DISCUSSION POST RESPONSE NEEDED
That_Guy88
DOCUMENT2.pdf
Chapter 6 ‐ Analysis
Definition:
Imagine you come home and find your front door open, your television missing, and your belongings ransacked. Breaking down the whole picture into its component parts, you have just analyzed the situation and determined that you were robbed. According to Reichenbach, analysis "involves breaking what you see, read, or hear into its component parts in order to make clear how the ideas are ordered, related, or connected to other ideas" (24).
According to Bloom's taxonomy, analysis deals with the structural form and the content of the communication (Reichenbach 24). When examining the structural form, analysis takes into consideration the way the thing you are analyzing is organized to look for patterns or principles in what is presented, "relationships between the ideas, noting their temporal relation and their logical order", and the separate components of the material you are analyzing (Reichenbach 24). For example, let's look at how we would analyze this famous poem published in the late 1700's:
The Sick Rose By William Blake
O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm, That flies in the night, In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy;
And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.
First, let's look at the "organizational patterns or principles" of this poem. The poem is comprised of two stanzas where the second and fourth words rhyme. He uses words like "sick," "worm," "howling," "storm," "dark," "destroy." I can tell from this simple analysis that it's not a happy message in this poem. So, we can deduce that the "Rose" will be "destroyed" when we look at the overall logical order of the poem. We also notice that the word, "Rose" is capitalized like a person's name. But, you can tell there is probably more to this poem than just what we can see in its form, so let's look at its content.
Looking at the content of this poem, we want to look for dominant ideas or themes and subordinate ideas or themes, look for evidence that supports a hypothesis, and note what "assumptions or presuppositions the author makes" (Reichenbach 24). So, let's look at the content and first look at the dominant theme and subordinate theme. So, the dominate theme
51 | P a g e
is that a worm will come one stormy night and kill the rose, but what is the subordinate theme? What else is the poet saying? When analyzing something, you need to consider the terminology used in the field whether it is poetry, art, natural science, psychology, history, politics, or any other field. In poetry, we are familiar with what is called symbolism where symbols are used to represent other ideas or qualities. We know William Blake wrote this poem to communicate something to us, and with the words like "life destroy," it appears that what he has to say is important to us. So, what could "Rose" represent?
Critical Thinking in Action Take a few minutes and talk with your classmates and share your ideas, then present them to the class.
Now that we have analyzed the poem for meaning, let's synthesize what we have learned to see what we think this poem means. According to Reichenbach, synthesis involves creating something new from what you have learned and analyzed like our own hypothesis about what we think this poem means (25). Maybe, we hypothesize that "Rose" represents a beautiful woman. So, read the poem again. What happens to this beautiful woman? Who is the worm that comes to her bed at night with its "dark secret love" and destroys her? What is the author's hypothesis (his assumption)? What is his argument? As you may have guessed, most people analyze this poem and believe it portrays a beautiful young woman in full bloom losing her virginity to a male lover. So, is William Blake's hypothesis that a virgin making love is a violent thing to her and can destroy her? How can this act make her a sick Rose? Do you agree with this analysis of the poem? If so, do you agree with Blake's hypothesis that making love can make a woman sick to the point that it can destroy her? If you don't agree with this analysis, then how would you analyze the poem? Poems are like living beings and have the ability to elicit multiple meanings for the reader to uncover through analysis, which is why literary scholars can continue to develop a new thesis about a poem written long ago.
Maybe analyzing poetry isn't what you like to do, so how can developing analytical skills help you? Analytical reasoning skills enable people to identify assumptions, reasons and claims, and examine how they interact in the formation of arguments. Individuals use analytics to gather information from charts, graphs, diagrams, spoken language and documents, but arguments can be found in art, musical lyrics, poetry, literature, or plays. People with strong analytical skills attend to patterns and to details. They identify the elements of a situation and determine how those parts interact. Strong interpretation skills can support high quality analysis by providing insights into the significance of what a person is saying or what something means.
52 | P a g e
As this skill involves the breaking down of information and complex concepts into component parts, verbs often associated with this skill include:
Analyze Examine Categorize Identify Classify Illustrate Compare Infer Contrast Outline Differentiate Separate Discriminate Simplify Distinguish Subdivide
(Anderson and Krathwohl 2‐3)
Analytical reasoning skills enable one to recognize and identify facts, his or her assumptions, and conclusions, and to examine how these interact in the formation of solid arguments and in enhancing comprehension. Strong analytical skills allow us to notice patterns and details that make up the larger subject or situation. We use analytical skills every day to examine all types of communication in all forms. For example, on the television show, "What on Earth," the individuals interviewed spend their entire time looking at satellite images and analyzing them for meaning. They utilize facts and information gathered to develop hypotheses that they share with their audience and then they disprove each hypothesis developed until one hypothesis remains or can be confirmed. In one episode, they noticed on satellite images this massive bright yellow island in the ocean that had not been there before, and it appeared to be moving. Through analysis of information, they learned that it was actually a mass of floating yellow rubber duckies from a cargo ship that lost its load in the ocean. That's a lot of rubber ducks. How many rubber duckies do you think make this yellow mass? How could you calculate this number?
