This handout reviews general information about summary, analysis, and synthesis, but always write with your audience and guidelines in mind. Note: Remember to cite your sources as you …

Analysis examines specific elements within a text. As the writer, you must dissect aspects of the text and closely examine them for purpose, effect, or meaning. Analysis will rely on the use of …

While summary describes what a text says, analysis focuses on how the text says it and why it is significant. That focus often means breaking the text down into parts in order to better …

Summaries are not opinions or interpretations. Summaries capture the essence of the author’s intention, not yours. “When you analyze something you have read or heard, you mentally …

The two sets of paragraphs below illustrate the differences between a paragraph focusing on summary and one focusing on analysis. The second paragraph in each set illustrates analysis.

SUMMARY: In "The Consequences of Carnage as Entertainment," author John Ellis argues that youth violence results from watching violence in the media. He attributes the rash of school …

If a summary is a list of things, an analysis is an attempt to explain those things to someone else. When you analyze something, you try to make sense out of it.