Expert answer:Article Review Questions (1-2) pages
Expert answer:Please Read the article then answer the 4 questions below:For question #1 it has special format to answer the question and I attached an example how to answer question #1Jonathan Swift’s Modest
Proposal (251-258) was included in our text. This proposal is a classic, and once
you have read it, I am sure you will see why it has held its appeal.
Granted, Swift’s proposal is satire — and I would caution you against
using satire — but we can identify the components of a problem/solution essay.After
having read/studied the essay, please answer the following questions/prompts:1.
Write a precis over the essay.(4 sentences) (Example of precis is attached)2.
What problem(s) Swift is addressing.3.
While he offers a satirical solution (you should have listed this/these
in your précis), he eventually suggests some logical approaches to the problem
— list the logical solutions Swift believes his government is ignoring.4.
List several (at least 4) advantages to his plan.
4_sentence_rhetorical_precis__1_.doc
jonathan_swift.docx
a_modest_proposal_jonathan_swift.pdf
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4 Sentence Rhetorical Précis
Formatting Requirements
Sentence #1 – Name of the author and title of the work followed by the publishing information, date, and
page numbers in parentheses, a rhetorically accurate verb (chosen from the chart below that
best indicates the author’s attitude – his/her tone) followed by that word “that” and a clause that
gives us the overall thesis (point or claim) the author is making with the overall article.
acknowledges
advises
agrees
analyzes
answers
embraces
reveals
satirizes
rejects
surveys
considers
criticizes
declares
disagrees
discusses
opposes
assumes
abhors
reveals in
illustrates
interprets
chastises
lists
objects
offers
asserts
claims
denounces
supports
illuminates
remarks
replies
reports
responds
appreciates
emphasizes
retorts
admonishes
preaches
debunks
Sentence #2 – A brief summation of the main points (at least 3) that the author uses to develop
or support his thesis – written in the same relative order as is introduced in the essay.
Pay attention to punctuation – make good use of semi-colons here. Do not repeat
points. Be able to distinguish new information from elaboration of already introduced
points. Remember, these key points must be contained in one sentence. (Do not create a run-on
sentence by hooking the points together with commas.)
Sentence #3 – A statement of the author’s purpose, begun with the author’s name or some variation
(This writer) followed by an appropriate verb (remarks, argues, etc.), and then the word phrase
“in order to.” With this sentence, you are identifying the writer’s purpose – why is he or she
writing the article – what is his/her objective.
Sentence #4 – A description of the audience. The final sentence identifies for whom, specifically, is the
article intended? Sometimes the audience is “anyone,” but usually, the author has a particular
audience in mind.
A completed précis will look and read something like this:
Carol Jago, in “Entrance to High School Should Not Be Automatic” (Education
Journal, Vol. X, No. 7, 1999: 56-57) contends that to improve the public education system,
students should be made to deem going to school a privilege. Jago supports her contention
by delineating two types of students who do not belong in a public high school: those who
do not have the basic skills, and those who do not have the motivation, suggesting
remediation for the former and apprenticeship programs for the latter. This author
proposes her plan in order to ensure that students entering high school are prepared both
academically and motivationally. This educator urges those in policy-making positions to
make students work for their “free” yet very expensive education.
Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal (251-258) was included in our text. This proposal is a
classic, and once you have read it, I am sure you will see why it has held its appeal. Granted,
Swift’s proposal is satire — and I would caution you against using satire — but we can identify
the components of a problem/solution essay.
After having read/studied the essay, please answer the following questions/prompts:
1. Write a precis over the essay. (Example of precis is attached)
2. What problem(s) Swift is addressing.
3. While he offers a satirical solution (you should have listed this/these in your précis), he
eventually suggests some logical approaches to the problem — list the logical solutions Swift
believes his government is ignoring.
4. List several (at least 4) advantages to his plan.
CHAPTER 11
Presenting Proposals: The Problem/Solution Argument
251
QUESTIONS FOR READING
1.
2.
3.
4.
How many Americans live in poverty today?
What programs keep more from living in poverty?
