Analysis of an Op-Ed piece

Select an op-ed piece. Pick it from a newspaper or one of the news magazines. Try to select a piece that deals with one of the themes of our work this semester or one of the related issues. The themes were public debt, lobbyists, welfare, family structure, and poverty, but related issues include gender and public policy, race, jobs and the economy, data collection and the census, political economy and poor laws, urban education, public budgets, attitudes toward the state, competitive individualism, demographic changes, and others.

Provide a copy of your op-ed piece, reduced to one or two sides of an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper. Be sure to indicate the newspaper/magazine source and the date. Bring in a copy for everyone in the class.

Provide copies of your analysis of the op-ed piece for everyone in the class.

In about 500 words, your analysis should answer the following questions:

- What is the issue that your piece deals with?
- What is the author's policy position?
- How does the author try to persuade the reader that his/her position is the right one?
- How convincing was the author's argument?
- Why do you think the op-ed editor accepted this submission for publication?