A Modest Proposal: A Qualitative Analysis

Reading and writing should be seen as interactive subjects rather than just reading or writing words on paper in ink. John Beans suggests that individuals should look at both reading and writing as conversations. In his article “Reading and Writing as Conversations” Bean states by envisioning yourself having a conversation with the author, referenced individuals, and characters, readers are more likely to better understand the text. Texts are seen as different conversations each text has a connection to another text. Such as if you were referencing a particular article,book,or quote in your text. Many people have a reason for reading different types of text. Some reasons could simply be because the individual wants to, needs to, discover new

In Fred Stenson’s “In Search of a Modest Proposal” the author states, using his daughter’s first essay assignment as an example, that essays are inherently personal and should reflect the author’s own ideas, and that essay curriculums are flawed in their formulaic approach to teaching what is supposed to be a creative form of writing. Stenson’s essay uses a liberal amount of sarcasm to get his point across, and coupled with a reliance on personal examples his overall argument loses some efficacy. However, most of his irony and sarcasm are effective in their emotional appeals, and when coupled with more convincing examples and reference to authority that directly support his claim, they make for a compelling debate that is hard to refute.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, America has had to deal with the on going

Why do pre-reading strategies that activate prior knowledge and raise interest in the subject prepare students to approach text reading in a critical frame of mind?

The implied thesis of Swift’s “A Modest Proposal" is that 18th century Ireland would be in a better situation if the Irish society and monarchy actually treated problems such as overpopulation and poverty, While the overt thesis is that Irish people should consider eating their children and selling them to rich Englishmen to solve the issue of poverty and overpopulation in the country. They differ form one another as one focuses on eating children, while the other focuses on giving commentary through the essay itself.

Mike Bunn in “How to Read Like a Writer” begins with a revelation: that writing is a process in which individual words are specifically chosen and strung together in a way that impacts the reader. With this in mind, Bunn encourages his students to read like a writer. Reading like a writer is different from just appreciating the message. Bunn compares reading like a writer to an architect studying a constructed building. The goal of reading, then, is for students to examine how a piece was constructed with the purpose of recreating a similar effect in their own writing. Bunn establishes the fact that students are made to read so they can learn to write before showing students how to go about this. Before reading, the context should be evaluated, he

In Jonathan Swift’s satire, “A Modest Proposal”, Swift writes about the starving people of Ireland in the early 1700’s. He makes a wild and absurd proposal to help remedy the problems of overpopulation and poverty. Swift wants to make a political statement by using the “children” as satire to grasp the attention of the audience - the English people, the Irish politicians and the rich – and make them aware of the political, moral, and social problems. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift’s arguments are presented effectively by using pathos (emotional appeal), ethos (ethics and values), and logos (logic reasoning and facts).

According to an article written by Jason M. Breslow, as of 2011, children had the highest poverty level with over 16 million children living in poverty. That is just in the United States. Imagine the number of children living in poverty in the entire world.

-As readers we come across many details in literature that hole significance, however the common reader usually misses the deeper

In Christina Haas and Linda Flower’s article “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”, they point out, and break down, the three reading strategies that are used by students when reading a passage, or paper. An experiment was constructed to show what each of these strategies are like while being used and what the reader may ask, or get out of, a certain excerpt.

When Swift is describing the use of children as commodities, it is ironic because his intentions are to actually explain that the English view the whole Irish population as commodities. The English landlords are the ones responsible for Ireland’s poverty. The essay shows, through sarcasm, that the English have purposely took everything from the Irish because they view them as commodities. One example of sarcasm used to portray that idea is that the utilization of infants will be “proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children” (804). It is very apparent that Swift blames the English for Ireland’s problems. He also blames the Irish Catholics that allowed English policy to break down Ireland.

Pharmaceuticals may be used by the normal person on the daily. They can help an individual from treating a disease to preventing a disease from spreading. These same medicines can be taken advantage of and abused. The Romantic poets seemed to have ideas that wouldn’t come to the normal mind during their time and had ideas that seemed to be outlandish. There are a theory that poets used drugs to spark ideas from within themselves, they were thought to start abusing everyday medicine.

A Modest Proposal is relevant to contemporary social and political issues seeing that his solution for the food shortage draws attention to the people. Jonathan Swift’s atrocious approach to the issue caught everyone’s attention to bring more awareness directed toward the situation. This results in the people having more ambition to fix the problem rather than giving an uninteresting statement on how to improve conditions. A current social issue in today’s world is people choosing to be transgender or non-binary, meaning a person rejects to identify themselves as male or female. With this matter, I believe anyone can be what they want to be as long as the person is not trying to influence me personally to make that decision. Although, society

A Modest Proposal is a satirical piece written by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). The full title of the piece is “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick.” [1] Jonathan Swift is a well-known author of the time and specializes in satirical political fantasy. Jonathan Swift is best known for his book titled Gulliver’s Travels. A satirical book about a surgeon that crashes into a land of tiny humans.

Reading is believed to be an easy task, something we all learning and develop through the years as we grow, however, is it really that simple? To reading and understanding are both essential when a student begins to read. It is a complex action that requires a multitude of different actions/components, all working at the same time, to become a successful reader. The components that are pertinent to reading are: comprehension, oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency and vocabulary. Without these components, reading may very well be irrelevant because it does not make sense to read and not understand what is being transmitted/relayed. According to the National Reading Panel (NRP), “a combination of techniques is effective for