Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill.original_ [95]
The image is that of a tall fence of stark horizontal and vertical rough wood lashed together, looming above the barren rice fields. Straddling the fence, half-crouched and half-clinging, is a solitary male figure, gazing in profile to the horizon. Oblivious to the sky above of dark and churning thunderclouds, the figure instead focuses his attentions and concentrations elsewhere. [The writer selects and describes significant detail.]
It is exactly this elsewhere that makes the image successful, for in studying the man we are to turn our attention in the direction of the figure’s gaze and away from the photograph itself. He hangs curiously between heaven and earth, suspended on a makeshift man-made structure, in a purgatorial limbo awaiting the future. He waits with anticipation—perhaps dread?—for a time that has not yet come; he is directed away from the present, and it is this sensitivity to time which sets this print apart from the others in the series.One could argue that in effect this man, clothed in common garb, has become Japan itself, indicative of the post-war uncertainty of a country once-dominant and now destroyed. What will the future (dark storm clouds) hold for this newly-humbled nation? [Here, the writer notices a pattern of in-between-ness and locates it in an historical context in order to make his interpretive leap.]
Remember that regardless of the subject you select for your analysis, you should directly address not just “What does this say?” but also, as this writer has done, “What are we invited to make of it, and in what context?”
The Role of Context in Interpreting Numerical Data
In the previous example, the writer chose an interpretive context that seemed to best explain a pattern of detail in his evidence. In order to make a case for his interpretation, the writer needed to demonstrate the appropriateness and relevance of his chosen context, including his reasons for choosing one possible interpretive context over another.
The process is similar when a writer seeks to interpret numerical data. The writer must decide the extent to which his or her numerical data confirm or fail to confirm an expectation defined in the study’s hypothesis. Here is a brief example of statistical analysis from a political science course on public opinion research. The study uses a data set generated to test the hypothesis that “Republican defectors who have been members of the party for over 11 years are less likely to change party affiliation to Democrat because of the Republican Party’s policies than Republican defectors registered with the party for under 10 years.” Note how the writer integrates quantitative data into her discussion of the findings, a move characteristic of interpretation in the social sciences, and how she establishes the context in which this data might be best understood. Notice too how her findings complicate her original research question.
The data suggest that the longer a Republican defector was a member of the Republican Party, the more likely that person was to switch party affiliation to Democrat because of the Republican Party’s policies as opposed to changes in his or her own belief system. For example, 35% of Republican defectors who had been members of the party for 1-5 years agreed with the statement ‘the Republican Party’s policies led me to leave the party,’ while 35% said it was due to changes in their personal beliefs. Thus, it appears as though both reasons have equal influence on an individual’s decision to switch parties.
However, when you look at