What are the four causes Edelman lists that account for this poverty?
What solutions does Edelman present?
QUESTIONS FOR REASONING AND ANALYSIS
5. What is Edelman’s claim? (State it as a problem/solution issue.)
6. One cause of poverty is the continued low incomes of women and minorities.
Why, in examining solutions, does the author point out that extending aid will
actually help more whites than minorities? What does he want readers to start
thinking about?
7. Edelman makes clear that his call for some specific changes won’t happen
unless there is a more general change of attitude among voters. What change in
thinking is essential in his view? Why?
8. Does the author believe that change is possible, that we could “win a war” on
poverty? How optimistic does he seem to you?
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND WRITING
9. What numbers surprise you the most in this essay? Why?
10. Do you agree with Edelman that the change in attitude must come before the
country will be able to decrease the numbers of poor in America? If you disagree, how would you rebut Edelman—that is, how can we reduce poverty
without the attitude change?
11. Do you think that our poverty rate is a problem that we should address? Why
or why not? Explain your position.
A MODEST PROPOSAL
JONATHAN SWIFT
For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a
Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to
the Public
Born in Dublin, Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was ordained in the Anglican Church and
spent many years as dean of St. Patrick’s in Dublin. Swift was also involved in the
political and social life of London for some years, and throughout his life he kept busy
writing. His most famous imaginative work is Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Almost as well
known is the essay that follows, published in 1729. Here you will find Swift’s usual biting satire but also his concern to improve humanity.
PREREADING QUESTIONS Swift was a minister, but he writes this essay as if he
were in a different job. What “voice” or persona do you hear? Does Swift agree
with the views of this persona?
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SECTION 3
1
2
3
4
STUDYING SOME ARGUMENTS BY GENRE
It is a melancholy object to
those who walk through this great
town1 or travel in the country,
where they see the streets, the
roads, and cabin doors crowded
with beggars of the female sex,
followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning
every passenger for an alms.
These mothers, instead of being
able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all
their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants,
who, as they grow up, either turn
thieves for want of work, or leave
their dear native country to fight
for the pretender2 in Spain or sell
themselves to the Barbados.
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number
of children in the arms, or on the Jonathan Swift
backs, or at the heels of their
mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of
the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and therefore, whoever could
find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound and
useful members of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the public as
to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the
children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in
the whole number of infants at a certain age who are born of parents in effect
as little able to support them as those who demand our charity in the streets.
As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this
important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors,3 I have always found them grossly mistaken in the computation. It is true a
child just dropped from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year
with little other nourishment; at most not above the value of two shillings, which
the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of
begging; and, it is exactly at one year that I propose to provide for them in such
a manner as instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.
1
Dublin.—Ed.
James Stuart, claimant to the British throne lost by his father, James II, in 1688.—Ed.
3
Planners.—Ed.
2
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CHAPTER 11
Presenting Proposals: The Problem/Solution Argument
253
There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will pre- 5
vent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering
their bastard children, alas, too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would
move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million 6
and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand
couples whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distress of the kingdom; but
this being granted, there will remain a hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose
children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remain a hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, how this number shall be reared and provided for, which, as I
have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible
by all the methods hereto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land. They can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing until they
arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts4; although I
confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time they can,
however, be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been
informed by a principal gentleman in the country of Cavan, who protested to
me that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even
in the part of the kingdom renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art.
I am assured by our merchants that a boy or girl before twelve years old is 7
no saleable commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not
yield above three pounds, or three pounds and a half a crown at most, on the
exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or the kingdom,
the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times that value.
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will 8
not be liable to the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in 9
London that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious,
nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled;
and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or ragout.
I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred 10
and twenty-thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand may be
reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males, which is more
than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine; and my reason is that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by
our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That
the remaining hundred thousand may at a year old be offered in sale to the
persons of quality and fortune, through the kingdom, always advising the
4
Innate abilities.—Ed.
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SECTION 3
STUDYING SOME ARGUMENTS BY GENRE
mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them
plump and fat for the table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment
for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make
a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good
boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
11
I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh twelve
pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed increaseth to twenty-eight
pounds.
