Skip to content
June 23, 2008 / C H Thompson

Understanding analysis


One of the key problems of moving from AS to A2 is recognising the need to analyse at a greater depth than you are used to. Remember to think orange

For example is you were to examine the role of material factors in attainment at school you would tend to write in the following analytical way – flow-chart-as-analysis

To write in such a way seemed a challenge at AS. However the challenge is even greater at A2 as you have to incorporate key sociological concepts in order to show your intellectual abilities. In your A2 exams there are no trigger words telling you to analyse you just have to do it naturally.

This is an intellectual leap similar to the one in the youtube clip below. Watch the clip, it’s world famous and is analogous to the great leap forward you’re expected to make.

Yes you have to realise that your concepts are scattered around like redundant bones. The trick is to pick up these words and use them in a way you’ve never considered before! Like this and remember to think oranges!!!!!…….flow-chart-a2-analysis

Once you’ve ‘seen’ this you can progress to the ‘real’ A2 level of analysis evident on this page flow-chart-a2-analysis-plus . As well as applying concepts you integrate them with social theory!!! (Marxism; neo-Marxism; Functionalism; Symbolic Interactionism; Feminism)

Or maybe you prefer the brick-laying, mortar analogy

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: