A2-d: Analyzing to demonstrate your critical reading (multimodal texts)
Whereas a summary most often answers the question of what a text says, an analysis looks at how a text conveys its main idea or message. As you read and reread an image or a multimodal text—previewing, annotating, and conversing—you are forming a judgment of it.
Balancing summary with analysis
If you have written a summary of a text, you may find it useful to refer to the main points of the summary as you write your analysis. Your readers may or may not be familiar with the visual or multimodal text you are analyzing and will need at least some summary to ground your analysis. For example, student writer Ren Yoshida summarized the Equal Exchange advertisement in A2-b by describing part of the text first, allowing readers to get their bearings, and then moving to an analytical statement about that particular part of the text.
Drafting an analytical thesis statement
An effective thesis statement for analytical writing about an image or a multimodal text responds to a question about the text or tries to resolve a problem in the text. Remember that your thesis isn’t the same as the text’s thesis or main idea. Your thesis presents your judgment of the text’s argument. If you find that your thesis is restating the text’s message, turn to your notes to see if the questions you asked earlier in the process can help you revise.
ineffective thesis statement
Consumers who purchase coffee from farmers in the Equal Exchange network are helping farmers stay on their land.
The thesis is ineffective because it summarizes the ad; it doesn’t present an analysis. Ren Yoshida focused the thesis by questioning a single detail in the work.
questions
The ad promises an equal exchange, but is the exchange equal between consumers and farmers? Do the words equal exchange and empowering farmers appeal to consumers’ emotions?
effective thesis statement
Although the ad works successfully on an emotional level, it is less successful on a logical level because of its promise for an equal exchange between consumers and farmers.
Guidelines for analyzing an image or a multimodal text
- What is your first impression of the text? What details in the text create this response?
- When and why was the text created? Where did the text appear?
- What clues suggest the text’s intended audience? What assumptions are being made about the audience?
- What is the thesis, central idea, or message of the text?
- Does this text tell a story? How would you sum up the story?
- If the text is multimodal, what modes are used, and why? How do the modes work together?
- How do the arrangement of sounds or design details—images, illustrations, colors, fonts, perspective—help convey the text’s meaning or serve its purpose?