Analyzing Texts

You have an assignment in a class to analyze a poem or a paper. Most people will pick the paper because poetry is very hard to understand. There are many ways to interpret texts. 

First you have to decide what you want to analyze, then study how the text works. You need to identify patterns and analyze the argument. Another thing to do is to think about the larger context. For example don't think about the text as one little thing, the text could be related to other important things. This makes my life easier when I analyze texts, come up with a thesis. Once you have a main idea it is smooth sailing from there. Once the main idea is out, nothing will stop you from figuring out what you are reading.