3 Chapter 3: Interpretation, Analysis, and Response
When you use quotes in your writing, you need to do something with them. You might quote an example of your point. You might quote a fact or statistic. These are pretty easy to explain, but in academic writing, we often work with sources that discuss complicated ideas in complex ways. When we are engaging the ideas of a quote (not merely using an example or quoting a number), we need to spend time interpreting, analyzing, and thoughtfully responding to them. This means we often have to spend time working through their meaning to be able to discuss the ideas ourselves.
We’ll learn about and practice three moves to make when working with a complex quote: interpretation, analysis, and response. When you have a complicated quote, you’ll need to do all three of these moves. But first, let’s talk about what not to do. Too often, I see students jumping right to response, assuming that everyone understands the quote the same way that they do. Let’s call this reaction and try to avoid it.
Reaction
This is the move that we’ll try to avoid. So you know what I mean though, I want to explain and give an example. In this move, one reacts to the ideas in the quote with their own ideas. In the example below, I introduce and quote from an essay called “We Are Not All Created Equal” by Stephen Marche. In the sentence after, I react to the author’s claim.
Example
As Marche (2011) states, “Who wins and who loses has become simplified, purified: those who own and those who don’t” (p. 256). But there are plenty of examples of people who come from nothing to achieve great success in the world.
Reaction is not a great academic writing move. For one, it often causes one to misinterpret the ideas in the text. In the example above, I react with a statement about the world, when Marche was speaking specifically about the United States. In our writing, let’s try to move beyond reaction toward interpretation, analysis, and thoughtful response.
Interpretation
In this move, the ideas in the quote are figured out. This is an especially important part of using quotes in your writing, because you cannot assume that those reading your writing interpret the quote the same that you do. You have to put the ideas in your own words to clarify how you understand them.
Example
As Marche (2011) states, “Who wins and who loses has become simplified, purified: those who own and those who don’t” (p. 256). In other words, one can only get ahead if they already are ahead.
Analysis
The word analysis means “detailed examination”. In this move, you take interpretation one step further to really dig into what the author meant. Identify specific words to question and figure out. Use context from around the quote in the original source to add meaning. Uncover any assumptions the author is making. Identify anything the author has overlooked.
Analysis is just digging deeper, using interpretation as a jumping off point. Though analysis and interpretation are similar, analysis requires more digging and breaking apart. We need to do analysis, because an interpretation might be simple and surface level. If we jump to response right away, we risk just reacting on the surface level as well. Analysis forces us to consider the quote more thoughtfully. That way we cannot help but arrive at a thoughtful response.
(Note my example below builds on the Interpretation example from above.)
Example
As Marche (2011) states, “Who wins and who loses has become simplified, purified: those who own and those who don’t” (p. 256). In other words, one can only get ahead if they already are ahead. Marche is talking about society in the United States specifically, and he seems to be responding to the conventional idea that anyone can succeed with hard work and determination. By using the words “simplified” and “purified”, he gives his point a negative connotation.
Response
After careful interpretation and analysis, one can respond to the ideas from a source thoughtfully. This is where you get to add your perspective to the conversation. What do you think about the points the author made in the quote? Try to do more than simple agreement or disagreement. If you agree, extend the ideas to connect to your own points. If you disagree, counter the ideas with a different perspective. The response move will largely depend on the topic and ideas in your writing more broadly, since you’ll be connecting to them. For example, if you were writing an essay about sexism in the workplace, you would connect Marche’s quote to that topic specifically in your response. I demonstrate that in the example below.
Example
As Marche (2011) states, “Who wins and who loses has become simplified, purified: those who own and those who don’t” (p. 256). In other words, one can only get ahead if they already are ahead. Marche is talking about society in the United States specifically, and he seems to be responding to the conventional idea that anyone can succeed with hard work and determination. By using the words “simplified” and “purified”, he gives his point a negative connotation. And if we look at who is already ahead in many industries today, we see that overwhelmingly, men outnumber women in Fortune 500 CEOs, members of congress, and tech startup founders.
Another Example:
(Interpretation is in italics. Analysis is in bold. Response is underlined.)