Analytical writing, as its name suggests, is using writing as a tool to express the results and insights gained from analyzing certain materials. Though each individual has unique background and experience, his analysis shall nevertheless be firmly based on the materials. To avoid diverging from the text, each argument should be firmly supported by evidence from the materials. Since the final goal is to convince the audience of the argument, the choice of words and materials must be tailored to fit the audience. Thus, the three main elements of analytical writing are: objective perspective, evidence-based argument and audience-targeted rhetoric.
To be objective means to focus on the materials as they are rather than seeing them through the writer’s personal opinions. This element is the cornerstone for the analytical process. Since the materials analyzed are very likely chronologically distant and culturally different from the modern world, many details would first appear to be confusing or even ridiculous. For example, when reading Homer’s "Iliad," the gloomy and violent character of the Achilles echoes much less in modern reader’s mind, compared to the gentle and family-loving Hector. However, if the writer tries to understand Achilles from his cultural background, the one that puts the search and defense of glory as the highest virtue, much more would be understood.
With objectiveness as the goal of analysis, the writer need the mechanism of evidence-based argument to assure that he is not going astray. The key of evidence-based writing is that every argument of the writer shall be supported by evidence from the materials. Such requirement will enforce the writer to think in the language of the materials rather than his own, because whenever he unconsciously starts to think subjectively, the absence of evidence will remind him to go back to the materials. Besides its assistance in clear analytical writing, a strong use of evidence will also increase the persuasiveness of the article.
Since the final goal of analytical writing is to persuade its audience in a large cultural or scholarly conversation, the background of the audience must be taken into account to achieve best result of communication. Each group of individuals have their own background and experience that can differ widely from each other; using literary figures like Odysseus and Faust will certainly have less echos than scientific models like atom and electricity in the audience with a strong STEM background. There is no absolute better or worse in the selection of examples. It all depends on the audience.
Analytical writing is challenging. In addition to having all the merits of general writing, the writer has to fully cast away his own identity in the process of analysis and in the consideration for the audience, yet at the same time he has to use his own intelligence and wit to scrutinize every detail of the materials. During such process, the writer not only craft an article, but also walk through an amazing journey in a world widely different from his own. When he pick up his own identity again, there will be something new in it that he brought back from that world. Analytical writing transforms the writer who creates it, and that is its most stunning beauty.
