Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic

Complexity

In general usage, complexity tends to be used to characterize something with many parts in intricate arrangement. The study of these complex linkages is the main goal of complex systems theory. In science there are at this time a number of approaches to characterizing complexity, many of which are...

 or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 and logic

Logic

In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...

 since before Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

 (384–322 B.C.), though analysis as a formal concept is a relatively recent development.

The word is a transcription of the ancient Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 ἀνάλυσις (analusis, "a breaking up", from ana- "up, throughout" and lysis "a loosening").

As a formal concept, the method has variously been ascribed to Alhazen, René Descartes

René Descartes

René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...

 (Discourse on the Method) and Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...

. It has also been ascribed to Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...

, in the form of a practical method of physical discovery (which he did not name or formally describe).

Chemistry

The field of chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 uses analysis in at least three ways: to identify the components of a particular chemical compound

Chemical compound

A chemical compound is a pure chemical substance consisting of two or more different chemical elements that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions. Chemical compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure; they consist of a fixed ratio of atoms that are held together...

 (qualitative analysis), to identify the proportions of components in a mixture

Mixture

In chemistry, a mixture is a material system made up by two or more different substances which are mixed together but are not combined chemically...

 (quantitative analysis), and to break down chemical process

Chemical process

In a "scientific" sense, a chemical process is a method or means of somehow changing one or more chemicals or chemical compounds. Such a chemical process can occur by itself or be caused by somebody. Such a chemical process commonly involves a chemical reaction of some sort...

es and examine chemical reaction

Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Chemical reactions can be either spontaneous, requiring no input of energy, or non-spontaneous, typically following the input of some type of energy, such as heat, light or electricity...

s between elements

Chemical element

A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...

 of matter. For an example of its use, analysis of the concentration of elements is important in managing a nuclear reactor

Nuclear reactor

A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...

, so nuclear scientists will analyze neutron activation

Neutron activation analysis

In chemistry, neutron activation analysis is a nuclear process used for determining the concentrations of elements in a vast amount of materials. NAA allows discrete sampling of elements as it disregards the chemical form of a sample, and focuses solely on its nucleus. The method is based on...

 to develop discrete measurements within vast samples. A matrix

Matrix (chemical analysis)

In chemical analysis, matrix refers to the components of a sample other than the analyte. The matrix can have a considerable effect on the way the analysis is conducted and the quality of the results obtained; such effects are called matrix effects. For example, the ionic strength of the solution...

 can have a considerable effect on the way a chemical analysis is conducted and the quality of its results. Analysis can be done manually or with a device

Analyser

An analyser, also spelt analyzer, is a person or device that analyses given data. It examines in detail the structure of the given data and tries to find patterns and relationships between parts of the data...

. Chemical analysis is an important element of national security

National security

National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...

 among the major world powers

Great power

A great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength and diplomatic and cultural influence which may cause small powers to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions...

 with materials

Materials MASINT

Materials MASINT is one of the six major disciplines generally accepted to make up the field of Measurement and Signature Intelligence , with due regard that the MASINT subdisciplines may overlap, and MASINT, in turn, is complementary to more traditional intelligence collection and analysis...

 measurement and signature intelligence

Measurement and Signature Intelligence

Measurement and signature intelligence is a branch of intelligence gathering activities.MASINT, may have aspects of intelligence analysis management, since certain aspects of MASINT, such as the analysis of electromagnetic radiation received by signals intelligence are more of an analysis...

 (MASINT) capabilities.

Isotopes

Chemists can use isotope

Isotope

Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...

s to assist analysts with issues in anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

, archeology, food chemistry

Food chemistry

Food chemistry is the study of chemical processes and interactions of all biological and non-biological components of foods. The biological substances include such items as meat, poultry, lettuce, beer, and milk as examples...

, forensics

Forensics

Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...

, geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

, and a host of other questions of physical science

Physical science

Physical science is an encompassing term for the branches of natural science and science that study non-living systems, in contrast to the life sciences...

. Analysts can discern the origins of natural and man-made isotopes in the study of environmental radioactivity

Environmental radioactivity

Environmental radioactivity is produced by radioactive materials in the human environment. While some radioisotopes, such as strontium-90 and technetium-99 , are only found on Earth as a result of human activity, and some, like potassium-40 , are only present due to natural processes, a few...

.

Business

• Financial statement analysis
  Financial statement analysis
  Financial statement analysis is the process of understanding the risk and profitability of a firm through analysis of reported financial information, particularly annual and quarterly reports....
  
