Analysis

Analysis may be defined as the separation of an intellectual or material whole into its constituent parts and the study of the constituent parts and their inter-relationships in making up a whole. Analysis has both a qualitative dimension (what something is) and a quantitative dimension (how much of that something [Page 18]there is). In logic, analysis also refers to the tracing of things to their source, the search for original principles. In evaluation, judging evaluands requires an analysis by identifying important aspects of the evaluand and discerning how much of those aspects is present. The opposite of analysis is synthesis.