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 97
depth of the new friendship. If she does not give a gift, and her friend
offers one, she could be embarrassed, and embarrass her new friend,
having understated the potential depth of the friendship. So, like many
people, she will be just anxious enough to purchase a small gift, and put
it away, to present at the appropriate time, or not…just in case.
According to our original understanding of a gift, none of this makes sense. Are
we not free to give whatever we want, of whatever value, without people finding us
strange, or resenting us, if they are unable to give something of the same value in
exchange? Are we not free to take a gift, and not “owe” its value, in return? Evidently,
this is not the case. When words such as debt and exchange enter into the valuation of
a gift, one is forced to face the idea of the gift as one that participates in an economy.
This, in turn, raises the immediate question: If there is actually an economy to a gift,
what’s the difference between a gift, and approaching a stranger standing behind a
counter at the store to exchange your $1.50 for a candy bar?
In answer, one could say that a gift is involved in an economy of altruistic reciprocity.
These are the terms one finds anthropologists using to describe the finely balanced
social practices that involve the “free” transfer of goods or services that are actually
carefully balanced exchanges dictated by unspoken social rules.
In anthropological textbooks, description of such reciprocal exchanges tend to sound
as if those who engage in such practices are fully consciously of doing so, and even
in a way that is coldly calculating. In this way, one can recognize that the descrip-
tion of such an economy, from the outside, differs radically from what it feels like to
participate in such an economy, from the inside.
One could thus point out that this economy differs from market exchange because,
while objects or services are exchanged, those objects or services really stand in for
something else. They signal a quantity of emotional attachment. One gifts because
one cares, and one is given gifts because one is cared for. In the exchange, one is
reassured concerning the mutuality of the amount of caring by the equal exchange
of the goods or services, which are actually secondary to the message of reciprocal
emotional attachment.
In this way, through analysis, our understanding of a gift has altered from the one
with which most of us were familiar. In becoming unfamiliar, we learn things about
ourselves, and about gifts, about how the value of an object can indicate the depth of a
feeling, and that description of cultures differs from the unconscious and emotionally
charged participation in cultural practices by the persons within that culture.
98 REASON TO WRITE
Even with this new understanding, this analysis still leaves important questions
unanswered, such as:
• Is there such a thing as a “gift” as we originally conceived it-one that is really
“free”?
• Can we escape this economy of a gift?
• What if we give anonymously, or for charity? Does the satisfaction we receive,
from doing so, compensate us?
• Would we escape this economy if we could forget that we had given a gift, and/
or if we could ensure the recipient would forget? Would there be a point to giv-
ing, at all, if we were able to do so?
• Why do we all pretend there is no economy? Isn’t that what happens when
someone thanks us for a gift, and we respond with something like: “It’s noth-
ing,” or: “Forget about it”?
2 opinions, facts, and analysis
T o get to the hands-on “how to” of analysis that yields insights, one must also get
through a second obstacle: the common misunderstanding that there are only
two ways to produce conclusion: to offer opinions, or to cite facts found in secondary
source material.
As should be clear, by now, an opinion, by definition, is based upon a subjective
point of view, and relies upon such things as unsubstantiated taste or preference.
The answer that someone will provide to a question, if opinion is being solicited, will
depend entirely upon whom one asks. The statement “Blue is the prettiest color” is
a statement of opinion, offered in response to the question: “What is the prettiest
color?”
This question can be answered in many ways, because the truth is based upon
subjective experience. This is why there is no place for opinion in the academic essay,
which does not recognize such truth as valid in the context of knowledge acquisition.
A fact appears, at first, to be the only other option, because it serves as the opposite
of opinion. A secondary-source fact is a statement that has already been established
as verified by the rules that determine truth and validity within a given academic
discourse.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 99
A fact may be a statement such as: “The perception of color is caused by the refraction
of light,” offered in response to the question: “What causes the perception of color?”
The library is full of established facts.
EVER WONDERED? A fact can also be common knowledge (e.g.: planets
are spherical). If it is not common knowledge, an
Common vs. Specialized established fact is the product of someone else’s
Knowledge: This is a difficult rule published thinking and exploration on a ques-
to understand, because it depends tion. Established facts make up secondary source
upon both who is writing, and also material for a writer: the way in which others have
to whom one is writing. looked at the same question that the writer is
addressing.
In an undergraduate paper, written
for an undergraduate journal, any This does lead some students to believe that, given
specialized term in any given disci- that opinion is not an option for academic writing,
plinary field falls under specialized their task is to answer a question by:
knowledge, and must be defined,
and the source identified, even if 1. Assembling together, through secondary
the student, and/or students in source research, as many established facts
general, would probably recognize as possible that answer their question
the term.
2. Reassembling those facts into an essay form that reflects other people’s
answers to the student’s question.
This is not an academic essay, or an academic research paper. It is a book report.
A book report is designed to reflect what the student has learned about a given
subject, from other writers. An academic essay is designed to reflect what the student
has to teach other people about what the student has come to understand.
The idea that academic writing is based on either opinion, or facts creates a binary.
Academic writing does not draw primarily on common knowledge or published
secondary source material, and it is never drawn from opinion.
DEFINITION The most fundamental way that people reason
through a question, and establish the truth of the
analysis: the act of breaking an matter, and then write about it, is analysis. Analy-
object/idea/question/issue down, sis is a form of reasoning, and not a statement of
into constituent parts, for the opinion. Academic writing always relies primarily
purpose of gaining knowledge on the writer’s own analysis to move a question,
about it. through a logical progression, to an answer.
Academic writers may use secondary sources for a variety of purposes—to define
terms, to show another writer to be in error, to reorient a question, to support a
100 REASON TO WRITE
smaller point, or just to situate the context of the question—but never, ever, for the
purpose of answering the primary question. That wheel has already been invented.
One cannot claim the ideas of others as one’s own; it is one of the subtlest forms of
plagiarism.
3 types of analysis: general analysis
I n this chapter, we will cover the steps of general analysis, as well as two specific
types of general analysis: Formalist Analysis, and Rhetorical Analysis.
