ANALYSIS Practice

Analysis is the explanation, interpretation or expansion of your evidence sentences to support

your mini-thesis. These sentences answer the question: “Why is this significant?” While you are
practicing, you can use leading phrases to help you: ​This is important because…, This means
that…, This shows that…., This is significant because...

Example #1 ​ In the example below, notice how the analysis sentence provides the “so what?”
for the evidence and helps to prove your mini-thesis.

Mini-thesis (MT): Studying history helps students to understand current events.

Evidence (EV): For example, the events of September 11 have important historical roots.
Specific evidence (SPEV): American intervention in the Middle East caused a great deal of
conflict and resentment.
Analysis (AN): ​This shows that​ understanding our past can help put the present in context.

Practice #1 ​ Finish the analysis (AN) sentence below by expanding on, explaining or analyzing
the evidence.

(MT): Middle Schools that begin before 10:00am are inhumane.

(EV): Adolescents need at least ten hours of sleep each night.
(SPEV): It is unreasonable to expect students to be asleep by 9:00 p.m. in order to wake up at
7:00 a.m.
​ _________________________________________________________
(AN): ​This means that _
____________________________________________________________________________

Analysis for History

Example #2
(MT): The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were divided on several issues. ​(use this
MT for practices 2, 3 and 4 below)
(EV): Some felt the Articles of Confederation should be completely rewritten.
(SPEV): Other delegates thought only minor changes were needed.
(AN): The issue was further complicated because those that favored revision did not necessarily
agree on what should be changed.
Practice #2:​ Create your own analysis for the following evidence in support of the mini-thesis in
example #2 above.
(EV): Large and small states had different ideas about representation.
(SPEV): The Virginia Plan, favored by large states, proposed representation in proportion to
state populations, while the New Jersey Plan, favored by small states, proposed maintaining
equal representation by the states.
(AN): Write a sentence that explains, analyzes or expands on this evidence. ​This shows that…
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

Practice #3:
(EV): The debate over representation involved regional differences.
(SPEV): Southern delegates wanted to include slaves in their population count in order to get
more representatives.
(SPEV): Northern delegates did not think slaves should be counted in determining
representation.
(AN): ​This is significant because…
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

Practice #4:
(EV): The foreign slave trade caused further debate at the Constitutional Convention.
(SPEV): Some delegates wanted the federal government to stop the slave trade altogether,
while many southern delegates threatened to oppose the entire Constitutution if an immediate
ban was part of the document.
(SPEV): Delegates compromised by agreeing to let the slave trade continue for 20 years, while
dropping the requirement for a two-thirds majority to pass laws in Congress.
(AN):
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________