Primary Source-Interpretive Analysis Paper
In this MGT 5000 assignment, you will write an analysis paper using the primary source-interpretive analysis purpose. You will draw logical conclusions about how primary source documents reveal specific managerial details from the selection to support your analytical perspective. You may not use first-person or second-person pronouns in your writing of the analysis. Your actual writing assignment will produce an interpretive analysis of 10 pages minimum/15 pages maximum, double spaced, excluding front and back matter. The content of the paper will be original thought and the flow will be logical (factual and supportable) and systematic (standardized sequence).
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KEYS TO SUCCESS
WHAT IS CRITICAL ANALYSIS?
REQUIRED STRUCTURE (provided by the professor)
SAMPLE ANALYSIS
NOTES ON THE SAMPLE ANALYSIS
KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT
1. Read the introductory information on critical analysis below (What Is Critical Analysis? The required structure for your writing assignment).
2. Read Twain’s article “Two Ways of Viewing the River.” This is just an “example” for illustrative purposes only.
3. Read the Sample Analysis of Twain’s article below for further illustration.
4. Study the Notes on the Sample Analysis below.
5. Compare the Sample Analysis to the suggested structure.
6. In the development of your analysis paper, you will COMPARE and CONTRAST the General and Industrial Management by Henri Fayol and My life and Work by Henry Ford. You will use the five principal managerial tasks (controlling, leading, organizing, coordinating, and planning) as your judgment criteria.
7. Review the Sample Analysis and the Required Structure. Use these as models to write your own interpretive analysis of the primary source document. When in doubt…consult with me or your classmates!
8. Review the keys to success.
9. Proofread and revise your analysis to be sure it is in direct compliance with the assignment requirements. You will likely need to revise your work several times. Strongly suggest you do and consult with me as necessary.
WHAT IS CRITICAL ANALYSIS?
Analysis is a form of the description pattern. Description considers the unique relationship between the parts and the whole. Analysis considers how the parts yield the whole. Writers have an intended purpose in mind for laying down their thoughts in record form. Their goal primarily is to persuade/inform or both. Ultimately, in simple terms, they want their audience to know or do something.
To analyze means to examine the parts (words/concepts) of a primary source document–for this exercise, a written work–to establish the part’s relationship to the whole “specifically” relating to the five principal managerial tasks. In many written works, the whole means the achievement of some main idea or theme. Critical analysis, in this assignment, is a thoughtful, very thoughtful consideration of how the CEO achieves meaning in a particular work. In this critical analysis, you are concerned with both how the CEO conveys meaning and what that intended meaning indicates. You should, of course, identify and express the main idea of the work, again, relating to the five principles/ managerial tasks. But an analysis is not a summary of the work. An analysis requires you to interpret the CEO’s meaning and intention that initiated and produced the work. This academic activity allows the student to peer into the CEO’s mind to derive meaning and understanding for future consideration and application.
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REQUIRED STRUCTURE
Your critical analysis for this assignment would be structured (you may actually use as many paragraphs as necessary) as follows:
Paragraph 1: INTRODUCTION> Give the title, author, and subject of the essay. The essay’s title is enclosed in quotation marks. Include a brief overview and summary of the essay, telling the main idea and any key points (five managerial principles). Then include an underlined thesis statement that identifies your stated position or belief of the intent of your CEO.
Paragraph 2: BODY> Identify the primary rhetorical, managerial purpose (five managerial principles). Tell how the purpose is used, what it does, and how it helps to achieve the main idea. Identify characteristics of the purpose, give examples and references, and explain how each example or reference demonstrates your analytical point. Remember, diamonds are mined…and so are scholarly knowledge and meaning.
Paragraph 2a: BODY> If you have a secondary purpose etc., analyze it using the same process as the primary purpose.
Paragraph 3: CONCLUSIONS> In the conclusion you will basically restate the author’s main idea and how the use of certain purposes and patterns allows the author to achieve that main idea. Further, you will summarize and draw a conclusion for each rhetorical, managerial purpose (five managerial principles) discussed in your analysis in a “logical,” “sequential” order of discussion. In other words: what do you conclude about each of the five managerial principles? Also, you will restate your underlined thesis statement and confirm it as stated or revise it as discovered.
Paragraph 4: RECOMMENDATIONS> In the recommendation section, you will provide a recommendation for each rhetorical, managerial purpose (five managerial principles) identified in the conclusions in logical, sequential order as they appear in the conclusions.
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SAMPLE ANALYSIS (note, this sample is illustrative and simply to provide you an idea of how a literary analysis appears. You may search for other approaches that meet your specific requirements)
Mark Twain Looks at the River
In his poignant essay, “Two Ways of Viewing the River,” Mark Twain tells of his experiences as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. By narrating two separate occasions, Twain shows how his learning the ways of the river diminishes its sense of wonder for him. Twain uses the expressive and literary purposes, in combination with classification and description, to convey his theme that the loss of wonder often accompanies the gaining of knowledge.