People usually already know that, in general, analysis has nothing to do with facts
memorized, and everything to do with acquiring a specific proficiency. While the
following would be simplified, let’s say that a scholar has a question. That question is:
What force causes many objects to fall downward
when dropped from a height?
Since Newton, and others, have already been so kind as to look into this question for
us, we know that the answer to this question is, in part: “gravity.”
Let’s imagine, however, that we don’t yet know the answer to the question: What
force causes many objects to fall downward? Here’s how we would use analysis to
begin to answer that question.
Analysis begins with two steps, often called a demonstration.
Step 1: Ask a question based upon an observation
Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples or examples
Thus, our scientist may begin with the following:
Step 1: Many objects fall downward when dropped. What force causes these
objects to fall downward?
Step 2: Rocks, eggs, cannon balls, and vases will fall downward when dropped
from a height.
While these are important first steps to analysis, the analysis is, at this point, incom-
plete. The question as to what forces causes this downward motion has been posed,
but has not yet been answered. This is a part of the problem with the five-paragraph
form, which is drawn from demonstration: a statement of observation (objects fall
downward) followed by examples that are treated as “proofs” (rocks, eggs, cannon
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 101
balls, and vases fall downward), followed by a repetition of the initial observation
(objects fall downward).
In other words, anyone can observe that objects tend to fall downward from a height,
and list some examples of objects doing so. It still doesn’t answer the question of what
force causes them to do so—and it never will.
This formula is incomplete without an answer to the question posed, which is why
these objects fall downward. Because the question is ignored, even though examples
are given, it is not a complete analysis.
What our scientists needs, at this point, are the next steps to analysis:
DEFINITION Step 3: Gather details, or data
pattern: a discernable combina- Step 4: Identify patterns within those details or
tion of qualities that form a kind data
of relationship between two or
more elements, including physical, Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns
temporal, or spatial relationships.
Our scientist, then, might go through the follow-
ing steps:
Step 3: Beginning with the most obvious, the scientist will gather a lot of
details—or data—regarding objects dropped from a height (whether
they fall downward, or not).
Step 4: Once the scientist has acquired enough detail, beginning with the
most obvious, he or she will examine that detail and begin to look for
patterns within that detail.
Step 5: Each pattern that the scientist finds will suggest a certain conclusion.
As each pattern leads to a conclusion, the scientist: 1) gathers true
information about this force; 2) recognizes additional patterns that
lead to further conclusions.
Thus, in gathering detail, certain patterns will suggest themselves, and those patterns
will lead to other questions, such as:
• Why don’t birds fall out of the sky?
• Why do boats float miles above the ground when in water, but would fall
downward if at such a height, on land?
• Do all objects drop at the same speed?
102 REASON TO WRITE
• At what point does an object that is thrown upward begin to fall downward?
• When I pick an object up, and it is heavy, is that related to this force?
• If the Earth is round, are objects moving downward, really, or toward a center?
Why is this different?
• Is rain being pulled downward by this force? Why isn’t wind pulled downward?
• Is this force something intrinsic to the object, or is it a result of a relationship
between one object, and another object?
While anyone with the most basic knowledge of physics would know the answer
to these questions, what the list illustrates is that questions often lead to questions.
Some people complain that, at the center of a critical question, there often seem to
be simply a whole lot more questions.
There is a reason for this. Analysis is a process whereby one answers a question by
breaking it up into manageable parts. Analysis produces a lot of questions, simply
because analysis requires a lot of answers in order to get to the truth. The element of
critical thinking, as it applies to analysis, is to take care to do the steps slowly, exhaus-
tively, and in order.
Example:
One writing student1 asked the question:
What are some elements that highly rated Reality TV shows have
in common that might explain the appeal of the genre?
She became interested in the genre because, in making it unfamiliar, she noted that
reality TV seemed to be a hybrid of three different genres: the documentary, the
game show, and the drama.
To initiate her analysis, this student began to gather information, beginning with the
most obvious.
1. In the first part of her analysis, she went through a process of delimitation.
There were many Reality TV shows, and she couldn’t look at all of them. She
didn’t want to pick at random. So, she chose to limited her analysis to the
twenty-five most popular Reality TV shows.
1 Writing 50 (Writing and Research). Winter 2010. UCSB.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 103
2. Once she had established her samples in these top twenty-five shows,
she looked for the five most obvious pieces of information she needed to
establish, in relationship to her question:
• The name of the show
• The television network
• The date the show first aired
• The show’s current ratings
• How many seasons the show had run
3. Her second set of details, of which the following is an abbreviated list,
allowed her to begin to establish patterns among details, and included details
gathered from such questions as:
• What advertising was typically aired during the course of a given show?
• Did the show involve audience involvement, and, if so, to what degree, and
in what form?
• If it did do so, in what way did the show engage in a process of eliminating
contestants? Who had control of how contestants were eliminated?
• If an incentive was offered, what incentives were offered to the contestants,
including cash prizes?
• Did the show fall into a category involved fantastical situations (stranded
on an island) or “everyday” situations (cameras placed in a room), or a
mixture of both?
• Did the show function by placing participants in competition with one
another, or in a relationship of cooperation, or both, and in what way?
• What specific kind of relationship, if any, did the show place into conflict,
including: between strangers; between teams; among teammates; in
romantic relationships; in friendship; in family relationships?
• Was the show filmed on a stage set, or at a specific location? How
important was that location, to the show?
• Did participant involvement in the show rely primarily on skill, or on luck?
If skill, what skill was called for?
104 REASON TO WRITE
From this process, this student gathered a great deal of insight regarding the appeal
of top Reality TV shows.
Another student became interested in the way in which the physical topography of a
university could affect the potential interactions between three groups, those groups
being: 1) students; 2) the university, including faculty; 3) the community, composed
of people living in that community.2
This student limited her analysis to three campuses that were very similar in other
ways (each from the University of California), but had radically different topogra-
phies that created a very different spatial configuration between these groups. The
three campuses were:
University of California Santa Barbara
University of California Santa Cruz
University of California Berkeley Fig. 2. Student Portfolio.
