From www.thefreedictionary.com There are several meanings of 'analysis ' 1. 1. The separation of an intellectual or material whole into its constituent parts for individual study. 2. The study of such constituent parts and their interrelationships in making up a whole. 3. A spoken or written presentation of such study: published an analysis of poetic meter. 2. Chemistry. 1. The separation of a substance into its constituent elements to determine either their nature (qualitative analysis) or their proportions (quantitative analysis). 2. The stated findings of such a separation or determination. 3. Mathematics. 1. A branch of mathematics principally involving differential and integral calculus, sequences, and series and concerned with limits and convergence. 2. The method of proof in which a known truth is sought as a consequence of a series of deductions from that which is the thing to be proved. 4. Linguistics. The use of function words such as prepositions, pronouns, or auxiliary verbs instead of inflectional endings to express a grammatical relationship; for example, the cover of the dictionary instead of the dictionary's cover. 5. Psychoanalysis. 6. Systems analysis.

I can assure that both are used, I often see 'make' in technical/IT area, but not 'do'. There is some truth in Neal's words, but I don't think that works for every cases. They were _doing_ some type of statistical analysis. They were _making_ some type of statistical analysis. I think both sentences emphasise/stress the process and the subject. Practically the same meaning has the verb 'to analyse' : They were analysing some type of cipher... Make analysis for me more similiar to verb "to analyse": make logical analysis = to analyse logically.

I agree with Neal. When you use the verb 'to analyse' all your problems are solved. However, 'to do analysis' is more general. There are no specific tasks expained by it. 'To make an analysis of something' doesn't sounds quite right (although in context will be understood). The verbs perform, carry out or conduct would be better. 'Make' is used when you create or build something. You don't actually create an analysis, but you can carry out an analysis. You might make a decision about something after you have done it! Anna www.englishharvest.blogspot.com

I think they're are almost the same. Certainly in casual conversation, most people will not notice enough to correct you. It depends a little bit on the context of the sentence you are constructing. You can 'do analysis' - which makes the process of anaysis the subject - or you can 'make an analysis (of)' which places a little bit more emphasis on the what is being analysed, rather than the analysis itself. Or, you could avoid the problem altogether and just use 'analyse'!