A quote analysis is an interesting way to get more insights about someone or something. It’s also a fun way to exercise your logical reasoning skills!
With our rising reliance on technology, there are never enough good quality digital resources available. This is especially true in the field of psychology. Given that we are increasingly living our lives online, studying how psychological effects apply digitally only gets stronger.
So why not use these tools for some positive changes?
Here at The Positive Place, we believe that life can be a little bit better with just a few simple changes. That’s what motivated us to start this website back in 2008. And now, over 10 years later, we have built up an incredible community of users who utilize our services daily.
One of our most popular products is simply called “Change My Belief.” We give you a topic + belief + opportunity => new belief (A+B=C). Then, you choose whether to agree or disagree and evaluate the proof for each side.
This article will go into detail on two examples of doing a quote analysis. The first example is using a motivational quotation to motivate yourself. The second is looking at a famous saying to see its meaning.
Hopefully you'll find one or both helpful.
Sometimes, a quote seems out of place or does not make sense within its surrounding context. This is typically because the author of the quoted material includes their own comments or thoughts on the topic, thus changing the nuance of what they were trying to say.
If this happens with a famous saying, you can usually identify where the writer included his or her commentary. For example, if someone says “Life is too short,” then there must be something about that person’s life that makes them feel it is indeed short.
By analyzing the context of the quote, we can determine whether the source intended for the words to apply directly to theirs or if it was generalized. Generalizations are always easier to affirm than ones that may not apply to you or your situation, but still have meaning.
With our new tool, you can do just that! We designed Quotation Analysis to help you assess whether a proverb, saying, or declarative statement applies to you. It will analyze the sentence fragment or main clause along with the preceding phrase and succeeding word to see if they match your lived experience.
Using an algorithm developed by experts in the field, Quotation Analysis compares how likely it is that the said proposition fits your life using three criteria: Emotional Relevance, Applicability, and Compatible Words. If all three are strong enough, the tool gives you either a confirmation or denial based on past participants in the experiment.
There’s no way to analyze this quote without looking at the context in which it was given. Simply reading the quotation out of context is not helpful because then you can interpret what you want from the words alone, but nothing about the sentence implies that.
The first thing we should do is look at the surrounding sentences to see if they make sense separately or as a whole. If they make sense independently, then the author probably meant their word to stand alone and mean what you think it means without the rest of the sentence, then use that meaning for the term.
If however, the sentence makes no logical sense when separated from the main idea of the passage, then the second rule applies: assume something different was intended.
A good analyst must look beyond the simple words in a sentence to determine its meaning. They have to compare what the author is saying with other things to get the full picture of what the writer was trying to convey.
This process can be done easily using your own thoughts or those of someone else. Simply make sure you are not biased when doing this, and apply these general rules here.
Interpretation cannot rely only on the first part of a sentence, nor does it have to use the whole sentence – only parts of it should be used for interpretation.
It is also important to know how well known an author is before interpreting their work. If they are very popular then his or her statements mean more than if they were unknown.
The final thing to consider while analyzing a quoted phrase or statement is whether the context of the rest of the piece makes sense.
A good place to start in analyzing a new quote is by considering who wrote it and where they are coming from. What kind of body of work does this person have? Are their works well known or do we need to research them more thoroughly?
By using your own experiences as a reference, you can determine if what these people say makes sense for you or not. It may even give you some ideas or tips that could help you be happier or less stressed out.
The writers of this article are clearly very passionate about educating others on how to improve their emotional wellness. They make references to past studies and experiments that worked!
So why wouldn’t you want to know more about such things? Even just reading through their descriptions can inspire you to try something new.
A great way to analyze a quote is to consider what the speaker was talking about at that time. What they were saying and how they were saying it gives us some clues as to what their message was at that moment in time, and why they said what they did.
If you read between the lines of the quoted words or statements, you can often determine the underlying meaning of the sentence or paragraph.
For example, if someone says something like “I’m so tired of trying to make people happy,” then probably means that person isn’t very good at making other people feel good about themselves.
They may be overly critical and demanding with tasks for others, but are not willing to put in the effort to ensure that others are relaxed and comfortable around them. This could include things such as helping them get ready for an event, washing their clothes, or leaving them when they say they will help with housework. All of these things add up and create a huge amount of stress for the person being helped.
The stressed out individual might even feel guilty because they think that person expected them to do all this work for them, but didn’t leave them enough time to prepare!
This person wasn’t able to assess whether or not those demands would upset the other person, which only makes matters worse.
Symbols are integral parts of our daily lives. They show up in things we read, watch movies and television shows that include them, and even in how we dress ourselves.
Symbolic quotes can tell us something about the person who wrote or said it as well as what is going on in their life at the time. For example, if the writer expressed fear of death, this could be concerning.
A symbol of death would definitely make you think twice about letting go and leaving things behind. If someone uses money as a symbolic way to describe themselves, then they may like attention or want praise for how wealthy they are.
If there’s one thing we have learned from Oprah, it’s that we should always listen to your gut instinct. So if you feel nervous around someone, chances are you should keep your distance. Your instincts will never fail you!
Analyzing a quote by looking for symbols can also help determine whether the words being used come directly from the author or were fabricated or altered by others.
A good quote analysis depends mostly on looking at the context of the source material and identifying an important message or idea that the writer conveyed.
What is the main topic of the article? What are the author’s and audience’s concerns about this topic?
These are all very important pieces to look into when analyzing a quoted phrase or sentence. More than likely, the writer was trying to convey one clear thing about the given topic!
Take a moment to think about what you learned in earlier lessons of our series on quotes. We talked about how great writers use quotations to emphasize a point, create emotional responses, and show examples of their creativity. All of these apply here.
Sometimes people take short, sarcastic comments way too seriously. People may interpret your statements as an insult when you joke about something or try to emphasize how important it is to them.
This can be very hurtful for these individuals if they place a lot of value on the comment. They may feel like you don’t appreciate the work that they spent time doing or talking about with them.
If this happens, don’t assume that it wasn’t important to them. It probably was! Just because someone doesn’t say anything about it immediately does not mean that it no longer mattered to them.
Take a moment to talk about the difference between what was said and what was meant before jumping to any conclusions.