While she would eventually look at a
limited range of secondary sources for
other variables, such as undergraduate/
graduate student ratio, her initial strat-
egy for accessing the physical topography
of these relationships involved drawing
herself a visual. She assigned a key in
order to indicate the typical spatial rela-
tionships between students housing and
communal areas (squares), campus and
faculty areas (circles) and the community
(triangles) in which the university was
located.
In the most general terms, then, analysis
involves training in the ability to perform
the following series of actions, until the
question is answered:
Step 1: Ask a question based upon an observation
Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples
2 Writing 50. Winter 2010. UCSB.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 105
Step 3: Gather details, or data, from those specifics
Step 4: Identify patterns within those details or data
Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns
These five basic steps to analysis apply, across disciplines, and in real-world situations.
They work whether one is trying to understand a natural law, or perform an analysis
of a sample in a laboratory, or interpret a poem, or solve a case, or examine an archeo-
logical dig, or understand a work of art, or conduct a psychological experiment, etc.
4 analysis and roller skating
“Knowledge is not made for understanding. It is made for cutting.”
—Michel Foucault
T he difficult thing about analysis is that it’s like trying to explain how to use one’s
muscles to roller skate—it’s a complex act that people who roller skate just kind
of learn to do. Analysis may seem like some sophisticated academic skill, but, in
fact, we walk around doing complex analysis all the time. We perform analyses daily
because we are reasoning beings.
Analysis is fundamental to reasoning. We perform analysis on a daily basis about peo-
ple and situations, by establishing criteria through which we can break down infor-
mation that we receive, compare it to previous experience and ways of understanding,
identify patterns from detail that we observe, and draw conclusions, often without
doing so consciously.
Patterns are important. The most basic patterns that we observe in detail are those
that allow comparison and categorization: likeness; difference; repetition; contrast.
These patterns are so pervasive to human experience that they function even in the
very language that we use.
Let’s take something as basic as the word “tree.” We would probably agree that no two
trees are exactly alike. We would also probably agree that an Oak, and a Spruce, and a
Pine, and a Bonsai are not alike, either. Yet all of these things in the world are called,
in English, “trees.”
Yet how can things that are so different all be called the same thing? When we say or
write the word “tree,” we often assume that we are referring to those leafy green tall
106 REASON TO WRITE
things out there in the world, even if they do differ from one another. Yet that is not
quite accurate.
When one uses the word “tree,” one is referring not to those green leafy things in the
world, but rather to something called a concept. A concept is a category of things in
the world. One is not referring to something in the world. Rather, one is referring to
a concept of “tree-ness”:
“tree-ness” Living, but not an
animal, a kind of
plant, often grows
high off of ground,
often has a long
trunk and lateral
branches…
Language is made up of concepts because we draw distinctions between things that
are alike, and things that are not alike, according to specific, concrete details.
A specific tree fits into our concept of “tree-ness” because it has a lot of important
qualities that are alike, even if it has a few that are not alike. These qualities make up
categories through which we order our perception of the world, and how we speak of
it. “Trees,” for example, fit into the larger category of “things that are living.”
It is true that “tree-ness” may be like a “rock-ness,” because they both may have hard
surfaces upon which one could sit. That’s a pattern. However, because we care about
much more than just potential seats, when trying to make sense of the world, the
pattern is just not a very important one.
We tend to pay attention to patterns that are important to us. Patterns form rules,
and repetitions, and regularities, Without going too deep down the rabbit hole, one
can also think about the following:
• A tree is a plant, but a “plant” is just another concept that includes other things
such as bushes, weeds, grasses, vegetables, fruits, etc.
• This means that concepts are both associative—connected—and also placed
within a taxonomy (types and subtypes). Thus, one can say: “All trees are
plants,” but one cannot say: “All plants are trees.”
• We can stretch the concept of “tree-ness” into the icon, wherein we draw a
tree, and point to the drawing and say: “That’s a tree,” but it would be a draw-
ing, and not a tree.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 107
• We can stretch the concept of “tree” into analogy, and speak of a “family tree,”
which is definitely not a plant.
Language is flexible because it is not made of the stuff of the world; it is formed in
our heads as systems of patterns and categories that allow us to order what would
otherwise be chaotic.
This cluster of similarities and differences becomes a conceptual category to which
things in the world either fit (“It’s a tree!”), or don’t fit (“Oh, it’s just a rock”). For as
long as a given thing we encounter in the world fits our concept of “tree-ness,” then
we can accept that the leafy thing (over there) is both completely unique (no tree is
like any other tree), and also, at the same time, simply a “tree,” just like any other.
To really get to this idea, one could say that any tree in the word is what one could call
“lack-full.” It is lacking in that no single tree fully lives up to its concept—it would be
very difficult to find The Tree. Yet even if no tree is The Tree, each tree in the world is
also fully described by the concept, because it is not anything but a tree.
Without these conceptual patterns, every tall leafy thing we encountered would have
to be considered a different thing, and we’d have to come up with a different name for
each and every single one. That would be confusing, not to mention time-consuming.
However, we’re saved from such a fate because we are already reasoning, analyti-
cal beings. We already break things down into their constituent elements, and find
patterns within and between those elements (things with bark, leaves, stems, etc.)
to organize the world. In other words, analysis is not a skill that we have to learn in
school; we acquire it very early.
Thinking, which includes analysis, is an activity in which we engage, whether we are
writing, or not. However, writing involves a self-conscious act of analysis. To write
is to follow the steps of analysis, in order to recognize those patterns that allow us to
draw conclusions about the world. Critical thinking is paying attention to how we do
that process.
There are different kinds of analysis, each yielding its own tools for performing the
steps, but the general steps are always the same: Ask a question; Gather details;
Establish patterns; Draw conclusions. We do this every day. The analytical skill we
need, in order to think critically in employing analysis, and write effectively, is the
ability to do these steps on purpose.
