Description

The reason why Randall Fallows wrote Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis is simple: to help give students a better understanding of how to discover/ develop/ and revise an analytical essay. Here is how his 5 chapter book goes about doing just that: The first two chapters focus on the nature of an analysis and what's involved in writing an analytical essay. Randall shows that analysis consists of a balance of assertions (statements which present their viewpoints or launch an exploration of their concerns)/ examples (specific passages/scenes/events which inspire these views)/ explanations (statements that reveal how the examples support the assertions)/ and significance (statements which reveal the importance of their study to personal and/or cultural issues). After showing why each feature should be present throughout an essay/ he reveals how to "set the stage" for producing one of their own. He first helps students to evaluate their own views on a subject and to examine how these views emerge from their own experiences/ values and judgments. He/ then/ shows them how to research what others have said about the subject and provides suggestions for evaluating and incorporating this research into their own perspectives. Finally/ Randall discusses the nature of writing/ not as a linear procedure/ but as a recursive process where the discovery and clarification of a concept occur simultaneously. The remaining three chapters reveal more specific advice on how to develop an analytical essay. Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis by Randall Fallows is a great text to prepare any student to write analytical essays for the argument and persuasion courses.