Article Analysis

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Writing the Introduction and Conclusion for Your Article Analysis, Revising Your Essay, and Adding MLA

If you have completed the previous two assignments correctly, what you should now have is at least five to six body paragraphs of your potential article analysis essay. These body paragraphs address the title, claim, opposition, common ground, supporting evidence, and experts of the article you have chosen. Each of your body paragraphs begin with a topic sentence that mentions what is about to be analyzed, as well as shows why the item is necessary in a quality article. What follows is a statement about whether the article does indeed have an effective title, claim, statistics, etc.. After that are examples or quotes from the article that prove your point. Finally, the paragraph ends in a conclusion sentence that reiterates what you just said or further explains what you just said.

It is now time to create your introduction and conclusion paragraphs for your analysis.

The Introduction

The introduction to your article analysis will likely be a third of a page long. In addition, it will need to include several important elements that in some way address: 1.) the name of the article, 2.) the author of the article 3.) your purpose for writing the paper (analyzing your article) 4.) and what your analyzing the article will ultimately prove (the thesis). Your introduction can be broken down into the following:

1. Introduce the general topic in a creative way, or in a way that suits your voice.

2. Refine the general topic to one particular controversy concerning it and the two sides of that controversy.

3. Introduce the name and author of an article that is on one particular side of the controversy, and state which side it is.

4. State what the article argues.

5. State whether the article is effective at what it argues and why (this is your thesis statement).

An example of a well-written introduction:

It is widely known that racism is a prominent problem in the United States. While some argue that racism is still plaguing our society, others argue that it is only a memory of the past. The article “The End of the Post Racial Myth” by Nikole Hannah-Jones highlights these differing viewpoints and attempts to address both sides of the issue. Jones claims that the idea of a post-racial society is untrue and that Donald Trump’s election was based on internalized, systemic racism. The author’s argument is ineffective because it spends little time discussing the other side, does not provide many types of evidence, and lacks credible experts.

Write:

Create an introduction that includes all of the above items, ensuring that it moves from general to specific, with your thesis being the most specific piece at the end of the paragraph.

Write your introduction here.

The Conclusion:

The conclusion is a summary of your entire paper (very much like another roadmap), that re-emphasizes in new words the major pieces of your paper. It moves in the same way that you moved throughout your paper, and it restates (without being repetitive) your ultimate conclusion – whether the article is ultimately effective. It does not end on a cliffhanger.

In addition to giving your overall analysis of the article, you should state if the article is one you would recommend for someone else to read. Why or why not? In this paragraph, you can also tell whether you agree or disagree with the subject-matter presented in the article.

Your conclusion will potentially be half a page long, but will most likely be shorter (a third of a page).

An example of a well-written conclusion:

Overall, this article does not provide enough to prove the claim that racism contributed to the election of Donald Trump or that the United States has not entered a post-racial society. While I do agree with the claim, the author fails to support it properly. One cannot attempt to paint an entire group of people in one way or fail to offer multiple ways to support an argument. Nikole Hannah-Jones did both of these things. The personal anecdotes of the article were very interesting; however, alone, they do not tell the entire story of why Donald Trump was elected. I recommend reading this article with other articles about the topic, but I do urge readers not to believe the claim the author makes without examining the other articles thoroughly. Racism does still exist in America, but this article does not prove it.

Write:

Keeping the above in mind, write your conclusion here.

Put It All Together:

Now that you have written your introduction and conclusion, you now have the first solid draft of your essay. Paste it all together here. Your essay should be around fourteen to sixteen paragraphs or more long.

Congratulations. You now have your first draft.

There are only two more items you need to address.

Ensure Each Body Paragraph Ultimately States Whether the Specific Item Analyzed Makes the Article Weaker or Stronger

The only way to appropriately write your introduction and conclusion and to create a well-rounded, quality essay, is to make sure all of its parts come together into a cohesive goal. The cohesive goal of your paper should be to show that the article you are analyzing is effective or ineffective at what it is attempting to do. For body paragraphs that prove the article is weaker, at the end of the paragraphs, you should state such. For body paragraphs that prove the article is stronger, at the end of the paragraphs, you should state such. Your intro and conclusion, though, should be able to state the result of your analysis - that ultimately the article is strong or weak – and why it is that result.