108 REASON TO WRITE
5 formalist analysis
A formalist analysis can be applied to different DEFINITION
questions, but is especially effective in the
analysis of visual images, such as: 1) A work of art, visual field: from visual studies,
or; 2) Visual images combined with text, such as an indicates a two-dimensional area
advertisement, or; 3) Sequential images, such as in which elements have been
comics or film. Formalist analysis is a nice way to manipulated in order to create
introduce analysis, because the detail is available a visual effect (e.g.: a painting, a
in one place: the image at which one is directing photograph, an advertisement).
one’s attention. This area is called the visual field. This should not be confused with
field of vision, which indicates all
Because a given visual field is limited, it serves as that a single hypothetical viewer
an easier example for beginning to understand the would be able to see, from a given
way that analysis functions. position.
SAMPLE FORMALIST ANALYSIS
In “The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments,” J. Anthony Blair performs a
formalist analysis in order to answer the question: “Do Images Argue?” We know that
images can be persuasive; what Blair wants to know is if there can be a translation
between visual persuasion and formal argumentation in language. In other words:
Can the persuasive quality of an image be called an argument if it can be translated
into written premises and a conclusion?
As a part of that essay, Blair performs a formalist analysis of an advertisement for a
United Colors of Benetton Clothing® advertisement, in light of the question:
How does this image attempt to persuade its audience?
In dealing with images, there are analytical tools that one can use. A very sophis-
ticated formalist analysis might take into account visual elements such as balance,
composition, contrast, depth of field, hue, color, etc. However, one does not have to
go so deeply into such specialized knowledge to simply pay attention to the image at
which one is looking.
At one point, Blair concentrates his attention upon the visual field of a single
advertisement from Benneton Clothing Company®, and begins his analysis of that
image.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 109
Vertical Axis Gather Detail
Horizontal Axis Blair begins by making a series of
Logo “obvious” observations in which he pays
sharp attention to the details of the
advertisement:
Fig. 3. G. Vallis. Illustration inspired by • There are two figures within the
United Colors of Benetton® advertise- advertisement that mirror one
ment “Handcuffs.” another. One could draw a vertical
line down the center of this image,
and each side would basically
match
• By far, the most noticeable difference between these mirrored image is that
the one hand in the advertisement is that of a black man, and the other of a
white man
• The horizontal element that links the two mirrored images by crossing the
center of the visual field is one of handcuffs
• Both men are casually well-dressed in similar clothing
Recognize Patterns/Draws Conclusions:
From gathering detail, Blair notes patterns in relationship to that detail.
Pattern: The black-and-white image emphasizes that the mirrored images are
the same in almost all ways, including clothing, stance, positioning
of hands, lack of jewelry or other indicator of difference
Conclusion 1: The similarity of the mirrored images indicates that the relationship
between the two figures is central to the message of the advertisement
Conclusion 2: A central part of that message is the lack of difference between these
two men
Pattern: The lack of difference emphasizes the one important difference: one
of the men depicted is black, and the other is depicted as white
Conclusion 3: The message being conveyed regarding the relationship between
these two figures is one that both indicates a lack of difference
110 REASON TO WRITE
between these two figures, and emphasizes a single difference,
specifically in regard to race
Pattern: The element that links the two mirror images is one of handcuffs
Conclusion 4: Because it links the two mirror images, the handcuffs describe the
relationship between these figures
Conclusion 5: Handcuffs carry negative associations such as prison, inability to
escape, and oppression. Those associations are meant to describe
something about the relationship between these two figures
Pattern: Neither figure is depicted as taking more space within the visual field,
or as having control over the handcuffs, or as significantly taller, or in
any way dominant over the other
Conclusion 6: The associations that attend the handcuffs apply to both men,
equally. This is not something one man is doing to the other, but a
relationship in which both are trapped
Conclusion 7: Because the handcuffs indicate both a relationship and powerless-
ness, the relationship is involuntary, on both sides
This is how Blair not only draws his conclusions, but also supports those conclusions,
for the reader, using concrete details from his analysis. In drawing those conclusions,
he reassembles the details in order to show what he has found. He identifies the
advertisement as one that delivers a series of messages:
• “We are locked together, whites and blacks”
• “There is no escaping our condition together in the country and the world; we
are the prisoners of our own prejudices.”
• “The identical clothing suggests equality”; “Freedom for either one entails
freedom for the other”
• “We are joined together”; “We are prisoners of our attitudes”
• “Racism is unjustified and should be ended” (8)
The conclusions that Blair draws from the detail of the advertisement seem reason-
able because anyone looking at the advertisement will see them. They are drawn from
paying attention to the details of the obvious.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 111
If the image were a piece of art, and not an advertisement, Blair’s analysis might end
there. However, this is an advertisement, and therefore Blair utilizes a different ana-
lytical strategy to continue: a rhetorical analysis.
6 rhetorical analysis
A rhetorical analysis places a given communication within the context of the ele-
ments that govern its communication. In rhetoric, there are five basic elements
that qualify something as a communication:
A speaker (one who sends a message)
An audience (one who receives a message)
A message (what is being transmitted)
An intention (the purpose of that transmission)
A vehicle (the form that message takes)
These elements do not have to be physically present. A speaker of an advertisement
could be a corporation. An audience of a billboard on the freeway could be drivers on
the road. A speaker is the name for the narrator of a book one is reading, and when
one reads that book, one is the audience.
A great deal of information can be gained from rhetorical analysis, because it exposes
the underlying ideology of a given communication.
SAMPLE RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Because Blair remains conscious of the rhetorical situation in which this image oper-
ates, in the world, he also performs a rhetorical analysis.
If the image that Blair analyzes were a political poster designed to persuade people
regarding the importance of ending racism, one would expect to see the following, in
a rhetorical analysis:
Speaker: Group of political activists
Audience: The general public (i.e.: on a street)
112 REASON TO WRITE
Message: “Racial prejudice should be ended”
Intention:
To persuade people that racial prejudice should be
Vehicle: ended
A public context (e.g.: a billboard)
However, since the image that Blair analyses is, instead, an advertisement for Benet-
ton Clothing®, one would expect to find the following:
Speaker: United Colors of Benetton Clothing Company®
Audience: Middle-class consumers
Message: “Benetton Clothing® is good/fashionable/valuable”
Intention: To sell Benetton Clothing®
Vehicle: Various
In his rhetorical analysis, however, Blair does not find either of these to be the case.
