The comment: Summarize less, analyze more
C-73
Similar comments
- Too much summary
- Show, don’t tell
- Go deeper
Understanding the comment
When readers point out that you need to include more analysis and less summary, the comment often signals that they are looking for your interpretation of the text.
Strategies for revising
- Reread your paragraph and highlight the sentences that summarize. Then, in a different color, highlight the sentences that contain your analysis. (Summary describes what the text says; analysis offers a judgment or an interpretation of the text. Your goal is to balance summary with analysis.)
- Reread the text (or passages of the text) that you are analyzing. Pay attention to how the language and structure of the text contribute to its meaning.
- Ask questions. What strategies does the author use, and how do those strategies help convey the author’s message? What insights about the text can you share with your readers? How can you deepen your readers’ understanding of the author’s main points?
- Engage the text. Argue with or talk back to the author. Challenge the author’s assumptions or conclusions. Extend the reasoning of the author or show the consequences of taking the author’s position.
Related topics:
Summarizing a written text
C-74
Summarizing an image or a multimodal text
Analyzing a written text
Analyzing an image or a multimodal text
Balancing summary with analysis for a written text
Balancing summary with analysis for an image or a multimodal text