Thesis to Essay

How/why an author uses/chooses certain choices

• Persuade the reader

• Make the piece more effective

• Make the piece more powerful

Summarizing vs. Analyzing

Summarizing

• What the text says; Main ideas/events in your own words

• Goal is to inform

• What happened? What was said?

• Past tense action verb

Analyzing

• How and why it works; examine choices, patterns, and effects to explain meaning and impact

• Goal is to argue/interpret

• How is this built? Why that choice? What does this mean for the audience/purpose?

  If someone who hasn’t read a text now knows the gist, you summarized. If they understand how the text persuades or means more than it says, you analyzed