If you've been in Amanda's writer's society for any length of time, you've definitely heard the term ANI chart. ANI is an acronym that stands for Affirmative, negative, and interesting information about a specific issue. The idea of creating an ANI chart around a thesis is from the writing program called The Lost Tools of Writing, although the practice of creating such a chart is much older.
Many of us make decisions using this method, whether we realize it or not. For example, you've probably sorted through the pros and cons of making a particular purchase. Most likely, you've even used a phrase similar to : "the pros outweigh the cons" or vice versa. When we create lists of pros and cons about a particular decision we are seeking to organize our thoughts around a particular topic. The ANI chart accomplishes this and takes it a step further.
Many people make a list of pros and cons for a particular decision, see that the cons column is much longer than the pros, and go from there. However, the number of items in each column aren't necessarily equally weighted or non-redundant. For example, my cons column might have "he is mean", "he yells", and "he isn't nice". It's clear that it would be unfair to count these as three separate items. Hence the next step in creating a good ANI chart: organization.
Remember, a tool is only as good as the person using it. The ANI chart is great for giving us a place to dump all of our thoughts and ideas, but if we stop there, we lower the power of the tool. Categorizing the items in each column gives us a way to organize our thoughts, clarify ambiguity, and remove redundancy. It also helps us identify "trump" issues. As I said to my son the other day, "If your negative column has 30 items, and your affirmative only has 5, but one of those 5 is 'God told me to do it', then the decision is made. That single reason trumps all others."
So, why do we create ANI charts? To look at the ideas in our head in a new way and organize them appropriately. In short, the ANI chart helps us to see all sides of an issue and organize our thoughts.
*To learn specifics on ANI chart creating and writing help check out the Writing Society.