Make sure that you have done this in your paper. That is, make sure that your paper works towards a specific goal – showing whether the article you are analyzing is strong or weak.

MLA

It is now time to ensure that you are using proper MLA in your paper.

For the Works Cited page that arrives at the end of your paper, you will use one of the following, depending on what type of article you have:

An Article in a Web Magazine

Provide the author name, article name in quotation marks, title of the web magazine in italics, publisher name, publication date, URL, and the date of access.

Bernstein, Mark. “10 Tips on Writing the Living Web.” A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 16 Aug. 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 4 May 2009.

An Article in an Online Scholarly Journal

For all online scholarly journals, provide the author(s) name(s), the name of the article in quotation marks, the title of the publication in italics, all volume and issue numbers, and the year of publication. Include a URL, DOI, or permalink to help readers locate the source.

Article in an Online-only Scholarly Journal

MLA requires a page range for articles that appear in Scholarly Journals. If the journal you are citing appears exclusively in an online format (i.e. there is no corresponding print publication) that does not make use of page numbers, indicate the URL or other location information.

Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 20 May 2009.

Your Works Cited Page Will Look Something Like This:

Works Cited

In-Text Citations:

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work being posted on the Internet, you may have to cite research you have completed in virtual environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's Evaluating Sources of Information resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source in your Works Cited.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers, but often, these sorts of entries do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

· Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).

· You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.

· Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com or Forbes.com as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo stars Herzog's long-time film partner, Klaus Kinski. During the shooting of Fitzcarraldo, Herzog and Kinski were often at odds, but their explosive relationship fostered a memorable and influential film.

During the presentation, Jane Yates stated that invention and pre-writing are areas of rhetoric that need more attention.

In the two examples above “Herzog” from the first entry and “Yates” from the second lead the reader to the first item each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo. Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002.

Electronic sources

One online film critic stated that Fitzcarraldo "has become notorious for its near-failure and many obstacles" (Taylor, “Fitzcarraldo”).

The Purdue OWL is accessed by millions of users every year. Its "MLA Formatting and Style Guide" is one of the most popular resources (Russell et al.).

In the first example, the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below). In the second example, “Russell et al.” in the parenthetical citation gives the reader an author name followed by the abbreviation “et al.,” meaning, “and others,” for the article “MLA Formatting and Style Guide.” Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant, 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/.

Russell, Tony, et al. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL, 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/.

On the next page is an example of a well-written article analysis essay. You should make sure your essay is modeled after this one, including the header. Be sure to also have your last name and page number in the upper right of the Word Document header.

For any other MLA questions, please visit Purdue Owl’s website or visit a CVCC tutor.

First Name Last Name

Professor Barlow

ENGL 1301

20 February 2017

The Post Racial Funeral

A title is a preview into what an article or story will tell you. A successful title will grab the attention of the reader and should provide some preview into what the article is about. The title of Hannah-Jones’s article is eye-catching, mostly because it addresses a long-debated topic. “The End of the Post Racial Myth” provides a variety of meaning and prediction to the content of the article. The article discuses a topic based in race relations in the United States, which is a very sensitive subject for many Americans. Further, the title itself dissipates what many Americans perceive as true.

A claim is what an author is arguing and what they wish the reader to take away from an article. It is important to analyze a claim because the claim will determine whether the arguments are suitable for the article. In her article, Jones’s claim is made clear when she states, “This analysis reveals less about the electorate than it does about the consistent inability of many white Americans to think about and understand the complex and often contradictory workings of race in this country.” The writer’s claim implies that racial blindness is not yet a reality in American society and definitely not in American politics. The claim is a very strong assertion, and with a divided audience, a lot of support is necessary to sway the other side.

