Hi Ash444! The old name for the task was 'Language Analysis' - currently it is called 'Argument Analysis' which I think is a great way of clarifying what students are supposed to be analysing - the arguments and how the author is arguing, rather than just focussing on the language techniques!
Given your confusion about the name of the task, I'm unsure whether you mean 'contention' or 'intention', so I'll clarify both since it's a common point of confusion for many students. The way we like to frame it for our students is that contention is what the author wants to say, while intention (also called purpose) is what the author wants to happen. In this video I explain it in more detail if you're interested.
It sounds like you're after some general advice for the argument analysis essay, so my advice is to read lots and analyse lots! Make sure you are segmenting the article into chunks of arguments/points, and focus on your verbs when you are writing about them. ie, instead of writing 'the author argues that xyz is happening because of 123', see if you can replace 'argue' with a more exciting verb - could the author be supporting, defending, critiquing, attacking, personalising, humouring etc? We have a whole playlist here about this task if you'd like to check it out 🙂
