requirements for an analysis

An analysis requires three things: a detailed background or facts to support the analysis, a concrete overall take on the theme, and your own detailed opinions. A detailed opinion is the essential key to an analysis because it's what you're doing: your analyzing your opinions about a theme. For example, the essay A Spirit Reborn goes into great detail about how Lincoln's speech can be related to the 9/11 tragedy. After your opinions, the backgrounds or facts help your audience to respect your analysis and help their understanding of what it is your analyzing. Lastly, a good analysis needs to start off with a strong claim on the theme of the paper so the audience has that in mind while reading the analysis.