Analysis is the practice of taking a body of material, whether quantitative, textual, or observational, and producing from it a conclusion that the material actually supports. It covers choosing a method appropriate to the question, applying it correctly, checking what the data can and cannot carry, and stating the conclusion at the strength the evidence justifies rather than the strength the audience wants. It is domain-independent: the same capability is at work in a spreadsheet, a set of interview transcripts, and a legal case file.
What analysis is not
- It is not tool proficiency. A learner fluent in a statistics package who runs the wrong test is not demonstrating analysis, and one who reasons correctly with a pencil is. It is not the production of charts, which is presentation. It is not critical thinking, which examines reasoning rather than material, although the two appear together constantly. It is not thoroughness for its own sake: an exhaustive treatment of a question nobody needed answered is an analysis failure at the first step, which is choosing what to examine. And it is not certainty. Analysis that concludes the data cannot answer the question is a successful analysis.