The ability to analyze effectively is fundamental to success in college and the workplace, regardless of your major or your career plans. Now that you have an understanding of what analysis is, the keys to effective analysis, and the types of analytic assignments you may face, work on improving your analytic skills by keeping the following important concepts in mind:

1. Recognize that analysis comes in many guises. Any assignment that asks how parts relate to the whole, how something works, what something means, or why something is important is asking for analysis.
2. Suspend judgment before undertaking analysis.
3. Craft analytic theses that address how, why, and so what.
4. Support analytic interpretations with clear, explicit evidence.
5. Remember that all analytic tasks require you to unravel or investigate something.