The basics: What does writing an analysis really mean?
Before we actually learn to write an analysis, it is immensely helpful to compare an analysis to other types of tasks. Fundamentally, we can distinguish three basic groups of tasks.
Group 1: Comprehend and reproduce
Group number 1 is the most basic level, so to say. Most tasks in this group simply mean that you need to reproduce something, that means, you take something that is already there and write it down again – in the form of a summary, maybe, or when giving other information about the content of a text. You don’t have to change anything here or find a new structure. You might have to condense information though, in order to give the most important information.
Group 2: Explain and reorganize
Now, you actually have to work a little bit on reorganizing a text into something new, based on the criteria. That means that you have to read the task well, see what is asked from you