Thought Machines
Thought machines are simple mechanisms designed to help us think. Some provoke our thinking by directing our attention to texts or artifacts in certain specific ways. This priming might function as a sort of lens by narrowing our focus on certain features that had previously escaped our view. In other cases, we might seek to broaden our understanding with a more systematic approach that tries to bring a wider, more comprehensive, scope to our analysis. And while these tools may be used on written texts, many of them are useful for examining other cultural artifacts such as film, music, or art.
Each of these machines represent practices that are used by effective writers and researchers. More practiced writers make routine and concerted use of these tools without much conscious thought. However, breaking them into discrete tools for practice and experimentation is often a very helpful way to learn deeper forms of analysis and critical thinking.
Analysis Cards
1. Find All Arguments
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
1) LIST ALL ARGUMENTS:
Identify the key arguments made in the reading. As I describe elsewhere, you should get into the habit of flagging arguments in texts as a process of critical annotation. You might choose a symbol to place in the margins of readings to identify arguments as you encounter them. I use a small circle or dot, like this: . Sometimes I put a symbol in the circle like a question mark or an exclamation point to indicate what I was thinking about the argument as I read it at the time. Do whatever works for you, but remember the idea is that this is a clue for your future self. Make life easy for future self. One of the main skills required here is the ability to distinguish argumentative statements from the things that support them: like examples, metaphors, and evidence. In your field notebook, make a series of numbered statements that summarize each of the supporting arguments that you detect in the text. Essentially, construct a brief and precise outline of the text's thesis and various supporting arguments.
2. Summary
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
2) SUMMARY:
A summary is a concise re-presentation of the essential features of a text. The summary should not be list-like; it should be a confident presentation with a nice flow and logic. Although a summary sacrifices specificity and detail in the interest of brevity, it must always remain a faithful representation of the original text. Write a tight summary of the entire argument; use LIST ALL ARGUMENTS as your guide. Don’t leave anything out. Don't add anything that isn't there. No opinions or evaluations. Just the facts, stated clearly.
3. Quick Response
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
3) QUICK RESPONSE:
What part(s) of this text or film gave you pause? Made you curious about something? Did it inspire some thinking related (or adjacent) to its arguments? Pick something particular and explain what the essay inspired for you personally. Dig into these things a bit more deeply and do some thinking. Fee free to do some light research. While the response genre will be personal in nature, it should not be without substance. For example, it isn't enough to say "I liked it" or "This was no good."
4. Quick Argument
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
4) QUICK ARGUMENT:
Find something particular in this text or film and make a short argument about it. Make a claim and support it with evidence. Did you find yourself having a strong response to something that was articulated in the text? Perhaps you disagree with argumentative reasoning of a text or want to make a critique of the politics of a film. Or perhaps the text you are contemplating will give rise to an idea about making some concrete change that we should make. Feel free to discuss anything that seems notable or important to you.
5. Close Reading
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
5) CLOSE READING:
A passage means what it says because the author arranged a series of words together in such a way as to produce that meaning. However, once the writing is complete and the text is out in the world, it becomes subject to interpretation by audiences. We sometimes call these interpretations ‘readings.’ A ‘close reading’ is a decoding exercise, a detailed explanation of exactly what a passage means (according to us) using only the words in the text as evidence. What do you think this passage from the text means? What evidence in the text supports your view? How far can you take the analysis? You might discover a deeper interpretation if you look up certain words in the dictionary and find less common senses of the word. You might notice the way a metaphor suggests a certain perspective on the passage or how it connects to some other theme or idea in the broader text. Write an explanation of all this thinking to your audience. A close reading should not be impressionistic (‘This writing sucks!’ or ‘I love it!’); or evaluative (‘This idea is important’); instead, it should focus on simply explaining to your audience what the passage means by meticulously pointing to how the text is constructed.
6. Paraphrase
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
6) PARAPHRASE:
Say the same thing the author says in about the same length using your own words and sentence structure. Think of this as a translation from English into English.
7. Comparison
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
7) COMPARISON:
Sketch out the ways two texts seem to be in conversation with each other on some issue, problem, or argument. While this may involve two pieces of writing, it may also involve two films or a film and a written text. What connections do you see? What relationship may be detected?
8. Critical Thinking
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
8) CRITICAL THINKING:
Let’s think carefully about the argument of this text. Is it convincing? Are there weaknesses in the reasoning or evidence? Are there things that are omitted? Blind spots of some sort?
9. Key Passages
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
9) KEY PASSAGES:
What are the key moments in the text? These moments will no doubt include the central claims and arguments of the text; however, it may also just include certain terms, turns of phrase, or memorable language that seems to invite memorialization in our own writing. Imagine that you are stripping the text for parts so that you can use them for something you are building. What are the essential, necessary items that you need to extract? We might imagine a similar operation for various artforms, like a film.
10. Rhetorical Analysis
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
10) RHETORICAL ANALYSIS:
Examine how the author chose to present their ideas, knowing that they could have chosen differently. For example, one author might write a traditional argument while another may choose to tell a story. A writer might be furious, mocking, sarcastic; or, they may take the "high road" and try to win the audience with a high-minded and respectful form of discourse. Were these choices effective for you personally as a reader? What about for a broader, or different, audience?
11. The Big Idea
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
11) THE BIG IDEA:
Write down a ‘big idea’ that you had today in class. This could be something someone said, an idea from a reading, or something you thought. Perhaps this idea might relate to some of your own writing in the class. Or relate to something more personal for you. This thought might be useful later, so memorialize it.
12. Shoplifting
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
12) SHOPLIFTING:
All good writers are thieves. During your peer review, did you see something that you admired in the other student's draft? Was there perhaps a passage or a quotation from the reading that you'd not used, but should? Write down some ideas that you could borrow to strengthen your own paper.
13. WTF?
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
12) WTF?
Return to the text and find a passage that you struggled with as you read. Go to work on it. Try to take possession of the meaning by putting the text into your own words. What is the author saying or illustrating here? Try to summarize it. Ask questions. Look up terms. Find some path to a breakthrough.
14. Take Inventory
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
13) TAKE INVENTORY:
Things have parts; these parts work together to form a broader system. A car engine, a laptop computer, a riparian ecosysem. When we take inventory, we try to take notice of all of the parts that make up a thing by first isolating them and then inquiring into their purpose within the broader complexity or system. Many of these things are not apparent upon first glance and require patience, effort, and imagination. Look at an argument as a whole. Examine each paragraph. What is this part doing here? What purpose does it serve in the broader text or argument? How does it connect, mesh, complicate, engage, or trouble other aspects of the text? Does the text emerge from a broader system, like an existing dialogue or conversation?
15. Indagation
NO SILO > PROJECT GRAIN ELEVATOR > ANALYSIS CARDS 1.0
15) INDAGATION:
Indagate is an unusual verb that comes into English from the Latin word indagare, which suggests a hunter tracking game. Find some small reference in the text that you are unfamiliar with or curious about. Perhaps it is a reference to a person, a place, a group of people, or some other thing that is left unexplained in the text. Find something that you would like to know more about. Perform your indigation by hunting down the reference and writing a paragraph or two about what you find once you've captured your prey. How does this thing relate to the broader text or argument? Why is this reference here? Now that you know this, what meaning(s) does it unlock for you in the text?