   – the analysis of the accounts and the economic prospects of a firm
• Fundamental analysis
  Fundamental analysis
  Fundamental analysis of a business involves analyzing its financial statements and health, its management and competitive advantages, and its competitors and markets. When applied to futures and forex, it focuses on the overall state of the economy, interest rates, production, earnings, and...
  
   – a stock valuation method that uses financial analysis
• Technical analysis
  Technical analysis
  In finance, technical analysis is security analysis discipline for forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. Behavioral economics and quantitative analysis incorporate technical analysis, which being an aspect of active management stands...
  
   – the study of price action in securities markets in order to forecast future prices
• Business analysis
  Business Analysis
  Business analysis is the discipline of identifying business needs and determining solutions to business problems. Solutions often include a systems development component, but may also consist of process improvement, organizational change or strategic planning and policy development...
  
   – involves identifying the needs and determining the solutions to business problems
• Price analysis
  Price Analysis
  In marketing Price Analysis refers to the analysis of consumer response to theoretical prices in survey research.In general business Price Analysis is the process of examining and evaluating a proposed price without evaluating its separate cost elements and proposed profit/fee.Price analysis may...
  
   – involves the breakdown of a price to a unit figure
• Market analysis
  Market analysis
  A market analysis studies the attractiveness and the dynamics of a special market within a special industry. It is part of the industry analysis and this in turn of the global environmental analysis. Through all these analyses the chances, strengths, weaknesses and risks of a company can be...
  
   – consists of suppliers and customers, and price is determined by the interaction of supply and demand

Computer science

• Requirements analysis
  Requirements analysis
  Requirements analysis in systems engineering and software engineering, encompasses those tasks that go into determining the needs or conditions to meet for a new or altered product, taking account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders, such as beneficiaries or users...
  
   – encompasses those tasks that go into determining the needs or conditions to meet for a new or altered product, taking account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders, such as beneficiaries or users.
• Competitive analysis (online algorithm)
  Competitive analysis (online algorithm)
  Competitive analysis is a method invented for analyzing online algorithms, in which the performance of an online algorithm is compared to the performance of an optimal offline algorithm that can view the sequence of requests in advance...
  
   – shows how online algorithms perform and demonstrates the power of randomization in algorithms
• Lexical analysis
  Lexical analysis
  In computer science, lexical analysis is the process of converting a sequence of characters into a sequence of tokens. A program or function which performs lexical analysis is called a lexical analyzer, lexer or scanner...
  
   – the process of processing an input sequence of characters and producing as output a sequence of symbols
• Object-oriented analysis and design
  Object-oriented analysis and design
  Object-oriented analysis and design is a software engineering approach that models a system as a group of interacting objects. Each object represents some entity of interest in the system being modeled, and is characterised by its class, its state , and its behavior...
  
   – à la Booch
  Booch method
  The Booch method is a technique used in software engineering. It is an object modeling language and methodology that was widely used in object-oriented analysis and design...
  
  
• Program analysis (computer science)
  Program analysis (computer science)
  In computer science, program analysis is the process of automatically analysing the behavior of computer programs. Two main approaches in program analysis are static program analysis and dynamic program analysis...
  
   – the process of automatically analyzing the behavior of computer programs
• Semantic analysis (computer science) – a pass by a compiler that adds semantical information to the parse tree and performs certain checks
• Static code analysis
  Static code analysis
  Static program analysis is the analysis of computer software that is performed without actually executing programs built from that software In most cases the analysis is performed on some version of the source code and in the other cases some form of the object code...
  
   – the analysis of computer software that is performed without actually executing programs built from that software
• Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology – à la Yourdon
• Syntax analysis – a process in compilers that recognizes the structure of programming languages, also known as parsing
• Worst-case execution time – determines the longest time that a piece of software can take to run

Economics

• Agroecosystem analysis
  Agroecosystem analysis
  Agroecosystem analysis is a thorough analysis of an agricultural environment which considers aspects from ecology, sociology, economics, and politics with equal weight. There are many aspects to consider; however, it is literally impossible to account for all of them. This is one of the issues when...
  
