Analyzing Information

Introduction

As a student, you’re learning to go beyond the surface level of issues and appreciate the complexity of different ideas and sources. In order to do so, you need the ability to analyze sources effectively. To analyze a source, you not only must understand the basic message but also be able to identify its themes, evaluate its message, and ask open-ended questions in order to pursue a deeper understanding.

Being an Analytical Reader

Successful analysis is all about going beyond the surface of an issue or a source to achieve a deeper understanding. The first step in this process is to be a careful reader.

Asking Smart Questions

Being a thoughtful reader also will help you with another key aspect of analysis: asking smart questions. When you first encounter a source, you may ask yourself a number of questions to evaluate your understanding of the material. Your initial questions might be basic but after reading and rereading your source thoroughly, you’ll probe more deeply and ask more complex questions.

Guidelines for Successful Analytical Questions: The Dinner Table Test

Basic questions don’t help facilitate analysis because they usually have an obvious, close-ended answer. Instead, analytical questions usually are open-ended and prompt you to engage with a source (or several sources) to answer them thoughtfully. They generally will not have a single right answer; instead, asking them is a way to explore ideas. In other words, they would be interesting questions to explore at the dinner table, not questions that could be answered by a quick Google search.

When developing an analytical question, ask yourself if it passes the dinner table test. If you could make a conversation or debate out of a question, that’s a promising sign.

Guidelines for Successful Analytical Questions: Open-Mindedness

Analytical questions explore, rather than resolve, issues. Analysis rarely is neat or linear, and you should not expect to find a single right answer. Open-mindedness is a prerequisite toward asking this kind of question because doing so assumes you’re ready to accept the complexity of an issue. When you ask questions with an open mind, you won’t be boxed into needing to arrive at a specific conclusion. You’ll also be better able to seek out additional sources to understand the nuances of an issue if you’re not set on a single source or point of view.

From Questions to Understanding

Successful analytical questions point you in directions for additional exploration. Asking questions about a source is like putting it under a microscope—the questions enable you to examine and observe details that you otherwise might not have noticed had you just been taking in a source at surface level. Think of when you look at an object like a leaf under a microscope. You’ll notice patterns and complexities in the leaf’s composition that you couldn’t see just by examining it with the naked eye. Your question also might cause you to notice some complicating factors, such as funding for different initiatives, the availability of medical services, presence of social service workers, or family support systems differing between communities. Take opioid treatments as an example: The question may get your mind thinking more deeply not only about factors that might allow for successful treatment, but also why solutions may not be as simple as a single story. Asking that first question will lead you down a trail to others, and to considering the issue from different perspectives that you hadn’t considered at first.

Identify the type of question being asked.

Things to Avoid in Analysis

Now that we’ve reviewed some of the keys to success in analytical reading and questioning, let’s review some of the things to avoid.

Analysis will be flawed and inaccurate if the content you are analyzing is taken out of context. Context is key to analysis in all fields, from history and art to science and politics. Consider these scenarios.

• If the results of a scientific study are analyzed out of context, the conclusions can be badly misunderstood. For example, if analyzing the results of a certain study testing a medication, you must consider factors like the population being tested, the size of the study, and other points before making conclusions about how and where the medication should be used.
• Coverage of a current event may be incomplete if it does not take context into account. For example, a town might enact legislation restricting owners from renting their homes to vacationers. Without any context, it might be easy to criticize this legislation as being too restrictive. With additional context, such as facts about how vacation rentals affect public safety and housing affordability, it might be necessary to appreciate the intent of the legislation.

Be aware of your own biases and how they may impact your analysis. While it’s impossible to completely eliminate bias, being aware of how your previous experiences or viewpoints may impact how you interpret a text is a key first step. It’s also important to recognize what bias a source author may have and consider that context in your analysis. For example, you may want to consider an author’s financial interests or political background when analyzing an argument they are making.

As we discussed previously, analysis rarely leads to a black and white, right or wrong answer, and in the process of analyzing sources, you likely will find information or ideas that complicate your perspective. Do not ignore these instances. Use them as an opportunity to ask yourself new questions, seek out additional viewpoints, and check your original analysis to see if your thinking has changed.

From Analysis to Synthesis

As we’ve explored, analyzing a source involves zooming in on the details it contains in order to understand it more fully, by asking questions and looking for important themes and patterns. While some situations may require you only to focus on a single source, often you will be looking at multiple sources in order to gain a complete understanding of an issue. In order to do this, you will need to move from analyzing individual sources to synthesizing ideas and information from across multiple sources to determine broader meaning and lessons.

While we cover synthesizing information in greater detail in our related materials, for the purposes of this tutorial, it’s important to understand that analysis and synthesis often go hand in hand and one can impact the other. You may come to a certain understanding of an issue by analyzing one source, but when you synthesize that source’s content with information from other sources, you may find that you need to adjust your original analysis. The process rarely is linear, but don’t worry! You’ll find that you have a stronger understanding by reconsidering your original ideas after comparing them with others.

Conclusion

Analyzing information is a skill that improves with practice. It may seem daunting at first to tackle a complicated text, but remember that asking questions is at the foundation of strong analysis—you don’t need to understand everything immediately in order to analyze successfully. What you need to start is the willingness to read carefully, ask questions thoughtfully, and keep an open mind as you delve deeper. With these tactics, you will be on your way to analyzing information effectively in your academic and professional life.