The Analysis of Another Writer's Introduction

 

 

Here is the introduction to an article written about President Bush's father George Bush, Sr. This is directly quoted from the newspaper.

Voodoo Economics

 

Actually, George Bush isn't crazy. He's just acting that way, continuing to deny there is a recession--and to deny it with increasing vehemence, as if believing furiously might make it so.

The act sometimes may make it seem the president has slipped his moorings and is drifting out on the Goof Sea. But after its fashion, Mr. Bush's performance is coldly rational.

If the president admits there is a recession, in fact one so mean it ate its own recovery aborning last spring, he would be expected to try to push the economy out of it.

 

 

Here is the student's analysis.

Tom Teepen, a writer for the Dayton Daily News (A 1, Jan. 6, 1992), begins "Voodoo Economics" with a startling assertion in order to get the readers' attention. When he writes that "Actually, George Bush isn't crazy" we know that he knows that most readers, whether they like Bush or not, are going to keep reading. He also uses this assertion to develop his thesis: Bush is trapped by policies he backed for eight years as vice-president which he called "voodoo economics' when he was campaigning against Reagan in the Republican primaries years before. I think this is an effective introduction since it is almost guaranteed to get the readers' attention, and the readers know exactly what is the writer's position on the topic.

 

Things to notice:

The analysis identifies the writer of the article, the source of the article, and the publication information (when it was published and the pages on which it was published).

The analysis identifies the type of introduction used by the writer [For a review of types of introductions, go to Introductory Techniques.]

 There are sufficient quotes from the article to illustrate the what the student  means. There must be quoted material from the original article since the readers of the student's analysis do not have the original article before them.

There is an opinion expressed about the article, not an opinion about the content but about the writer's technique.

Now that you have looked carefully at this analysis, take a look at another one.

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