What makes good analysis?

In your essay answers, your analysis should work at two levels. Firstly you should be 'zooming in' to analyse the text at an individual word level. Look for individual word choices and consider why the text producer has used them. What word class are they? Does this particular word hold specific connotations with the text receiver? You should be using your fine toothed comb to search through the text and zoom in on small details.

Secondly, your analysis should then 'zoom out' Can you identify a pattern or trend between these individual word choices? Is there a lexical field that the text producer has chosen to employ? For example, if you have chosen to zoom in on the use of the abstract noun 'passion', has the text producer used many different abstract nouns across the whole text, and does this pattern have an affect on the text receiver? Has the text producer used a particular tone when writing the text? What linguistic features have contributed to this? Each paragraph of your answer should include examples of where you have 'zoomed in' and performed close textual analysis, and then examples of where you have 'zoomed out' and considered the text as a whole. This shows the examiner you can analyse in close detail, but that you also understand the purpose and style of the entirety of the text.