An In-Depth Look At What Analysis Means

 Leah McBarron

SUPA Wrt 105

Schilly Block 2

3/18/21

An In-Depth Look At What Analysis Means

If you asked me a few months back what it meant to analyze someone or something, I’d simply give the definition of inspecting or looking at something with a close lens. While this is part of the importance of analysis and what it means to be analytical, whether it is in terms of writing or not, analysis is much more and goes far beyond just closely inspecting something. Over the course of the past few weeks for the duration of Unit 2 for my writing class, I have worked closer and practiced writing analytically firsthand, ultimately changing my perception of what it means to analyze something. From my experiences and practice, a common relationship among all pieces I worked with or wrote analytically is that analysis is a lot of breaking down a question that is being asked, as while shifting your lens from “what?” to “how?” and “why?” all while suspending any judgement.

Primarily, I want to start by saying suspending judgement before beginning analysis is very important. Pre-judging something can create bias and affect the effectiveness of your analysis, ultimately weakening it. I also want to touch on how an important part of analysis is breaking down a question that is being asked, and what it means to do that. It is important to inspect what the question or prompt is really asking or talking about, and take your time understanding it in order for your analysis to be clear, precise, and make sense. It is important to ask yourself what the question is focusing on, and to not be too broad in your analysis or interpretation of the question; keeping your lens focused is very important. This was especially evident during one assignment where I analyzed a cover for an issue of The New Yorker. Instead of being presented with a question, I was presented with an image, and had to figure out what message the image was portraying by examining the image in-depth. Another important part is shifting your lens from “what?” to “how?” and “why?” when analyzing a document, or speaking analytically about something. While it is important to think about the means in which something was presented can aid in understanding and analyzing, asking yourself how they went about it and why is very imperative to analysis. This was especially evident when I was working with analyzing my artifact (which was the song “The Blacker The Berry” by Kendrick Lamar, which you can read here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pq8bKwnfd9-R4DkGnqFHmOySxrXtwvPLy7Ie5_DjmNk/edit?usp=sharing ). Rather than thinking about what means Lamar went to in order to present his message (a song), I thought more about why he chose to convey his message through the means of the song and how he got his message to reach an audience, as well as if he was successful in doing so.

I feel now that as a composer and writer, I have grown by practicing writing more analytically. As stated earlier, my definition of analysis was very specific, and didn’t really change much about the pieces I wrote, and how I went about writing them. I feel a great barricade that I was able to overcome that especially allowed me to grow more as a writer and composer was suspending pre-judgements regarding things. It allowed for me to be a stronger writer as it eliminated a lot of bias that I may have had in other previous pieces. I can now say with confidence that I am able to examine pieces as well as write pieces from a stronger and better lens.