  
• Input-output model
  Input-output model
  In economics, an input-output model is a quantitative economic technique that represents the interdependencies between different branches of national economy or between branches of different, even competing economies. Wassily Leontief developed this type of analysis and took the Nobel Memorial...
  
   if applied to a region, is called Regional Impact Multiplier System
• Principal components analysis
  Principal components analysis
  Principal component analysis is a mathematical procedure that uses an orthogonal transformation to convert a set of observations of possibly correlated variables into a set of values of uncorrelated variables called principal components. The number of principal components is less than or equal to...
  
   – a technique that can be used to simplify a dataset

Engineering

Analysts in the field of engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

 look at requirements, structures

Structural analysis

Structural analysis is the determination of the effects of loads on physical structures and their components. Structures subject to this type of analysis include all that must withstand loads, such as buildings, bridges, vehicles, machinery, furniture, attire, soil strata, prostheses and...

, mechanisms, systems

Systems analysis

Systems analysis is the study of sets of interacting entities, including computer systems analysis. This field is closely related to requirements analysis or operations research...

 and dimensions

Dimensional analysis

In physics and all science, dimensional analysis is a tool to find or check relations among physical quantities by using their dimensions. The dimension of a physical quantity is the combination of the basic physical dimensions which describe it; for example, speed has the dimension length per...

. Electrical engineers

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

 analyze systems

System analysis

System analysis in the field of electrical engineering characterizes electrical systems and their properties. System Analysis can be used to represent almost anything from population growth to audio speakers, electrical engineers often use it because of its direct relevance to many areas of their...

 in electronics

Electronics

Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

. Life cycles

Whole-life cost

Whole-life cost, or Life-cycle cost , refers to the total cost of ownership over the life of an asset . Also commonly referred to as "cradle to grave" or "womb to tomb" costs. Costs considered include the financial cost which is relatively simple to calculate and also the environmental and...

 and system failures

Accident Analysis

Accident analysis is carried out in order to determine the cause or causes of an accident or series of accidents so as to prevent further incidents of a similar kind. It is also known as accident investigation. It may be performed by a range of experts, including forensic scientists, forensic...

 are broken down and studied by engineers. It is also looking at different factors encorporated within the design.

Intelligence

The field of intelligence

Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...

 employs analysts to break down and understand a wide array of questions. Intelligence agencies

Intelligence agency

An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...

 may use heuristics, inductive

Inductive reasoning

Inductive reasoning, also known as induction or inductive logic, is a kind of reasoning that constructs or evaluates propositions that are abstractions of observations. It is commonly construed as a form of reasoning that makes generalizations based on individual instances...

 and deductive reasoning

Deductive reasoning

Deductive reasoning, also called deductive logic, is reasoning which constructs or evaluates deductive arguments. Deductive arguments are attempts to show that a conclusion necessarily follows from a set of premises or hypothesis...

, social network analysis, dynamic network analysis

Dynamic Network Analysis

Dynamic network analysis is an emergent scientific field that brings together traditional social network analysis , link analysis and multi-agent systems within network science and network theory. There are two aspects of this field. The first is the statistical analysis of DNA data. The second...

, link analysis, and brainstorming

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which a group tries to find a solution for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members...

 to sort through problems they face. Military intelligence

Military intelligence

Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....

 may explore issues through the use of game theory

Game theory

Game theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...

, Red Team

Red Team

A red team is a group of penetration testers that assess the security of an organization, which is often unaware of the existence of the team or the exact assignment. Red teams provide a more realistic picture of the security readiness than exercises, role playing, or announced assessments...

ing, and wargaming

Military simulation

Military simulations, also known informally as war games, are simulations in which theories of warfare can be tested and refined without the need for actual hostilities. Many professional contemporary analysts object to the term wargames as this is generally taken to be referring to the civilian...

. Signals intelligence applies cryptanalysis

Cryptanalysis

Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information that is normally required to do so. Typically, this involves knowing how the system works and finding a secret key...

 and frequency analysis

Frequency analysis

In cryptanalysis, frequency analysis is the study of the frequency of letters or groups of letters in a ciphertext. The method is used as an aid to breaking classical ciphers....

 to break codes

Code (cryptography)

In cryptography, a code is a method used to transform a message into an obscured form, preventing those who do not possess special information, or key, required to apply the transform from understanding what is actually transmitted. The usual method is to use a codebook with a list of common...

 and cipher

Cipher

In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. In non-technical usage, a “cipher” is the same thing as a “code”; however, the concepts...

s. Business intelligence

Business intelligence

Business intelligence mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes....

 applies theories of competitive intelligence analysis

Competitive intelligence

A broad definition of competitive intelligence is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization.Key...

 and competitor analysis

Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis in marketing and strategic management is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive strategic context to identify opportunities and threats...

 to resolve questions in the marketplace

Marketplace

A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...

