After reading Rosenwasser’s work on writing analytically, I was able to see many of my flaws I struggle with when it comes to analysis. One of his first points that struck me was the first analytical move: “Suspend Judgment.” I did not realize how my judgments towards a piece of writing hindered my ability to constructively analyze a piece. When I come to a judgment that a work of writing is boring, I find it difficult to analyze it because I’m struggling to fully comprehend the writing. Even when I try avoiding myself from judging, it tends to happen instantaneously.
The second point that I never considered before was being able to differentiate the three different type of communication. Although I knew the three different type of communications/writing, I took a similar approach for all of them. Rosenwasser writes “Analytical writers are frequently more concerned with persuading themselves, with discovering what they believe about a subject, than they are with persuading others,” (p. 12) and this made me realize I’ve been writing with the wrong audience in mind when writing an analytical paper.
Lastly, when Rosenwasser writes about reading “rather than just passively registering the information contained in them,” I was able to see one of my biggest problem. (p. 205) When I’m reading a textbook assigned by a professor, I read gist of it and try to get the big picture. But that’s why I can’t be conversant when it comes to class discussion or have an opinion of my own.
Those were my issues also, I think it’s the college life to rush through work and look for the big picture of things just so we can at least get a good grade in the class.
I agree completely on your first point. I too struggled with letting my judgment interfere with my analysis on the subject. The best solution to this, in my opinion, is to have an open mind.