Nia's Editorial Analysis

When we finished with analyzing songs we moved on to editorials. We had to identify the major points of the article and do a literary analysis to determine what methods the authr used. Was it figurtive language, santax, types of appeal, etc? These are the things that we had to look for when analysing an opinionated piece of writing. Here's an example of the editorial analysis.

Boy Scouts Should End No Gays Policy Editorial
Analysis of Article

Summary:

The article basically talks about how boy scouts might be changing their ban on not allowing gay scouts and leaders to allowing them. It has been said that each local governing council and the troop will get to decide whether or not they want to allow gay members into the troop. They also compare the scouts to the army and how the army didn’t allow gays and now they do. They also go on to say that the Boy Scouts would be moving in the right direction if they were to consider lifting the gay ban. The Boy Scouts’ are admired for everything they do and the skills that they teach the younger boys. But since they are a private organization it isn’t illegal for them to keep the ban. There have been online petitions because so many people want to end the ban. At the end of the article it tells us how Boy Scouts memberships are low and the ban has something to do with it. “A historical moment is near,” and we will just have to wait and see if the ban is lifted or if it stays.

Key Points:

The major point in this article is about the Boy Scouts organization either keeping the ban against gay members and leaders or lifting the ban. I think the authors assumptions make it seem like they want the ban to be lifted. Going deeper into the article I think maybe the author thinks that it doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight it doesn’t change the way the organization is ran. Also when the author says, “The Boy Scouts of America have a chance to be on the right side of history… if its national leadership votes to end the Scouts’ long-standing ban on openly gay Scouts and leaders,” makes it seem as if they think it’ll be a good thing if the ban was actually lifted. I know that it doesn’t state their assumptions in the article but I agree with the author. I think history will be made if the ban is lifted. Maybe the Boy Scouts will have higher memberships once the ban is lifted. A question that I still have about this article though is why not lifting the ban? I honestly don’t think that it’ll make a difference if there are homosexuals allowed in. They are there to learn to be scouts not judge anyone. The protest in this article is sexism and wanting the Boy Scouts of America to lift the ban for no gays allowed. The person writing the article obviously is all for anyone no matter your sexual orientation to be in the organization. The era is the 2000’s and this is an era when a lot of people are judged a lot on there sexual orientation.



Literary Analysis:

The literary devices used were types of appeal. The type of appeal used was Logos. They are using reasoning and persuasion techniques to get people to see that the ban should be lifted. The author provides there reasoning and opinions on the topic. Another literary device used was a persuasive technique called Appeal to Pity. This makes people feel bad for other people by the things they write. You start to feel bad knowing that just because people are gay they aren’t allowed to join an organization that they want to be in.