The opposition is the other side of an argument. It is the views and opinions that disagree with the claim that an author is making. In order to change an opinion, both sides of a subject should be presented or else the argument will appear biased. The article begins by reliving the moments when traditionally conservative states elected President Obama as the president of the United States in 2008 and again in 2012. This is the author’s way of addressing the other side of her argument. While discussing the analyses of Donald Trump’s presidential win, Jones says, “It was, it seemed to me, a relief to many white Americans that Trump’s victory encompasses so many of the heavily white places that voted for a black man just years before.” Many critics have suggested that if the same cities voted for Obama, racism could not be behind Trump’s election. The author’s use of this helps to address those that believe the aforementioned, while helping to prove her claim. Suggesting that voting for a black man erases racism, shows that white Americans view Obama’s election as a tool to argue racism, and in doing so, these same Americans can feel safe in their own views. However, the author did not do much past these two paragraphs before discrediting these notions. This is problematic, as while it is necessary that she make her claim, she should not completely invalidate the claims and opinions of nearly half of the country all at once. This weakens her argument because it ignores why people voted differently and paints them all as irrational and racist.

The common ground of an article states something that both sides can agree to. Similar to the opposing viewpoint, it is important to analyze the common ground to determine whether an author is biased. Hannah-Jones does indeed address common ground in her article when she states, “While we tend to talk about racism in absolute terms — you’re either racist or you’re not — racism and racial anxiety have always existed on a spectrum.” This quote was necessary to address American views on racism and why people are divided on the subject. The culture of the United States has caused many people to have an extreme view on racism. No one wants to be called racist because many people associate racism with lynching and slavery, but racism exists in many less aggressive ways, like in college admissions or stereotypes a person has about a group of people. In addressing how Americans speak on the topic of racism, the author successfully provides a level playing field by changing how terrible racism is.

The author supports her claim throughout the article using many different types of information. One source of support comes from the personal opinions of voters in states like Iowa. Hannah-Jones says, “But in recent years, they had come to feel at odds with their party; it no longer reflected their own cultural norms. Where once they were the backbone of the party, now they were outsiders.” This is very important because it highlights something that many people forget: people vote for the party that will help them the most. The argument continues that many of these people believe that the Democratic Party no longer has their best interest in mind. They believe that the Democratic Party now places the needs of minorities in front of their own. This is great support for her argument; however, a question remains. Are these people’s opinions inherently racist? The answer to this question is not clearly addressed in the article and harms her argument. As the author addressed, the American view of racism is very flawed, so to avoid stating whether or not these opinions are rooted in racism, justified, or simply based in natural human self-interest does not give the reader clarification into the author’s realm of thought. She fails to convince the reader that the voters are racist. An argument based in the racism without proving the racism of the voters can easily be argued to be proved invalid. Other than personal anecdotes, the author lacks any other evidence to support her claim. Statistics would have been great support as they show clear evidence for the argument at hand. She failed, however, to use these or any other forms of evidence that could have helped support her claim. This weakens her argument because personal anecdotes are not enough to provide the evidence of the mass majority of Trump supporters.

While Jones uses many specific people’s opinions in the article, she uses no truly credible experts. She did not speak to political analyzers, nor did she speak to news anchors. Had she spoken with these people, she could have received evidence to support her claim. All of the people she spoke to were Donald Trump supporters. One woman she spoke to was Gretchen Douglas of Iowa. She identifies as a lifelong social democrat, but voted republican in the last two elections. Gretchen acknowledged her social views and said that the Democratic Party was the party that supported her views, yet claimed that the party no longer helped her. While Gretchen may not be the most credible, the use of her views is enough to make some Trump supporters seem misinformed. Voting for the candidate of the party that only supports the minority of a person’s personal views is illogical. Having a few opinions and drawing very bold assertions from them, however, is unfair to the other people that supported Donald Trump who may have different reasons.

Work Cited

Hannah-Jones, Nikole. "The End of the Postracial Myth." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Nov. 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.