I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for
12
landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to
have the best title to the children.
Infant’s flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in
13
March, and a little before and after. For we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician,5 that fish being a prolific diet, there are more children
born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent than at any
other season; therefore reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more
gutted than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least three to
one in this kingdom; and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage,
by lessening the number of Papists among us.
14
I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar’s child (in which
list I reckon all cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about
two shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe no gentleman would
repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have
said, will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some
particular friend or his own family to dine with him. Thus the squire will learn to
be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants; the mother will have
eight shillings net profit, and be fit for work until she produces another child.
15
Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay
the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for
ladies and summer boots for fine gentlemen.
16
As to our city of Dublin, shambles6 may be appointed for this purpose, in
the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will not be
wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing
them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs.
17
A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly
esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement
upon my scheme. He said that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late
destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years
of age nor under twelve, so great a number of both sexes in every county
being now ready to starve for want of work and service; and these to be disposed of by their parents, if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But
with due deference to so excellent a friend and so deserving a patriot, I
5
6
sey36216_ch11_240-260.indd 254
François Rabelais.—Ed.
Butcher shops.—Ed.
12/12/13 7
CHAPTER 11
Presenting Proposals: The Problem/Solution Argument
255
cannot be altogether in his sentiments. For as to the males, my American
acquaintance assured me from frequent experience that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our school-boys, by continual exercise, and
their taste disagreeable; and to fatten them would not answer the charge.
Then as to the females, it would, I think with humble submission, be a loss to
the public, because they soon would become breeders themselves; and
besides, it is not probable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon
cruelty; which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection
against any project, how wellsoever intended.
But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this expedient was put 18
into his head by the famous Psalmanazar,7 a native of the island Formosa who
came from thence to London above twenty years ago, and in conversation
told my friend that in his country when any young person happened to be put
to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime
dainty; and that in his time the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the emperor, was sold to his Imperial Majesty’s
prime minister of state, and other great mandarins of the court, in joints from
the gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny that if the same
use were made of several plump young girls in this town, who without one
single groat to their fortunes cannot stir abroad without a chair, and appear at
the playhouse and assemblies in foreign fineries which they never will pay for,
the kingdom would not be the worse.
Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast 19
number of poor people who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I have been
desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken to ease the nation
of so grievous an incumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter,
because it is very well known that they are every day dying and rotting by cold
and famine, and filth and vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected. And
as to the younger laborers, they are now in almost as hopeful a condition.
They cannot get work, and consequently pine away for want of nourishment
to a degree that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labor,
they have not strength to perform it; and thus the country and themselves are
in a fair way of being soon delivered from the evils to come.
I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject. I think 20
the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many, as
well as of the highest importance.
For, first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of 21
Papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being the principal breeders of the
nation as well as our most dangerous enemies; and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the pretender, hoping to take
their advantage by the absence of so many good Protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country than stay at home and pay tithes against their
conscience to an idolatrous Episcopal curate.
7
A known imposter who was French, not Formosan as he claimed.—Ed.
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SECTION 3
STUDYING SOME ARGUMENTS BY GENRE
Secondly, the poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own,
which by law may be made liable to distress,8 and help their landlord’s rent;
their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.
Thirdly, whereas the maintenance of a hundred thousand children, from
23
two years old upwards, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a piece
per annum, the nation’s stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds
per annum, besides the profit of a new dish introduced to the tables of all
gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom who have any refinement in taste. And
the money will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own
growth and manufacture.
Fourthly, the constant breeders, besides the gain of eight shillings sterling
24
per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining
them after the first year.
Fifthly, this food would likewise bring great custom to taverns, where the
25
vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection, and consequently have their houses frequented by all the
fine gentlemen, who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good
eating; and a skillful cook, who understands how to oblige his guests, will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.
Sixthly, this would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise
26
nations have either encouraged by rewards or enforced by laws and penalties.
It would incr …
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