What's the difference between argument and analysis?

I choose this question because I remember it being one that confused me and my classmates greatly during the transition between GCSE and A-level. At GCSE, your answer is black and white. You're often asked a question about what caused a particular event such as, for example, Hitler's rise to power (the question I remember getting in my GCSE exam) and then taught a range of contributing factors. In the exam hall, you reel off why each factor was important, supported by factual evidence, and then, at the end, give your own opinion about which one was more important. However, at A-level this isn't good enough. The main crucial differnece is that an argument needs to be sustained. If you got the same question about what caused Hitler's rise to power, you would have to state your answer in your introduction, leaving room for a lean focused argument and no wasted words. From there, however, there are still all the other factors that you have dismissed to consider, and that is where analysis comes in. If your conclusion was that Hitler's rise was caused by the international situation at the time, then you might start by considering the effects of other well-known factors, like his policies or the influence of the rich businessmen in Germany. What examiners find impressive is going through why these other factors were important, like at GCSE, but then always linking your answer back to your central argument by simultaneously explaining why these other factors were superceded by, or even owed their existence to, the international situation. An example: An example: "... and therefore it is undeniable that Hitler's policies won him a huge amount of popular support. However, those same policies fell on largely deaf ears in the years before the Wall Street Crash, at a time where liberal democracy in Germany was performing strongly, which suggests that the international economic situation played strongly into Nazi hands." A sustained argument is crucial, and if it can be woven subtley throughout an essay then all the better, meaning that by the time you turn your attention to the international situation, your own conclusion, you've already made your argument clear and strong and supported it. Argument is stating what you think the answer is and why, while analysis is comparing it with other possible answers, commenting on the relationships between them, and why ultimately your answer is better than the rest.