. Law enforcement

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 intelligence applies a number of theories in crime analysis

Crime analysis

Crime analysis is a law enforcement function that involves systematic analysis for identifying and analyzing patterns and trends in [crime] and disorder. Information on patterns can help law enforcement agencies deploy resources in a more effective manner, and assist detectives in identifying and...

.

Linguistics

Linguistics began with the analysis of Sanskrit and Tamil

Tolkappiyam

The Tolkāppiyam is a work on the grammar of the Tamil language and the earliest extant work of Tamil literature. It is written in the form of noorpaa or short formulaic compositions and comprises three books - the Ezhuttadikaram, the Solladikaram and the Poruladikaram. Each of these books is...

; today it looks at individual languages and language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

 in general. It breaks language down and analyzes its component parts: theory

Theoretical linguistics

Theoretical linguistics is the branch of linguistics that is most concerned with developing models of linguistic knowledge. The fields that are generally considered the core of theoretical linguistics are syntax, phonology, morphology, and semantics...

, sounds and their meaning

Phonology

Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...

, utterance usage

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the...

, word origins

Morphology (linguistics)

In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...

, the history of words

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

, the meaning of words

Lexical semantics

Lexical semantics is a subfield of linguistic semantics. It is the study of how and what the words of a language denote . Words may either be taken to denote things in the world, or concepts, depending on the particular approach to lexical semantics.The units of meaning in lexical semantics are...

 and word combinations

Phraseology

In linguistics, phraseology is the study of set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and other types of multi-word lexical units , in which the component parts of the expression take on a meaning more specific than or otherwise not predictable from the sum of their meanings when...

, sentence construction

Syntax

In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....

, basic construction beyond the sentence level

Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis , or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of approaches to analyzing written, spoken, signed language use or any significant semiotic event....

, stylistics

Stylistics (linguistics)

Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective. As a discipline it links literary criticism and linguistics, but has no autonomous domain of its own...

, and conversation

Conversation analysis

Conversation analysis is the study of talk in interaction . CA generally attempts to describe the orderliness, structure and sequential patterns of interaction, whether institutional or in casual conversation.Inspired by ethnomethodology Conversation analysis (commonly abbreviated as CA) is the...

. It examines the above using statistics and modeling

Computational linguistics

Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical or rule-based modeling of natural language from a computational perspective....

, and semantics

Semantic analysis (linguistics)

In linguistics, semantic analysis is the process of relating syntactic structures, from the levels of phrases, clauses, sentences and paragraphs to the level of the writing as a whole, to their language-independent meanings. It also involves removing features specific to particular linguistic and...

. It analyzes language in context of anthropology

Anthropological linguistics

Anthropological linguistics is the study of the relations between language and culture and the relations between human biology, cognition and language...

, biology

Biolinguistics

Biolinguistics is the study of the biology and evolution of language. It is a highly interdisciplinary field, including linguists, biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, mathematicians, and others...

, evolution

Evolutionary linguistics

Evolutionary linguistics is the scientific study of the origins and development of language. The main challenge in this research is the lack of empirical data: spoken language leaves practically no traces. This led to an abandonment of the field for more than a century...

, geography

Language geography

Language geography is the branch of human geography that studies the geographic distribution of language or its constituent elements. There are two principal fields of study within the geography of language: the "geography of languages", which deals with the distribution through history and space...

, history

Historical linguistics

Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...

, neurology

Neurolinguistics

Neurolinguistics is the study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language. As an interdisciplinary field, neurolinguistics draws methodology and theory from fields such as neuroscience, linguistics, cognitive science,...

, psychology

Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...

, and sociology

Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...

. It also takes the applied

Applied linguistics

Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems...

 approach, looking at individual language development

Developmental linguistics

Developmental linguistics is the study of the development of linguistic ability in an individual, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood...

 and clinical

Clinical linguistics

Clinical Linguistics is a sub-discipline of linguistics which involves the application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language Pathology. Clinical linguistics, a branch of applied linguistics, is the use of linguistics to describe, analyze, and treat language disabilities...

 issues.

Literature

Literary theory

Literary theory

Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...

 is the analysis of literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

. Some say that literary criticism

Literary criticism

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...

 is a subset of literary theory. The focus can be as diverse as the analysis of Homer or Freud

Psychoanalytic literary criticism

Psychoanalytic literary criticism refers to literary criticism or literary theory which, in method, concept, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud....

