Assignment
Article: Capital Punishment Deserves a Quick Death By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
1. Actively read the text you selected in Step 1. Take notes, ask questions, map its ideas, discuss it with others. Everything you need to do to understand what it's saying and how it says it.
2. Then focus your analysis by asking one of these three questions in your notes:
1. What is the source's thesis or main claim, and what efforts does the author make to prove or support that thesis (look at reasons, evidence, concessions, refutations of opposing views, etc)?
2. Based on the reading and what you know about the author, how would you describe the author's (or authors') credibility and trustworthiness, and what exactly in the reading leads you to this conclusion?
3. Part of persuading someone is making appeals to their values or beliefs or sympathies. Which values, beliefs, or sympathies (as in, an "understanding between people; common feeling") does the author appeal to in his/her readers, and what in the reading leads you to think that?
3. Using your answers to the one question you selected just above, in a typed document, compose a paragraph that does the following:
1. Asserts your answer as a main idea
2. Makes the case for your main idea to your readers.