Instead, he establishes the following:
Speaker: United Colors of Benetton Clothing Company®
Audience: Upper middle-class, predominantly white, predominantly
liberal, readership of the New Yorker, where the advertise-
ment appeared
Message: “Racial prejudice should be ended”
Intention: To sell Benetton Clothing®
Vehicle: Advertisement in a magazine
In performing this analysis, Blair notes important patterns that do not fit, and draws
conclusions from those patterns. Thus, he notes the following discrepancies, as a
result of that rhetorical analysis:
• The audience is a primarily upper middle-class white liberal readership, which
excludes one of the figures depicted within the advertisement
• The intention of the sender (to sell Benetton Clothing®) is fundamentally
unrelated to the message (“Racial prejudice should be ended”)
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 113
Blair returns these analyses to his initial question, which was:
How does this image attempt to persuade its audience?
His answer is the following:
They [Benetton the clothing company] supply no [direct] reasons for
buying the product or patronizing the company. …What the ad does
is identify Benetton with the self-image of the racial attitudes held by
The New Yorker reader. …Benetton is conveying the message, “We share
your color-blind ideals, your opposition to racism, and your recognition
of the problems facing the ideal of blacks and whites living in harmony,
and your desire to see them overcome” (23)
In other words, the advertisement attempts to persuade its audience not by mak-
ing an argument for some special quality about the clothing, itself, but precisely by
avoiding making that argument.
The advertisement appeals to its readership, instead, by creating an association
between social values commonly held by that readership, and the product that is
being sold, even though the two are not related. That there is no relationship is obvi-
ous, but not immediately apparent, unless one analyzes the image in a way that
employs critical thinking.
Blair’s essay addresses a larger question of the difference between persuasion and
argumentation, within visual images. This single reading is a part of his answer to
that question. In this way, observations drawn from individual analyses can be orga-
nized in such a way as to build a reasonable series of conclusions that lead to an
answer to a larger question.
Wherever there is detail, analysis can be performed—in any discipline, with any
material. What is requires is recognizing that no detail is unimportant.
7 review
CHAPTER REVIEW
The information to be taken from this chapter is that there are three important things
to remember when performing analysis: slow down; begin with the obvious; do not
take anything for granted. Analysis is the primary tool for moving a question to an
answer, in academic writing, and not opinion, or misuse of secondary sources to reit-
erate established knowledge.
114 REASON TO WRITE
Analysis is a process of breaking something down into its constituent parts, and is
based upon five specific steps:
Step 1: Ask a question based upon an observation
Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples
Step 3: Gather details, or data, from those specifics
Step 4: Identify patterns within those details or data
Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns
We do analysis all the time; critical thinking offers specific tools regarding how to do
analysis self-consciously, so that one can draw conclusions that are valid.
Although analysis always generally follows these steps, there are specific types of
analyses that are especially useful for the analysis of such things as a visual image
(formalist analysis) or a communication situation (rhetorical analysis).
VOCABULARY REVIEW
analysis
The act of breaking an object/idea/issue down, into constituent parts, for the
purpose of gaining knowledge about that object/idea/issue
defamiliarization effect
From art and literary theory, a moment of sudden insight created by the
denaturalization of a common experience or typical way of understanding
something
pattern
A discernable combination of qualities that form a kind of relationship between
two or more elements, including physical, temporal, or spatial elements or
relationships
GRAMMAR REVIEW
Common Knowledge vs. Specialized Knowledge:
This is a difficult rule to understand, because it depends upon both who is writing,
and also to whom one is writing.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 115
A biologist writing an article for a journal of biology, for other biologists to read,
would not have to explain the definition of and source for the term mitochondria.
A sociologist, writing an article for a journal of sociology, would not have to explain
the definition of intergenerational mobility.
However, a sociologist would have to define mitochrondria to his her or audience of other
sociologists, and a biologist would have to define intergenerational mobility to his or her
audience of other biologists, should the terms happen to arise in the article being written.
In an undergraduate paper, written for an undergraduate journal, any specialized term
in any given disciplinary field—that is, any term that the common person on the street
would not access easily—falls under specialized knowledge, and must be defined, even
if the student, and/or students in general, would probably recognize the term.
8 performing analysis
On the following pages, you will find:
Step 4: Analysis Guide
Example Analysis Guide
116 REASON TO WRITE
STEP 4: ANALYSIS GUIDE, OR HOW TO ROLLER SKATE
Analysis can be messy, so it’s best to go ahead and start with paper and a pen, instead
of trying to type out your findings, right away.
Step 1: Locate the observation that led to your question
Whether you are aware of it, or not, your question is based upon an observation. In
other words, initially you observed something, and wondered why that was so.
Example: Disney films are for children, but the main characters are young
adults. Why?
Example: The word “ghetto” was once used to be a noun, but now it is used
as an adjective. Why?
1. State your observation, and the question that arose from that observation.
Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples
In order to perform analysis, one must have material to work with. No question exists
in a vacuum. All you need is to find something that can be broken down into its con-
stituent parts, and that, in being broken down, will yield information. If there are a lot
of examples, you will need to limit them in a way that makes sense to your question.
Example: 10 Top Disney Feature Films 1940–2000
Example: Use of the word “ghetto,” from its first usage, through to the
present time, and the details of real-world instances, as well as
definitions/associations that the word had, then, and that the
word has, now. Specific situations of its usage.
2. Identify the specific instances or samples from which you will draw your
analysis.
Step 3: Gather details from those specifics
On a separate piece of paper, write (don’t type) every single detail that you find within
those representative samples.
Begin with the five most obvious details
3. Find at least 15–20 (the more, the better) details, and write them on your
piece of paper. If you have too many details, return to step 2 and limit your
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 117
samples in a logical way that relates to your question. If you cannot find
enough examples, well…look harder.
