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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/17679
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I have been spending time online since yesterday trying to understand the difference between analytical summary writing and critical writing.   
I intend to write an analytical summary essay on the topic of gender bias in academia after going through multiple sources (e.g: two academic research papers, a magazine article and a statistical report).

However, I am getting confused on certain points of analytical writing. Other than a lot of websites that I referred to understand the approach (e.g: [this](http://condor.depaul.edu/jbryan/food/paper-sum.html)), I also read some examples of analytical writing, such as [this](http://dianahacker.com/pdfs/Hacker-Lopez-MLA-Ana-Txt.pdf). It seems that the most of the websites/examples suggest adding a thesis in the introduction -- the topic/statement that will be supported in the following paragraphs. However, as in the example above, the thesis seems to stem out of author's own opinions and judgment of the analysed work and doesn't seem to be objective. Isn't it the same in the case of critical writing as well where the writer needs to form opinions and provide evidences to prove their point. What difference then does it leave between analytical and a critical essay?

Am I correct to think that the writer should not form their own opinion, rather extract the hidden meaning from the readings to come up with a thesis? On the other hand, in case of an academic article where the author provides general-specific-general flow and accurate methodology of experiments, if I am not to critique, what shall I specify in the analytical essay that is not evident to the readers of the original academic articles?

Original score: 1