SECTION III

ANALYTICAL WRITING

Consider what makes up a good conversation in everyday life.

For a good conversation, it helps if the parties involved are both interested and well versed in the topic. It helps if they’re listening to each other, understanding the message they’re receiving, and then responding in appropriate ways that move the conversation forward.

Good conversations tend to flow, moving from topic to topic, as fresh insights are uncovered and the participants add on to each other’s ideas in an effort to bring a little more light and sense to whatever is being discussed.

Now imagine a conversation where there is an additional party, an interested, listening audience.

I want us to think of the analytical experiences in this next section as conversations because writing is communication. In this case, we’re using the vehicle of the conversation as a way to convey meaning to our interested listening (or reading, in this case) audience.

The goal in these conversations is to leave the audience smarter and better informed.

In the first experience in this section, “What’s the Right Thing to Do?,” you’ll tackle an ethical dilemma. Your goal is not to simply answer the question but to discuss it in such a way that your audience has a better understanding of the depths and complexities of the ethical dilemma.

Next you’ll go deep into trying to understand and explicate a conspiracy theory by answering the question, “If It Isn’t True, Why Do People Believe It?” Why do we tend to believe certain things, even when the evidence points in a different direction? What kinds of biases may color our perceptions of the world?

“Who Are We?” and “What’s So Funny?” are conversations about “texts.” You will help the audience uncover meaning that isn’t apparent at first glance but once revealed will advance the depth of conversation about those texts.

The final three experiences, “What’s Going to Happen?,” “How’s It All Going to End?,” and “What If . . . ?” go deep with your skills at drawing inferences from observations, in this case doing analysis on events that have yet to, and may never, occur.

There are no absolutely right answers to these questions, but there are answers that can be seen by the audience to be correct. To achieve this kind of connection with your audience means committing to the idea of engaging in a conversation that leaves your audience better off than they were before, while utilizing all aspects of the writer’s practice to the best of your abilities.