. This is mainly to do with the breaking up of a topic to make it easier to understand.

Mathematics

Mathematical analysis is the study of infinite processes. It can be applied in the study of classical

Classical mathematics

In the foundations of mathematics, classical mathematics refers generally to the mainstream approach to mathematics, which is based on classical logic and ZFC set theory. It stands in contrast to other types of mathematics such as constructive mathematics or predicative mathematics; theories other...

 concepts of mathematics, such as real numbers

Real analysis

Real analysis, is a branch of mathematical analysis dealing with the set of real numbers and functions of a real variable. In particular, it deals with the analytic properties of real functions and sequences, including convergence and limits of sequences of real numbers, the calculus of the real...

, complex variables

Complex analysis

Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is useful in many branches of mathematics, including number theory and applied mathematics; as well as in physics,...

, trigonometric functions, and algorithms

Numerical analysis

Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation for the problems of mathematical analysis ....

, or of non-classical

Non-classical analysis

In mathematics, non-classical analysis is any system of analysis, other than classical real analysis, and complex, vector, tensor, etc., analysis based upon it.Such systems include:...

 concepts like constructivism

Constructivist analysis

In mathematics, constructive analysis is mathematical analysis done according to the principles of constructive mathematics.This contrasts with classical analysis, which simply means analysis done according to the principles of classical mathematics.Generally speaking, constructive analysis can...

, harmonics

Harmonic analysis

Harmonic analysis is the branch of mathematics that studies the representation of functions or signals as the superposition of basic waves. It investigates and generalizes the notions of Fourier series and Fourier transforms...

, infinity

Non-standard analysis

Non-standard analysis is a branch of mathematics that formulates analysis using a rigorous notion of an infinitesimal number.Non-standard analysis was introduced in the early 1960s by the mathematician Abraham Robinson. He wrote:...

, and vectors

Functional analysis

Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure and the linear operators acting upon these spaces and respecting these structures in a suitable sense...

.

Music

• Musical analysis
  Musical analysis
  Musical analysis is the attempt to answer the question how does this music work?. The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst, and according to the purpose of the analysis. According to Ian Bent , analysis is "an...
  
   – a process attempting to answer the question "How does this music work?"
• Schenkerian analysis
  Schenkerian analysis
  Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker. The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to interpret the underlying structure of a tonal work. The theory's basic tenets can be viewed as a way of defining tonality in music...
  
  

Philosophy

• Philosophical analysis
  Philosophical analysis
  Philosophical analysis is a general term for techniques typically used by philosophers in the analytic tradition that involve "breaking down" philosophical issues. Arguably the most prominent of these techniques is the analysis of concepts...
  
   – a general term for the techniques used by philosophers
• Analysis
  Analysis (journal)
  Analysis is a peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy established in 1933 that is published quarterly by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Analysis Trust. Prior to January 2009, the journal was published by Blackwell Publishing. Electronic access to this journal is available via JSTOR ,...
  
  is the name of a prominent journal in philosophy.

Psychotherapy

• Psychoanalysis
  Psychoanalysis
  Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
  
   – seeks to elucidate connections among unconscious components of patients' mental processes
• Transactional analysis
  Transactional analysis
  Transactional analysis, commonly known as TA to its adherents, is an integrative approach to the theory of psychology and psychotherapy. It is described as integrative because it has elements of psychoanalytic, humanist and cognitive approaches...
  
  

Signal processing

• Finite element analysis – a computer simulation technique used in engineering analysis
• Independent component analysis
  Independent component analysis
  Independent component analysis is a computational method for separating a multivariate signal into additive subcomponents supposing the mutual statistical independence of the non-Gaussian source signals...
  
  
• Link quality analysis
  Link quality analysis
  In adaptive high-frequency radio, link quality analysis is the overall process by which measurements of signal quality are made, assessed, and analyzed....
  
   – the analysis of signal quality
• Path quality analysis
  Path quality analysis
  Path quality analysis: In a communications path, an analysis that includes the overall evaluation of the component quality measures, the individual link quality measures, and the aggregate path quality measures, and is performed by evaluating communications parameters, such as bit error ratio,...
  
  

Statistics

In statistics

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

, the term analysis may refer to any method used
for data analysis

Data analysis

Analysis of data is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision making...

