: Re: On what basis can existing writings be analyzed? On what basis can I analyze the piece of writing? Like, what are the things that tells me writers state of mind, or certain effects that a

@Karen856

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On what basis can I analyze (a) piece of writing?

If you're asking how you can achieve standing to analyze a piece of writing -- you have to read it. That's all :) Once you've read something, you're qualified, as a reader, to examine, interpret, and draw conclusions about the thing you read. In fact, I don't think you can avoid it! Some prominent critics think you can even do this without actually reading the work, though I think you'll do a better job if you do read it.

If you're asking how to do it well, that's not horribly difficult either. The main challenge is picking a scope and consistently using evidence from that scope.

So what do I mean by scope? The scope of analysis is the body of evidence you can draw from in order to form and support your conclusions. For example, it is perfectly valid to use the scope of your experience as a reader. If you choose that scope, though, draw your evidence from that scope and restrict your conclusions to the same scope. If you say, "when I read this passage (possibly quoting it), i felt or experienced this thing", and then use that feeling as evidence, conclusions about the author's thought process or London in the 1800s won't be well supported.

You can pick any number of different scopes though, if you want to draw other kinds of conclusions. If you did want to draw some conclusion about London in the 1800s while analyzing A Tale of Two Cities, then that's your scope (and you need evidence from that scope). Find some letters, articles, or other historical source material, combine that with evidence from the text itself, and draw your conclusions from that.

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