Step 4: Identify patterns within those details or data
Patterns describe relationships. Think of this as a game. What is the same about these
details? What is different? Which ones repeat? Which ones don’t? Look very, very
closely, and say anything about details that represent any kind of pattern. The kinds
of patterns you find could include, among others:
• similarity • difference • disjunction
• repetition • opposition • causation
• contrast • association • correlation
• exception • sequence • group/s
4. Identify patterns within your details, using any means of creating
a relationship.
Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns
Once you have established a series of patterns from detail, your next task is to note the
way in which these patterns will begin to suggest categories—what patterns tend to
be dominant within the details, what fits, what doesn’t fit, and why. These categories
become conclusions: things that you can say, reasonably, about what you are analyzing,
and become a part of the way that you can offer answers in relationship to your question.
5. Draw conclusions from the patterns you find, based upon the dominant
categories they suggest. Note any anomalies—details that don’t fit any
categories. These are often excellent places for insight into your question.
118 REASON TO WRITE
EXAMPLE ANALYSIS GUIDE
Step 1: Locate the observation that led to your question
For his paper, a student3 made two important and linked observations: 1) movie post-
ers are required to offer a lot of information to an audience, all at once; 2) the genre of
the film—whether it is a romantic film, or a comedy, etc.—is the primary information
offered in movie posters.
Movie posters are primarily designed to give information about the genre of a
film to an audience that views the poster. How do movie posters communicate
genre to the audience?
Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples
I will draw my samples from movie posters found online from across
four genres: romance; horror; adventure; and comedy. I will limit my
samples to the top five films, within those genres, in the previous year.
Step 3: Gather details from those specifics
This student found the following “obvious” details about movie posters:
• Movie posters are released before the film is released
• Movie posters usually consist of both visuals and text
• Movie posters usually consist of more visuals than text
• Movie posters are advertisements for the film
• Movie posters are placed in public spaces, both real and virtual
• Movie posters consistently transmit specific types of information
• The type of information transmitted often depends on the genre
• The information that movie posters transmit is sometimes explicit and sometimes
implicit
• Movie titles are poor transmitters regarding the genre of a film. For example, a film
titled Brakeslam (year) could be a romance, a comedy, a horror film, etc.
3 Writing 2. Spring 2008. UCSB.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 119
• The information that all movie posters provide is usually:
– The genre of the film
– The studio
– The director
– The date of release
– The title of the film
– The film rating (e.g.: “R” rating)
• The information that movie posters sometimes provide is:
The main actor/s
A “catchphrase” or explanatory line
The origin of the story (e.g.: a book or “true story”)
Step 4: Identify patterns within those details or data
• Certain information is typically provided visually, including genre
• Certain information is typically provided in text, including: Studio; Title of film;
Date of release
• Certain information is typically provided both visually and in text, including: main
actors
• The way that information is presented is often determined by genre
This student then went on to create a substantial list based upon detail gathered from
posters within his samples, drawn from top films, in four genres, over the period of
one year.
Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns
The following is an incomplete list of what this student found, which he offered
accompanied by visuals of film posters that he imbedded into the body of his paper:
Since genre is typically provided visually, genres fall into specific patterns, leading
to the following conclusions:
Romance:
• Two main characters tended to be visually dominant, with faces the largest,
often cut off at shoulders or waist, although sometimes full body depictions.
120 REASON TO WRITE
• Two main characters are often in physical contact, or in a position indicating
the initial nature of their relationship (e.g.: antagonistic)
• Male tends to be higher in visual field than female.
• Third figure may be present, if it is a “love triangle” story.
• Other visual elements tend to be minimal, with second most typical visual
element being setting (office, beach, etc.).
• Often includes catchphrase that highlights main dilemma.
Horror:
• Most likely to have no fully represented human figure present
• Any depiction of visible full-body human is usually in shadow or masked
• Least explicitly informative, most implicit
• Very typical to offer a single body part either entering visual field (an arm,
etc.), or filling substantial portion of visual field.
• Body part (arm, leg, and often eye) is often mixed with other imagery implying
violence to the body, such as wires, knives, etc.
• Least likely to include informative text.
• Often has catchphrase that offers a direct address to the viewer, sometimes in the
form of a threatening invitation.
• More likely to have a minimalist background.
• Rarely includes supplementary visuals.
After establishing these details across all four genres, primarily visually, and often
according to implicit cues that the audience has learned to expect, this student then
examined posters that “didn’t fit” the dominant categories of his analysis.
This part of his analysis included hybrid genres (e.g.: a romantic-comedy), as well as
crossovers; films that seemed like they should be in one genre, but that contained
visual cues that indicated that they were in another genre.
In this way, this student was able to establish that while a film such as Twilight (2008)
could be considered a part of the horror genre, since it depicts supernatural creatures
traditionally a part of that genre (i.e.: vampires and werewolves), his analysis suggested
that it is visually depicted, in film posters, as a part of the romance genre—which it is.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis 121
Chapter 6
Finding common ground
1 124THE OrGANIZING PRINCIPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 130FIRST THINGS FIRST: THE TITLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 131EXORDIUM: “YO!” OR “LO!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 133types of openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 136REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6 138ORGANIZING/OPENING the essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
STEP 5 THE OPENING/ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE GUIDE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
123
1 the organizing principle
S ometimes, the organization of a paper is obvious; one can simply start at the
beginning, and work through one’s question to arrive at an answer. However, once
one has performed a thorough analysis, one can also feel as if one is looking at a map
in which the arrow that indicates that “You are Here” is missing.
When this happens, one can have a lot of ideas and conclusions, all linked together in
different ways. Each seems to lead in a different direction, connected in different ways.
How does one choose which single path to follow? How does one turn that map back
into a linear progression of words on a page, without wandering off, or getting lost?
One of the most useful products of analysis is that details suggest patterns, and
patterns suggest conclusions. Yet these patterns also suggest something else: an orga-
nizing principle.
