At one point in your life as a writer, you may be asked to conduct a text analysis and come up with an analysis of an article. All you need to know before carrying on such an assignment is the response outline for your essay. You have to understand the type of article under analysis to develop the preferred tone for your paper. You also have to understand the rules and format of the essay so that you do not mess up with the outline.
What Is an Article Analysis?
Before you analyze an article or any other literature piece, it is good to understand the meaning of analyzing. To analyze is the art of breaking down a literature piece and addressing each point independently to the understanding of your readers. When you analyze an essay, your main objective is to ensure that your audience gets the major points without much struggle. When you analyze an article, you demonstrate your critical thinking ability. In analyzing, you have to judge certain matters in the story and come up with conclusions. When you write such an essay, you will try to convince the reader that you have indeed read the article and can critique it accordingly.
In analyzing an article, you are based on three main points as a writer:
- Summarize the main points in the piece – when you get to do an article analysis, you have to analyze the main points so that the reader can understand what the article is all about in general. The summary will be an overview of the story outline, but it is not the main analysis. It just acts to guide the reader to understand what the article is all about in brief.
- Proceed to the main argument and analyze the evidence offered by the writer in the article – this is where analysis begins because you must critique the article by analyzing the evidence given by the piece’s author. You should also point out the flaws in the work and support where it needs to be; it should not necessarily be a positive critique. You are free to pinpoint even the negative part of the story. In other words, you should not rely on one side but be truthful about what you are addressing to the satisfaction of anyone who would read your essay.
- Analyze the piece’s significance – most readers would want to see why you need to make article analysis. It is your role as a writer to emphasize the importance of the article so that the reader can be content with your writing. When your audience gets interested in your work, you will have achieved your aim because the main aim of writing is to convince the reader. The more persuasive you are, the more your article stands out. Focus on motivating your audience, and you will have scored.
Outline and Structure of an Article Analysis
The paper in which you analyze an article is similar to any other standard essay. Therefore, the structure of such a document is identical to what you are used to in college.
Introduction. In this part, you introduce the reader to the article you chose for analysis and formulate the problem you want to study. You can also describe the methods you will use to analyze the article.
Main part. Here you directly analyze the article, present your arguments and reveal all the issues in the introduction. You can give examples and quotes.
To conclude, your task is to recall which article you analyzed, why, and what you got. Do not retell the entire text. Highlight the most important thing from your paper.
When you analyze an article, you do deep work. Such assignments force students to read scientific materials, give their arguments, agree or disagree with the writer, and dive into the context. Therefore, this work requires you to be careful.
What Do You Need to Write an Article Analysis?
If you have to write an analysis of an article, the most accessible place to start is to study the article itself. Read it several times and make sure you understand the writer.
After that, you need to analyze the themes and arguments with which you will write your article analysis essay. Be clear about what problem you want to address and why it’s essential. If you disagree with the writer, find arguments for your point of view. And if you agree with what the author writes in the article, write why you agree with his point of view.
How to Write an Analysis of an Article?
Step 1: Analyze your audience
First of all, you need to understand your audience. This vital step will help you write the analysis in a suitable format and highlight the fundamental issues. Understanding your audience will help you know how to encrypt your essay to their satisfaction.
Step 2: Read the article
Before you write your essay, read the article you are to analyze; you should read through it several times to get the points. You cannot analyze articles if you have not understood them well. When you read the article for the first time, you should skim through it to get the main points and know the story outline. Skimming usually helps you to get the main themes in the story. While skimming, you should concentrate on the minor subheadings in the story. Skimming is like going through a movie trailer; you just get to know the story briefly, but you will not understand the actual movie.
After skimming, you should return and analyze while writing down points to facilitate understanding. Concentrate on the main arguments in the story – ensure that you get the author’s main arguments right. You should be able to know the objective of the writer of the piece. Authors use different ways to pass their message; you should analyze the style used to get the writer’s intention. In an argument, you have to analyze three major things:
- The evidence: identify the evidence the writer used in the article to support their claim. While looking into the evidence, you should gauge whether the writer brings out factual evidence or it is personal judgments.
- The argument’s validity: a writer might use many pieces of evidence to support their claims, but you need to identify the sources they use and determine whether they are credible. Credible sources are like scholarly articles and books, and some are not worth relying on for research.
- How convictive are the arguments? You should be able to judge the writer’s persuasion of the audience. An article is usually informative and therefore has to be persuasive to the readers to be considered worthy. If it does not achieve this, you should be able to critique that and illustrate the same.
Step 3: Make the plan
After you read the article several times, you will likely have a picture in your head for writing an essay. Make a plan from your arguments and outline what you will analyze and in what order. It will significantly simplify your work.
Step 4: Write a critical analysis of an article
Follow your plan and write the paper. Do not be afraid to express your point of view and give examples. It is also important to correctly cite the article you are analyzing and all additional materials.
Step 5: Edit your essay
After writing, reread the finished analysis and get rid of the mistakes. Also, be sure to check whether you quoted correctly and whether you indicated the writer everywhere. Since you are analyzing a finished article, there is a significant risk that your work will be taken for plagiarism. To avoid it is crucial to quote.
Article Analysis Format
If you need to analyze a research article or any other article, it is vital that you first study the requirements of your university. Because most often, the format of your essay will be determined by these rules. Also, the citation norms will affect the analysis format.
Be sure to clarify these details with your teacher before starting to analyze.
Article Analysis Example
You may be asked to critique different types of articles as a writer. Some common examples include journal articles, research articles, and news articles. Each type has its way of analysis, which you should be aware of as a writer. It is good to come up with questions before you get to your essay writing because the question guides what you will cover in your analysis.
If you need to critically analyze an article, here are some useful examples. And if you need more inspiration, here are more samples.
What Didn’t You Know About the Article Analysis Template?
You should be conversant with the procedures of conducting your analysis as a writer. To come up with great content for your work, you should follow the following outline:
- Read through the piece quickly to get an overview.
- Look for confronting words in the article and note them down.
- Read the piece for the second time while summarizing major points in the literature piece.
- Reflect on the paper’s thesis to affirm and adhere to it in your writing.
- Note the arguments and the evidence used.
- Evaluate the article and focus on your audience.
- Give your opinion and support it to the satisfaction of your audience.
After going through all those steps, you will have succeeded in developing a good critique for an article.
