What does "analyse more deeply" actually mean?
"Analyse more deeply" usually means you've explained what something says or shows, but haven't gone far enough into how, why or so what?
It can be an extremely frustrating piece of feedback, because it identifies the problem without showing you how to fix it.
Let’s take a look at the difference in practice.
Description is like simply reporting what you see:
The writer uses the word "trapped" to describe the character.
Explanation shows you have some understanding of what the writer was trying to do:
Analysis digs deeper – why were they trying to do that? How did it work? Why does it matter, anyway?:
A perceptive piece of analysis will show that you understand the world beyond the text:
What changed?
The third version doesn't necessarily use more sophisticated vocabulary. It does more thinking.
It moves from:
What do I notice? → What does it suggest? → Why does that matter→What does it tell us about the world beyond the text??
This is where the word ‘connection’ (that bugbear of high school students studying English in New Zealand!) becomes important. It’s important because an important part of analysis is to make connections between (for example) ideas, or texts, or to the real world.
When someone tells you to analyse more deeply, ask yourself:
What does this detail suggest?
Why might the writer have chosen it?
What assumptions sit underneath it?
What effect does it have on the reader?
How does it connect to my wider argument?
So what?
Still stuck?
Understanding what the feedback means is one thing. Working out how to apply it to your writing can be another.
The word "trapped" suggests that the character feels unable to escape.
By describing her as "trapped", the writer turns what appears to be a physical situation into something psychological. She isn't simply unable to leave; she has begun to see herself as powerless. This changes the way we understand her later decision to leave.
Her sense of being "trapped" also suggests that powerlessness isn't always created by physical barriers. A feminist reading of the text suggests that she has become constrained by the expectations, relationships or beliefs they have internalised. Her eventual decision to leave, then, represents more than escape from a situation: it challenges the idea that the limits we accept for ourselves are necessarily fixed.
TRY THIS:
When you're trying to analyse more deeply, ask: What? → How? → Why? → So what?