Yesterday in English class, we were tasked with the not so unusual job of reading from a select number of news articles, choosing one of those articles, and then posting our analysis of that article here on our blogs. So the question is, how can you go about effectively analyzing a text?

Well, that is where the APATSARC drill comes into play. In case you didn’t know, APATSARC is an acronym; however, It’s not just an acronym, but a useful exercise in learning how to analyze text critically. Here are what the letters stand for:

Audience

Purpose

Argument

Tone

Structure

Assumptions

Rhetorical Style

Context

When reading critically, keeping these points in mind as well as annotating will aid in the process. So, here is my attempt at this exercise. Sorry if it looks a little strange, I hand-wrote most of my notes in digital form. The article I chose was titled, “The Non-Politics of Disability” by Jay Ruckelshaus, and you can read it for yourself here. He talks a little about the dialogue surrounding disability politics, or in this case, the lack thereof.