ANALYZING ARGUMENTS
Developing your understanding of a text requires close analysis of how that text makes meaning.
Addressing the following questions creates a methodical analysis of a text. You could then
develop your observations into a clear summary of the text, or a persuasive argument of your
own about the text’s implicit messages or the significance of the rhetorical strategies used. You
might also (or instead) draw from your understanding of the text to inform your critical analysis
of another text.
The suggestions are worded with the assumption that a single passage is the focus of analysis; if
your analysis is of an entire text or otherwise spans multiple passages, answering these questions
for each idea and/or passage should help develop your analysis.
Location in the text.
Beginning? Middle? End? Does the passage you’re analyzing open a chapter, follow an
important claim, close the work as a whole? What does the passage’s placement in the text
suggest about its importance or its role in the overall work?
Page Real Estate.
How much space does each idea in the passage get on the page? How about the passage
itself? What does the allotment of ink to each idea suggest about that idea’s role, that idea’s
importance?
Audience.
Consider level of language, use of field-specific terms, formality of language, statements
about the reader, etc. Who is the target audience for the passage (and the work as a whole), and
what does that suggest about the argument?
Assumptions.
Locate any assumptions the passage makes, either expressed or implied. How do those
assumptions affect the meaning of the passage or text as a whole?
Mapping.
What is the main idea of the passage? What points are subordinate? Are there examples?
Counter-points? Allusions to other texts or parts of this text? How do the structure and
component parts of the passage contribute to meaning?
Rhetorical strategies.
Examples, comparisons, figurative language, scientific language, facts, hypotheses,
appeals to authority, appeals to emotion, appeals to common sense, imagined counter-arguments,
construction of sentences and choice of words (please note, every passage has syntax and word
choice; if there’s something special about how the sentences or pattern of language in the
passage you’re analyzing make meaning, be sure to describe it as specifically as possible)—how
does this passage attempt to persuade?
Kathryn Tucker, Ph.D.