Lesson 7 of 7
Analyzing a Passage or Poem
Analysis means breaking a text into parts and explaining how those parts work together to make meaning. Whether it is a paragraph of a novel or a short poem, the move is the same.
- 1Read it twice. The first time for what it says, the second time for how it says it.
- 2Find the meaning. What is this passage really about under the surface?
- 3Spot the tools. Look for literary devices, word choices, and images the writer used on purpose.
- 4Make a claim about how a device creates the meaning.
- 5Back the claim with evidence and explain it.
Claim, evidence, explanation
- ●Claim: your point about what the text means or does. Example: The poet uses cold imagery to show the speaker's loneliness.
- ●Evidence: the exact words from the text that prove it. Example: the line about frost on the empty window.
- ●Explanation: how the evidence proves the claim. Example: the frost and the empty window turn a normal morning into a picture of isolation, so the reader feels the speaker's loneliness without being told.
Coach Fite
Same as breaking down film, young blood. You watch it twice, you find the key, you point to the exact frame, then you say what it means. Claim, evidence, explanation. That is how you win the argument on paper, and that is how you stay eligible to play.
REMEMBER
Always tie your point back to the whole text. Do not just say what a line means. Say what it adds to the meaning of the entire passage or poem.
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