Kate Tierney’s Language Arts Classes

In answer to Stephanie’s question:

Here’s an outline that might help:

Intro: summarize the subject, and then show how the article you are analyzing fits into that context. State the article’s thesis (claim). Your thesis makes a claim about how successful the argument is in light of the entire subject.

Body:

1: What is the structure of the argument? Why? Does it work?
2: On what is the author basing his/her claim? Is this effective?
3: Does the author appeal more to emotion? Logic? His/her own credibility? Point out the appeals.
4: What about word choice and sentence structure? The author’s voice? Is it academic or comical? What SPECIFICALLY makes it seem this way? Is that an attempt to appeal to logic, emotion or credibility?
5: What is the author’s intended audience (age, race, gender, social class, etc.) and how do you know?
6: What might the author be missing? Does the author appropriately address an opposing argument?

Conclusion:
Does the article offer a valid perspective on the topic? Fundamentally, what aspect of the topic is addressed in this article? (Move somehow poetically back into the realm of context.)

Remember:

Context, text, context.