Using his primary expressive purpose, Twain tells of his personal experiences on the river, first as a novice pilot and then as a more experienced one. As he gains experience, he notices his changing perceptions about the river. As a young man, inexperienced in life, he admits that “I stood like one bewitched” in awe of the river’s beauty, demonstrating two characteristics of the expressive purpose: the expression of personal feelings and the use of the first-person “I.” He tells of various features of the river–a floating log, the play of the currents, a forested shore, and the many colors sparkling on the water–and for him, each one of these sights is a marvel. Later, he has learned the river’s secrets and its “language,” and his feelings toward the river change. Twain displays another characteristic of the expressive purpose, self-definition, when he admits that as an older man, for him the “romance and beauty” are no more. The presence of these characteristics clearly illustrates Twain’s use of the expressive purpose.
Twain’s writing gains its poignancy from the use of his secondary literary purpose. He employs the characteristic literary element of figurative language when he notes that the “broad expanse of the river was turned to blood” or that a path in the “somber” forest “shone like silver.” Twain’s vivid use of realistic imagery, another characteristic of literary writing, helps his expressive purpose to show the marked change in attitude he has for the river. This change in perception, between his younger self and his older self, illustrates the tension Twain has created in his essay, showing yet another literary characteristic. Contrary to the marvelous sights he witnesses as a young man, his later reporting of the same sights is very matter of fact and without the obvious tinge of wonder. Twain’s use of literary characteristics is instrumental in the success of his primary expressive purpose.
Though Twain narrates several of his adventures on the river, his main organizational pattern is classification. Using a form of classification, Twain compares and contrasts his altered attitudes about the river. He shows how his increasing knowledge of the river contrasts to his earlier wonder about it. As a young man, ignorant of the water’s ways, he revels in its mysteries. For him, everything during one “wonderful sunset” dazzles him, and he absorbs it in a “speechless rapture.” Just as surely, though, he admits that a time comes for him when he stops noticing the “glories and the charms” of the river. Eventually, in sharp contrast to his earlier wonder, he realizes that all “the beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river.”
Twain’s descriptive language also helps to illustrate his changing perceptions. Twain’s use of physical description allows him to makes multiple appeals to the senses as he chronicles the differing ways he comes to view the river. As a younger man, he watches as the sunset’s “red hue brightened into gold.” As an older man, he understands that such a sun only warns of wind the next day. Similarly, rings in the water that he first describes as being “as many-tinted as an opal” become only signs of changing river conditions. The “graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances” he appreciates in his younger days become only commonplace cautions in his later, more experienced travels.
Through his masterful use of the expressive and literary purposes and comparison/contrast, Twain clearly describes how his gaining of knowledge of the ways of the river help him become a better steamboat pilot. At the same time, though, he discovers that he has lost something that he can never regain, his sense of wonder.
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Notes on the Sample Analysis
Paragraph 1
In the first sentence, the analysis identifies the author and title of the work. The first sentence also provides an indication of the subject matter. The second sentence states a concise summary of the article. The last sentence of the introduction is the underlined thesis statement. It tells the analytical intent of the essay you are writing (purposes and patterns) and also gives the main idea of the work. This essay should tell how the author uses purpose and patterns to convey the main idea. It should not give a summary or review of what happens in the work. Your outline of the paper will be included in this section. Remember…this paper is focused primarily on the five functions of management as they relate to the selected material. This is an analysis of the selected work, not a book report.
Paragraph 2
The first sentence identifies the primary purpose and gives specific details from the work. Notice how the first sentence uses the buzzwords “personal experiences.” Such experiences are a characteristic of expressive writing; later they are directly identified as a characteristic. The third sentence directly identifies two characteristics of expressive writing used by the authors. More examples that focus on personal experiences and the loss of wonder are presented. The sixth sentence directly identifies a third characteristic and gives an example. Always try to have at least three key characteristics of a purpose. Avoid using vague characteristics that could apply to any of the purposes. The paragraph ends with a summative conclusion.
Paragraph 3
The first sentence identifies the secondary purpose, and the second sentence directly identifies a characteristic of literary writing and provides an example. Following sentences directly identify two more characteristics of literary purpose, and the paragraph ends with a summative conclusion. This is an optional paragraph.
Paragraph 4
This paragraph begins the discussion of the patterns. Discuss each pattern in a separate paragraph. The first sentence identifies the main pattern. The second sentence identifies the form of the pattern used by the author. Then specific examples of the contrast between the young Twain and the older Twain are presented. The ending sentence links the use of the pattern to the main idea of the work presented in the thesis.
Paragraph 5
The first sentence identifies a secondary pattern, and the next sentence identifies the form of the pattern used. The function of the pattern is also suggested. Then, specific examples illustrating the function are presented. The ending sentence links the use of the pattern to the main idea of the work presented in the thesis.
Paragraph 6
The conclusion identifies the purpose and patterns of the five managerial functions discussed and gives a general overview of their use in the work. The main idea of the article is restated, and a brief evaluation of the work is included. Underlined thesis statement restated and validated.
Paragraph 7
The recommendation section provides you an opportunity to offer remedies for the five managerial functions you have analyzed your chosen topic against. The recommendations should flow logically from your conclusions.
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