53 | P a g e
According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, you can use questions to break down what you're examining into parts. For example, you can use questions like:
What are the parts or features of . . . ? How is _______ related to . . . ? Why do you think . . . ? • What is the theme . . . ? What motive is there . . . ? Can you list the parts . . . ? What inference can you make . . . ? What conclusions can you draw . . . ? How would you classify . . . ? How would you categorize . . . ? Can you identify the different parts . . . ? What evidence can you find . . . ? What is the relationship between . . . ? Can you make a distinction between . . . ? What is the function of . . . ?(www.bloomstaxonomy.org)
Opportunities for analysis appear all the time in our lives. For example, let's say you are looking at a news article, and you see this chart below. So you ask yourself, what is the relationship between the supply and demand of nurses in the year 2020?
Example 1: Supply and Demand of Nurses in America
54 | P a g e
In analyzing the graph above, you can see that in the year 2020, the supply of nurses available will have leveled off; whereas, the demand for nurses will have continued to increase. Thus, your analysis shows that the gap between the supply of nurses available and the number of nurses needed has widened. So, if demand is increasing, and the supply of nurses is decreasing, then the argument is what? America needs more nurses. Then, you may think to yourself, "this is the major for me because if this information is correct from the Bureau of Health Professions, then I know I'll have a job when I graduate from college by 2020."
Now, let's say you are looking on the GMC website, and you come across the GMC Fact Book. You see this data table below and analyze it for meaning.
Example 2: GMC 3 Year Graduation Rate
23% 25% 25%
27% 28%
19% 20% 19% 19% 19%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
2009 ‐ 2012 2010 ‐ 2013 2011 ‐ 2014 2012 ‐ 2015 2013 ‐ 2016
3‐Yr Graduation Rate IPEDS Peer Group
(Office of Institutional Research. Planning, and Effectiveness, Georgia Military College, 2017)
Based on the graph above, compare GMC’s graduation rate (in blue) to that of its peer group (in red) over time. What does your analysis reveal? What is happening to GMC's graduation rate? How have they compared to their peers over time?
Does analysis only apply to the interpretation of graphical data? The answer to this question is, "No." Let’s consider the following scenarios:
Describe the relationship between the main characters in a novel. Compare and contrast the beliefs of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X. Illustrate the differences between a donkey and a mule.
All of these represent situations where the skill of analysis would be used.
If one employs the skill of analysis to a situation, then can their conclusion still be incorrect? The answer to this question is, "Yes," and this is related to the concept of fallacy, which is defined as a flaw in reasoning. Reichenbach defines fallacy as any mistaken idea or false belief, or error in reasoning or in argument (264‐265). Some common fallacies were discussed in the chapter on Inference (Chapter 4).
Critical thinkers use the skill of analysis to look for organizational patterns in information, determine relationships between ideas, and break down material into its component parts. Critical thinkers are able to
55 | P a g e
distinguish the conclusions from the supporting evidence and want to understand how specifically the evidence connects to the conclusion. Strong analytical skills allow a person to be better equipped to determine the strength of an argument presented to them (Reichenbach 161‐162).
We should use analysis every day of our lives to decipher the world around us and what people are communicating to us. Take time to analyze what you read on the internet, what you hear on television, what song lyrics tell you, and what you see when you walk through an art gallery. Use analysis in your college classes and in your jobs to make you more aware of the world around you.
Critical Thinking in Action
1. Analyze this situation using your basic knowledge of human nature and psychology and synthesize the information to create your own hypotheses:
You walk into a café that you frequent often and see a friend of yours. Even though he sees you, he keeps his back turned to you and does not acknowledge that you are there. He continues talking to this pretty girl sitting at a table. They are laughing and having a great time. They never look at you. You know you haven't upset your friend to make him mad at you, so after analyzing the situation, you conclude that …
Write two hypotheses (assumptions) that you could make from analyzing this situation. Share your hypotheses with your classmates.
2. Famous events sometimes have several hypotheses after a situation is analyzed and sometimes a satisfactory solution is never found. For example, people still analyze the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, for who shot and killed him and why. Try analyzing some of his famous quotes to see what you think he meant:
"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth."
"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
Quotes from https://www.brainyquote.com/lists/authors/top_10_john_f_kennedy_quotes
3. Watch the movie the Da Vinci Code from Dan Brown's novel. The main character, Dr. Robert Langdon, is a symbologist. What does Dr. Langdon analyze in the movie? What is his hypothesis (assumption)? How does he synthesize the information he has analyzed?
4. How is analysis used in mathematics? Have you ever heard the phrase in Algebra, "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" where each letter represents the order of operations when working a formula. So, the "p" in "please" represents doing all the calculations in parenthesis first, then you work all exponents, then multiply, then divide, then add, then subtract. By following the order of operations, you are breaking down the formula into its component parts to solve it. Find a mathematics professor and talk to them about what it means to use analysis in their discipline.
56 | P a g e
5. What job do you want to have when you complete college? How could you use the skills of analysis and synthesis in that job? If you aren't sure what job you want, then think of a job. For example, how would people in these jobs use analysis and synthesis? (For example: nurse, business person, cyber security analyst, psychologist, police officer, lawyer, sociologist, historian, mathematician, politician, pharmacist, homeland security officer, literary professor, astronomer, dentist, or video game designer)
Post‐Review – self‐evaluation (Don't Skip this part)
Go back through the chapter and answer the following questions:
1. What does "analysis" mean? Put the definition into your own words. 2. What are the two components of analysis and what do they mean? 3. What does "synthesis" mean? How do analysis and synthesis work together? 4. List five verbs you can use when analyzing something 5. What are two questions you could ask to break something into its component parts? 6. List four situations in which you could use the skills of analysis and synthesis in your life.
57 | P a g e
