Identifying/essay/reasons

Identifying the Argument of an Essay

Spotting the Reasons in the Editorial (First Page)

Now that you've identified the conclusion of the editorial, let's go through it again and look for the reasons. Before we do, it is important to be aware that the quality of your reading has changed: we now have a focal point around which the whole editorial is organized. The purpose of the editorial is to get you to see the issue from the author's point of view, to get you to believe that the conclusion is true. Now we can see more
clearly the importance of reasons: they are the means or the tools the author will use to persuade you that the conclusion is true. Thus, any statement or phrase the author uses to accomplish that purpose is considered a reason and must be added to the total list of reasons.

When we look for reasons, the purpose of our reading will change . We're no longer looking for the main point; we know what that is. Now we're looking for any statement or phrase that is used in the editorial to persuade you to agree with the conclusion.
In order to get a complete list of all the reasons, we'll have to go through the editorial paragraph by paragraph.
Remember -- any statement that fits in the slot below after the BECAUSE is a reason:

  Conclusion: No,the federal government should not have the right to dictate the                        scheduling of athletic events.

      (BECAUSE)   Reason 1: ________________________.
                              Reason 2: ________________________.   (etc)

                                              Paragraph 1

Read through the first paragraph again and test the statements by putting them in the slot after the BECAUSE.
What about the first sentence ? Let's try it:

Conclusion: No, the federal government should not have the right to dictate the scheduling of athletic events

(BECAUSE) Reason 1: The federal government (nanny) is meddling (in local town affairs)

Another way to say this in short form is the following: The federal government shouldn't dictate athletics schedules because this is an example of local meddling.

Does this make sense here? Yes. Are we stating fairly what the editorial intends? Yes. Notice that the editorial says "The federal nanny is meddling again." So this action in Minden is yet another case of meddling. Although we cannot discuss the fallacy of emotional appeal in detail here, you've probably noticed that the word meddling
has a negative emotional "charge" to it. The editorial could have said "The federal nanny is stepping in again" or "the federal nanny is assisting again." Neither of these words ( stepping in or assisting ) has the same negative emotional "charge" as meddling.
What about the second sentence in the first paragraph? This sentence is a version of the issue which the whole editorial addresses and so cannot be one of the reasons.
Let's move on to paragraph 2!