The conclusions produced from analysis tend to combine in a particular way, because
the question demands certain kinds of patterns in order to be answered. In other
words, if one can identify major points on the map, and how they relate to other
major points, one can find a way to organize the chaos.
Let us say, for example, that one were the first person to become interested in canine
behavior, and formed the question:
How do dogs communicate through body language?
One might draw a series of conclusions from one’s analysis, and those conclusions
would also tend to break down in specific ways.
For example, one might find oneself looking into this question in relationship to
specific actions connected to a breakdown of different parts of the dog’s body: ear
position; eye contact; tail movement; coat appearance; stance of legs; etc.
At that point, the “parts” becomes a group. The thing that binds this group together
is the ways in which the dog uses different parts of its body to communicate. In this
way, by concentrating on how these details are broken down, and the pattern they
produce, one can organize one’s paper in a sensible sequential order for each item
within that group.
As one deals with each conclusion within the group, one get more information in
regard to the question. As one reaches each conclusion, one can then return that
conclusion to the original question that was posed, adding a new layer to a growing
124 REASON TO WRITE
series of reasonable statements based upon one’s DEFINITION
analysis. Eventually, these conclusions result,
cumulatively, in an answer to the original question recursive writing: although this
that was posed. This is called recursive writing. technique can be used in several
ways, in this sense it means
Or, one might find that one’s analysis has drawn returning individual conclusions
upon a breakdown of dog and human communica- that one finds in an analysis to
tion, and the grouping may organize itself by analy- the initial question that one is
sis of a dog’s typical behavioral response to a variety answering. Each conclusion builds
of human behaviors (e.g.: a person’s approach; voice an overall series of reasonable
modulation; position of a person’s hands, etc.) statements that support the final
answer.
Or, one might find that one’s analysis has drawn upon a breakdown involving the
comparison of dogs to another species. In this case, the grouping may be organized
by indicating similarities and differences between those two species (e.g.: in both
dogs and cats, a fixed, direct stare is a challenge).
Or, one might find that one’s analysis has drawn upon linking body language to social
groupings found in packs, in which case each conclusion drawn would be classified
under that connection (e.g.: a dog displays affection and indicates submission to a
fellow pack member by licking, which is a grooming behavior).
Anticipating an Organizing Principle
While one is performing analysis, one should be looking for the way one has broken
things down, and what it says about how one’s conclusions might be organized.
Someone asking a question regarding popular representations of disability might
break down his or her analysis into four categories that account for all of the samples
he or she has found up to that point:
1. Using disability as an inspirational story of overcoming adversity (e.g.: Helen
Keller)
2. Using disability as a sign of hidden knowledge or abilities that would inspire
awe (e.g.: the blind prophet)
3. Using visible disability to indicate a villain (e.g.: a wooden leg, eye patch,
or scarring)
4. Using disability as a source of humor (mental disability)
An essay is, in many ways, an organized record of someone’s thinking on a given
question. Staying conscious of how you break down elements in analysis, and even
SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground 125
telling a reader why you made a certain choices in regard to organization, is not
unprofessional, and often helpful.
For example, in the sociological study “The Cocktail Waitress,” James P. Spradley and
Brenda J. Mann document their initial difficulty in finding a way to organize the data
that they collected. These data were the result of extensive interviews in which they
asked cocktail waitresses about the names given to types of customers that come into
a typical bar in the United States.
Their original list was as follows:
girl regular cougar1 party Annie
jock real regular animal female obnoxo
person off street waitress bartender loner Hustler
businessman policeman greaser zoo Slob
drunk redneck bore Johnny Bastard
Bitch Pig Hands Creep Couple
king and court
The writers not only reported struggling with how to organize this list, but admitted
further confusion when they “discovered that a regular could be an obnoxo or a bore,
a party could be a zoo, a cougar was always a jock, but a jock could also be a regular or
person off the street” (255–56).
The important thing to understand is that if the content of your analysis does not deter-
mine the structure of your writing, an inconsistent structure will serve to determine your
content for you. This will often result in simply listing, which is superficial analysis when
one is looking for patterns. The writers of “The Cocktail Waitress” knew this, and pushed
further until they found a solution regarding a reasonable way to break down their list.
In further analysis, they came to understand that the labels on this list could be grouped
in important ways. They were not the same. Some were fixed, and some varied.
For example, certain labels, such as hands, pig, boor, or obnoxo, were based upon the
behavior of the customer, and therefore could shift as behavior changed.
Others, such as Annies or Cougars, were fixed, based upon social identities outside
the bar, in this case related to the local college.
1 The term “cougar” does not have the same cultural connotation that it has now, this study
having predated the current use of the term in which it indicates an older woman who is
attractive to, or attracted to, younger men.
126 REASON TO WRITE
As criteria emerged from these groupings, an organizing principle developed. In this
case, the organizing principle was one of taxonomy: types and subtypes.
Common Organizational Principles
The following catalogues typical kinds of organizing principles that one finds in aca-
demic writing. They are not the only kinds of ways to organize a paper, but under-
standing how they function can be useful in determining what kind of organization is
called for in translating the analysis that you perform into written form.
Categories: The most straightforward of the structures, an organizing
principle that would identify the major points on the map and
take them one by one, returning each conclusion to the question.
Example:
In Men, Women, and Chainsaws Carol Clover asks a question
regarding the hero in relationship to the slasher film genre in the
1970’s.
She analyzes approximately thirty slasher films according to
the categories of: 1) killer; 2) locale; 3) weapons; 4) victims;
5) shock-effects.
Comparison: An organizational structure that locates specific points of simi-
larity or difference between two things, or among three or more
things.
This organizing principle would result in a paper that would
compare elements in a specific area, draw a conclusion, return
that conclusion to the original question, and move on to the next
area of comparison.
Example:
In “Professing History: Distinguishing Between Memory and the
Past,” Elliot J. Gorn asks a question regarding the challenges and
importance of teaching history.
