english analysis 1

Smith 1

Article Analysis

The next few assignments in the course involve critically thinking about others’ writings. You will be required to write an analysis of five (5) articles I found on the internet discussing what should be done (if anything) by the US regarding ISIS (aka ISIL, aka the Islamic State). An analysis differs from a summary in one key aspect: in a summary, all you are doing is repeating the main ideas of an article. By contrast, an analysis, after identifying the main points (arguments) then analyzes these points logically to find strengths and weaknesses in them.

Let’s look at one article, “3 Reasons to NOT Fight ISIS” by Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg (please either call it up on your screen or print it out to look at while I discuss it). Finding the main points of this article are easy because they have been bulleted for us: We should not fight ISIS because it poses no credible threat to the US homeland, what’s happening is a regional conflict, and we have no clear way to define victory. The summary portion of this analysis is very straightforward. Not all articles will be that easy. Often, you must do a little digging to ascertain what the main ideas/arguments are. Outlining what you perceive the main points to be is very helpful when doing a summary, so I suggest you use an outline here.

However, after you have the summary, you need to analyze the arguments. For example, when the authors argue that ISIS poses no credible threat to the US homeland, what do you think about that? What do they mean by “credible?” What assumptions are being made here and do you agree? What about the ISIS plot in Australia to randomly kidnap people and behead them? Could that happen here? Is that a “credible” threat? What do other source say about this? Do they counter this argument in any way? If so, how?

Look at the second argument, that it is a regional conflict and that regional nation states should act to counter ISIS. Do you agree with this argument? What could cause this to become more than a regional conflict? For example, ISIS is threatening Turkey, a moderate secular Islamic state and a NATO ally. If Turkey is attacked, NATO, of which the US is a member, would have to respond. Is it possible then that this has the potential to spread beyond its present region? What do other sources say about that? What happens if ISIS attacks Israel? Iran? Consider these sorts of questions in your analysis to determine whether you agree with authors.

What about the third reason, that we have no clear way to define victory. Is this true? We took out the Taliban in Afghanistan and yet they are back almost as strong as ever. Was that a victory or not? When the Allies defeated the Axis in WW II, that was a clear victory, complete with official surrender ceremonies. Is something like that possible with ISIS? Remember, they are not a nation state like the US or Turkey or Japan. They are 30,000 moderately trained jihadists. They belong to no nation and seem to be answerable to no one. What does defeating a terrorist organization look like? Has it even been done? Al Quaeda was supposedly defeated, but here they are again, operating side-by-side with ISIS in Syria. In your opinion is the third reason a credible argument and why or why not?

In all your analyses, be specific as to why you think something is strong, weak or in between. Don’t just write something like, “The authors state we have no way to define victory and I agree that is a problem.” You need to SHOW why it is a problem in your opinion. As in all analyses, you are looking at the underlying logic of an argument, which is essentially what analysis is. When typing your analyses, they should all take the same format. Scroll down to the next page to see what that is….

John Smith (your name)

Note the info in top left of first page. Must be in this exact order. Must be double spaced. It does NOT go in the header.

Note the use of a running header. Consisting of your last name and the page number. This can only be done in the header function, so learn how to use it. Do not manually type it in at the top of the page. Note also that it is the same font and font size as rest of essay.

Dr. Pellegrin

ENG 112 IC1

Note the use of a title which is centered and simply states which article you are analyzing.

12 Oct. 102

Analysis of Gillepsie’s and Bragg’s article “3 reasons not to Fight Isis”

Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg, in their article “3 Reasons not to Fight ISIS,” present three main arguments as to why the US should not be militarily engaged with the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL). [Note that the analysis begins with the name of the author and the title of the article. You must ALWAYS include this in the first sentence somewhere. It need not be in this exact order, but you MUST include it.] (From here you would write your summary of the main points/arguments. For a short article like this, it can be done in this very first paragraph. For very long articles, it may take a few paragraphs to complete the summary. After finishing the summary, begin a new paragraph in which you begin analyzing the arguments’ strengths and weaknesses. Again, this could be one paragraph or several depending on the length of the original article.)

At the end of the analysis, include a full bibliographic (Works Cited) entry for the article.

Gillespie, Nick and Meredith Bragg. “3 Reasons not to Fight ISIS.” Reason.com. Reason

Foundation. 12 Sep. 2014. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.