. Among the many such methods, some are:

• Analysis of variance
  Analysis of variance
  In statistics, analysis of variance is a collection of statistical models, and their associated procedures, in which the observed variance in a particular variable is partitioned into components attributable to different sources of variation...
  
   (ANOVA) – a collection of statistical models and their associated procedures which compare means by splitting the overall observed variance into different parts
• Boolean analysis
  Boolean analysis
  Boolean analysis was introduced by Flament . The goal of a Boolean analysis is to detect deterministic dependencies between the items of a questionnaire or similar data-structures in observed response patterns. These deterministic dependencies have the form of logical formulas connecting the items...
  
   – a method to find deterministic dependencies between variables in a sample, mostly used in exploratory data analysis
• Cluster analysis – techniques for grouping objects into a collection of groups (called clusters), based on some measure of proximity or similarity
• Factor analysis
  Factor analysis
  Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. In other words, it is possible, for example, that variations in three or four observed variables...
  
   – a method to construct models describing a data set of observed variables in terms of a smaller set of unobserved variables (called factors)
• Meta-analysis
  Meta-analysis
  In statistics, a meta-analysis combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses. In its simplest form, this is normally by identification of a common measure of effect size, for which a weighted average might be the output of a meta-analyses. Here the...
  
   – combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses
• Multivariate analysis
  Multivariate analysis
  Multivariate analysis is based on the statistical principle of multivariate statistics, which involves observation and analysis of more than one statistical variable at a time...
  
   – analysis of data involving several variables, such as by factor analysis, regression analysis, or principal component analysis
• Principal component analysis – transformation of a sample of correlated variables into uncorrelated variables (called principal components), mostly used in exploratory data analysis
• Regression analysis
  Regression analysis
  In statistics, regression analysis includes many techniques for modeling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables...
  
   – techniques for analyzing the relationships between several variables in the data
• Scale analysis (statistics)
  Scale analysis (statistics)
  In statistics, scale analysis is a set of methods to analyse survey data, in which responses to questions are combined to measure a latent variable. These items can be dichotomous or polytomous...
  
   – methods to analyse survey data by scoring responses on a numeric scale
• Sensitivity analysis
  Sensitivity analysis
  Sensitivity analysis is the study of how the variation in the output of a statistical model can be attributed to different variations in the inputs of the model. Put another way, it is a technique for systematically changing variables in a model to determine the effects of such changes.In any...
  
   – the study of how the variation in the output of a model depends on variations in the inputs
• Sequential analysis
  Sequential analysis
  In statistics, sequential analysis or sequential hypothesis testing is statistical analysis where the sample size is not fixed in advance. Instead data are evaluated as they are collected, and further sampling is stopped in accordance with a pre-defined stopping rule as soon as significant results...
  
   – evaluation of sampled data as it is collected, until the criterion of a stopping rule is met
• Spatial analysis
  Spatial analysis
  Spatial analysis or spatial statistics includes any of the formal techniques which study entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties...
  
   – the study of entities using geometric or geographic properties
• Time-series analysis – methods that attempt to understand a sequence of data points spaced apart at uniform time intervals

Other

• Aura analysis – a technique in which supporters of the method claim that the body's aura, or energy field is analyzed
• Bowling analysis
  Bowling analysis
  In the sport of cricket, a bowling analysis usually refers to a notation summarising a bowler's performance in terms of overs bowled, how many of those overs are maidens , total runs conceded and number of wickets taken...
  
   – a notation summarizing a cricket bowler's performance
• Lithic analysis
  Lithic analysis
  In archaeology, lithic analysis is the analysis of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts using basic scientific techniques. At its most basic level, lithic analyses involve an analysis of the artifact’s morphology, the measurement of various physical attributes, and examining other visible...
  
   – the analysis of stone tools using basic scientific techniques
• Protocol analysis
  Protocol analysis
  Protocol analysis is a psychological research method that elicits verbal reports from research participants. Protocol analysis is used to study thinking in cognitive psychology , cognitive science , and behavior analysis...
  
   – a means for extracting persons' thoughts while they are performing a task

See also

• List of thinking-related topics
• Formal analysis
  Formal analysis
  A formal analysis is an established method for analyzing works of art. First introduced by Roger de Piles , in his book the Principles of Painting, the technique of formal analysis is more fully developed by Roger Fry in Vision and Design .For a particular work of art, a formal analysis consists of...
  
  
• Scientific method
  Scientific method
  Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...