He uses the juxtaposition between:
• History as a record of past events
• National mythos, such as the story of Betsy Ross making
the American flag, which she did not do.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground 127
Causality: An organizational structure that outlines a chain of reasoning
that is logical in nature and related to a conditional structure
DEFINITION of protasis/apodosis. That is, movement in the
writing is based upon a series of claims that if
protasis/apodosis: the two parts x (protosis) is so, then y (apodosis) would be so.
of a conditional statement, where
the second statement depends on This organizing principle will result in a paper that
the conditions of the first. would begin with the most obvious conclusion to
draw from analysis, and then make the next con-
Example: “If it rains, then I will clusion a condition of the previous, etc. This could
bring an umbrella.” In this case,
the act of bringing an umbrella
(apodosis) is dependent upon become monotonous, after awhile, and should be
whether or not it rains (protasis). used with care.
Example:
In Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. Carl
Sagan asks a question as to whether humans can know all of the
universe.
He demonstrates that if we try to understand every bit of informa-
tion about the universe in separate bits of information, then we
would not have enough memory to know even the smallest part.
However, if we can determine natural laws that are regular in the
universe, then we can know a portion of the universe.
Student example:
If we cannot separate the differences between individualism
and collectivism, then we do not understand forms of govern-
ment. If we do not understand the idea of government, then we
are not educated enough to choose who will lead our country.2
Taxonomy: An organizational structure wherein one introduces a type of
thing, and then identifies subtypes of that thing, and relation-
ships between, and among, types and subtypes.
This organizing principle would result in a paper that would
identify criteria by which a type would be identified, and then
specify criteria by which other things would belong to that type,
or fail to belong, according to those criteria.
2 Writing 2. Spring 2009. UCSB.
128 REASON TO WRITE
Focus: Example:
Chronology: In “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has Constructed a
Romance based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles,” Emily
Martin ask a question regarding how analogy based upon gender
is used to describe scientific processes in textbooks.
The author uses a subtype of scientific discourse (biology) in
order to answer a question regarding how a type of discourse
(science) treats this issue in textbooks.
An organizational structure wherein one uses something exter-
nal to what is being analyzed as a kind of lens through which to
organize conclusions.
This organizational principle would result in a paper that would
focus conclusions through a single issue, and that single issue
would become an anchor through which one returns conclusions
to the question.
Example:
In Pedagogy of the Oppressed Paulo Friere asks a question regard-
ing the type of education that relies primarily on the memoriza-
tion of information outside of context.
He uses the extended metaphor of banking, including the ideas
of deposit and withdrawal of information, as a focus to describe
the consequences of this form of education.
An organizational structure in which conclusions are presented
as spanning established time periods, from most recent to earli-
est, or earliest to most recent.
Example:
In A Chorus of Stones Susan Griffin asks how historical events,
instead of beginning and ending, actually remain connected with
one another, over time.
She uses the analogy of a train that begins in the present, and
moves backward in time to 1945, and then returns to the present,
to illustrate these connections.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground 129
When people talk of creating an “outline,” they are often engaged in the act of locating
an organizing principle for their writing. While outlining can be very useful for this,
and for other reasons, it is not included as a step for writing within this text.
It is not included, in this way, because writers tend to divide up primarily into two
groups: pre-writers or re-writers. While people who write a great deal spend a goodly
amount of time doing both, they will usually favor one or the other. Some people pre-
write to the point where the final paper is merely a matter of starting at the top of an
outline and working one’s way down. Others like to get their ideas down, right away,
and then shape the final product.
In either case, recognizing the structure that one’s content suggests, once one has per-
formed analysis, is necessary in order to guide a reader through one’s map. It does not
mean that one has to meticulously chart every turn; it just means finding an entrance,
or opening, from which to begin, and a general idea of where one will go from there.
2 First things first: the title
F or the opening of an essay, it might be helpful to begin with the most obvious
element: the title.
The role of the title for an essay in academic writing is often misunderstood. It has
a specific function related to the reason that academics write: publication. When
someone performs secondary-source research, on what other people have published,
they do not stumble around the stacks hoping to chance upon the information they
would like to have. They tend to use a keyword search.
Since articles and chapters are catalogued according to titles, it is important that any
title that you give to what you write have the proper keywords that would allow the
article to be accessed in a search.
The convention in academic writing, for a title of an essay or article, is for it to have
two lines, separated by a colon. The first line is often snappy, in that it represents some
kind of play on words. The second line is usually explanatory, and holds important
keywords for a catalogue search. Following are some titles that include these elements:
We Were Always Happy:
The Distortion of Personal Histories in Personal Photograph Albums
Missing the Butch:
Representations of Lesbianism on Television
130 REASON TO WRITE
Whiteface/Blackface:
Representation and Race in American Film
Taking a Shot:
The Role of Imbedded Journalism, from Vietnam to Iraq
If the Jeans Fit:
The Use of the Image of Individualism in Product Marketing
The third example, above, for example, would ensure that any person seeking articles
that concern issues of “race,” “American,” or “film” would be able to access that article
if he or she entered those keywords into a library database, whether at a physical
library, or a virtual one.
3 exordium: “Yo!” or “Lo!”
E xordium means introduction, or beginning. In rhetoric, it serves the purpose of
preparing an audience for the content that will follow. In some ways, the opening
to an essay is just like meeting someone face-to-face, for the first time. The reader is
going to make a lot of judgments, conscious and unconscious, about the writer, based
upon that initial encounter.
While there are several strategies for opening a paper that will be covered in this
chapter, remember that the main point of your introduction is to establish common
ground with the reader. This means resisting the urge to sum up your whole paper in
one go.
The easiest, and often the most successful, openings, offer straightforward state-
ments that are very specific, directly related to the question at hand, and that a typical
reader would find reasonable and fair. Three to five such statements, in relationship
to your question, will build a foundation from which to begin to answer it, and create
an initial impression of the writer as a patient, trustworthy thinker.
In planning her opening, the student who was writing about Reality TV gathered
together a series of key points. Each point was something with which a typical reader
would probably agree, and each laid the groundwork for the way in which she would
begin her analysis. She ended the opening with a question. Her statements were:
1. Reality TV is a genre that is a mixture of documentary, drama, and
game show
SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground 131
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