Not all ideas or writing tasks lend themselves to list making, however sophisticated the list. Two important techniques of analysis are classification and division. Classification is useful. . Besides, we all like to classify. We do it naturally.
Students classify their professors as boring or stimulating.
Homemakers classify their cooking utensils, perhaps as those used often and those that are used occasionally, and place them in drawers and cupboards accordingly. Be sure you are consistent in the criteria you apply to your data, and tell people what you mean by any special terms you have used. An analysis of a stereo system, for example, requires naming and describing each of its components. Decide what the basis for division is and then apply it consistently. Keep the divisions mutually exclusive.