Evaluating an Analogy

After learning the different types of reasonings, one of the concepts that stood out was reasoning by analogy. A part that was discussed in Epstein's chapter 12 was about how we go about evaluating these analogies.  Epstein gives us questions to use as a guideline when analyzing an analogy.  It is beneficial to us because it helps us in our critical thinking, making sure we are moving towards the right idea or actually comprehending the reasoning.  These are the steps/questions used to help as a guideline in evaluating analogies:
-Is this an argument? What is the conclusion?
-What is the comparison?
-What are the premises? (one or both sides of the comparison)

-What are the similarities

-Can we state the similarities as premises and find a general principle that covers the two sides?

-Does the general principle really apply to both sides? Do the differences matteR?

-Is the argument strong or valid? Is it good?

When encountering an analogy, we can easily analyze it and determine whether the analogy is a good argument or not by using these guideline questions.