A Focused, Well-Defined Problem: Establishing the Problem

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 Analyze 
Use the basic features.

Every proposal begins with a problem. Student Patrick O’Malley (pp. 304–10) uses his title (“More Testing, More Learning”) to hint at both the problem he will identify and the solution he will offer and to capture his readers’ attention. He uses a scenario, dramatized by a series of rhetorical questions, to frame the problem, and he follows that with citations of research reports that help establish the problem’s seriousness. Bornstein’s title (“Fighting Bullying with Babies”) is designed to surprise readers, and his first two sentences serve as a hook, drawing readers in by his bold claim to find a “cure” for “meanness.”

ANALYZE & WRITE

Write a few paragraphs analyzing the strategies Bornstein uses to frame the problem of bullying and establish its seriousness and to evaluate how effective these strategies would be for Bornstein’s readers:

  1. Skim paragraph 1. In addition to referring to the Tyler Clementi case, with which his original New York Times readers would certainly have been familiar, why do you think Bornstein also refers to the article on the “mean girl” bullying in kindergarten? What do these two examples have in common?
  2. Why do you think Bornstein refers to a White House summit and the Department of Education’s “guidance letter”? How do these references help him frame the problem and excite readers’ interest in the solution he describes?
  3. Bornstein does not directly define bullying. Assuming that bullying is a rather wide and varied class of behaviors, how important is it that Bornstein clarify what he means by bullying? How does he give readers a sense of what bullying involves?

    Question