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6 Lenses to Analyze Any Text Through

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Audrey Thorne Student Contributor, Harvard University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Harvard chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

The hardest part of writing an essay is starting it. The easiest way to spark a new idea is to look at the text through a specific lense. Here are 6 lenses I find particularly useful, enlightening, and interesting. 

 

Feminist theory Text to look at: Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

 

Queer theory

Text to look at: Brown has compiled a list of potentially helpful, intersectional queer theory.

 

Cognitive frameworks

Text to look at: “Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Pol- icy Coordination” by Peter Haas

 

Dream theory

Text to look at: Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud both have good, extensive theories that can be applied to dreams.

 

Pronoun Use

Text to look at: The Secret Life of Pronouns by James Pennebaker

 

Path Dependence

Text to look at: “Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics” by Paul Pierson

 

 

 

 

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Audrey Thorne

Harvard '19

Audrey is a Senior in Pforzheimer house. She likes writing, adventure, Tatte, and doing things ironically it's no longer ironic. She's also Co-Campus Coordinator of the Her Campus Harvard branch.