Summary = Observation Analysis = Arguement

Greetings!

      I am writing to express my understanding of the following; summarizing versus analyzing. Before I begin to explain the differences between the two, I would like to state when appropriate, a summary is just as important as an analysis. We must first decipher when we are required to use one or the other. As well know the difference between the two when we are trying to interpret a piece of reading, if its observing something or if its making connections to something bigger based off those observations. I don’t want you to think that I trying impose that one may seem more user friendly than the other, or more important. They are equally valuable for a writer and a reader when the time to use either of them presents itself within the literature at hand. If I am looking to read a summary of a movie, I will not want to read an analysis. I just want a brief overview of key points that might interest me enough to spend my time to read or watch it. On the other hand, if I am looking for a much deeper understanding of that movie/novel, to see if anyone has brought about any hidden meanings that I might have overlooked, I would look for a detailed analysis, not a summary.

     A summary is as I said, an “observation” of a writing, movie, article and is summed up for the reader to get the key points across. In a summary, there is no thesis statement, there is no argument for why these events or settings took place. Its simply just a panoramic picture of what took place within the text or film. When one summarizes, they merely take what they think is important in their observation and shares it with others. If I were to summarize “a Winters Bone” by Daniel Woodrell‘s. I wouldn’t go into why the story unfolded the way it did, or make statements like “Ree, a heroine, battles against the world of drugs, deceit and poverty. Her affection towards her family is so deep that she does anything to keep them safe, with a roof over their head. Crystal meth is a huge problem for people all over the United States, this book captures a glimpse into the horrifying affects of drugs and the secrecy that enshrouds people who produce and use them.”  That kind of statement is analytical, so I would have to go about it differently if I was making a summary. Something like “Ree is a young women who cares for her two brothers and her mentally unsound mother in the back woods of the Ozarks in southern Missouri. Her father is a meth cook and has a court date that if he doesn’t show up for, can allow the state to take possession over the land Ree’s family lives on. Her father disappears, and its up to Ree to find him ect.”

     I am not digging deeper for better understanding with a summary, I am just stating the obvious. So key things to remember when dealing with a summary is it tells you what happens in the story. Its detailed information about the events that took place, specific accounts of scenery and the characters within the story. Our English teacher Mrs. Cline simplified summaries as reporting. So if we look at it that way, its hard to confuse summary with analyzing. Mrs. Cline also gives us hints to recognize to decipher if it’s a summary or not, with words like “about”  and “is”. Also, we are told to ask the question “Can this be wrong?” if what your reading when asked this question, answers “No” then what you are reading is most likely a summary.

     Analyzing is wonderful for really obtaining a deeper understanding to something, whether a novel or a film, or short story, or newspaper article. Mrs. Cline refers to this as “close reading”. When we analyze something, we ask questions and find ways to dissect the text into basic parts, avidly trying to understand the context, the true meaning behind each element. Analyzing adds much more significance to events and context than summarizing, it’s the threshold before one can make speculation to what it is the author is intending. We aren’t looking at the story as a story anymore, we are looking at it as a formula, with complex molecules that when combined make up that story. I like to view analyzing as using a scientific approach to understanding what it is your reading or watching. We break apart those molecules (sections from the text), to unravel the atoms in which they were composed from (images, scenery, events, characters ect), then the tiny atomic particles that make up the atom(their significance, the meaning behind them), until we feel that we might have a sense to what the author was intending, what he/she was thinking. At this point we have what it takes to comprise an argument.

     Our instructor Mrs. Cline gives us many tools in her power point presentation describing the differences of Summary and Analysis. I hope you were all able to learn and benefit the abundance of knowledge she shared with us on this matter. One last thing, that I thought was important to remember is that a literary analysis is made from summary and description, then going to analysis, then enabling you to make your argument based off your analysis and observations.  In literary analysis you can’t have one without the other, they are chemically bound together. You need a little summary/observations to support your analysis/argument. Here is a helpful link that covers more about the differences and roles of a summary and a analysis. Thanks for reading and take care!

-David