Claims Evidence from the text
Subject
What is the subject of the
document - the general topic,
content, and ideas contained in
the text?
Occasion
What is the time and place of
the piece? What is the context
that prompted the writing and
publication of this text?
Audience
Who is the intended audience?
(age, education, …) What
assumptions can you make
about the audience? Why is the
text directed at this audience?
Purpose
What is (are) the reason(s)
behind the text? What is the
author’s thesis? Is the address
logical or emotional? In what
ways does the author convey
this? How is the document
supposed to make you feel?
Speaker
Who is the author and what is
their background? Are they
knowledgeable and credible?
Do they take a position, or have
a bias?
The subject seems to be the
possibilities of genes being
passed down from the parents
to the child. How having
children comes with more risks
when the possibility of passing
down genes is in play
The context is 2015, the place
bounces between Nebraska
and Seattle. The context that
prompted the writing is that
the couple wanted to start a
family, but were afraid because
of the possible E.D gene that
may be passed down, and the
different approaches to have a
child.
The intended audience seems
to be an older couple that are
married. Maybe people in their
mid 20s and above are thinking
of starting a family.
The reason behind the text is to
bring awareness to the fact that
sometimes certain genes can
be passed down to children
even if they are bad, and many
couples struggle with this. The
author uses pathos and
personal stories of her brother
and grandfather esocialy when
the brother was bron.
The author seems to be a
regular preson who is telling
their story. They are somewhat
knowledgeable because of the
family members with E.D, but
credible not so much as she is
not a doctor/ They do have a
bias bevuase of experience but
overall infmative.
“I CARRY a gene for a serious
disorder, but my husband, who
hopes for children, married me
anyway”
“I explained that women carry
the gene and risk passing it along
to their sons. So if we were to
have a boy”
“Later, I asked Dan if
he'd rather adopt a
healthy child or have
one of our own with
E.D. "Have our own
with E.D.," he said.”
“ Now, at 29, Dan still hits the
bull's-eye, slips the football
between telephone wires, lands a
soil-footed weed in the yard bin
like a precisely struck
shuttlecock.”
“When my brother Luke was
born, his skin was so dry and
flaky that the doctor said. A
nurse then wheeled their
pink-faced son with a head of
dandelion fluff into the room.
My parents looked at my brother,
who was very quiet and moved
his lips with the concentration of
an old man”
“I sat up straight. I felt like I
was about to deliver the most
important speech of my life.
"It's called ectodermal
dysplasia," I said. And then I
told him everything I knew. I
explained that my grandfather
and my younger brother had
both been born with sparse hair,
missing tooth buds (which
required them to wear dentures,
even as children), and no sweat
glands, making hot weather
unbearable and even dangerous.