1. The writer’s purpose is to examine the Reasons for a situation.

2.  The situation being examined may be inflation, a high crime rate, low school attendance, or a poor television production; but the writer looks for the underlying reasons and causes that have resulted in that situation – in other words, why does that situation exist? Thus, and item analysis deals with causes and effects. And yes, everything you learned about cause-effect paragraph still applies here as well, just on a larger scale. Pause here to read the model essay on pages 127-128.

3.  Mollie Panter-Downes begins her essay by setting up the situation and giving background information. Her thesis – why was voter turnout for the election of Britain’s representatives to the European Parliament so low? – is implied, but not stated directly.

4.  The body of the essay goes on to give several reasons:  1. Britain had just been through a national election so the political parties had no more energy or money for an international election.  2. People were sick of hearing and seeing politicians on TV.  3. The constituencies the voters were divided into were huge and different from what they were used to (imagine if all Parker County was forced to go vote in Dallas).  The candidates were either unexciting, unknown, or both.

5.  The conclusion of the essay then goes on to discuss both the short-term the long-term effects of the low voter turnout on Britain’s relationship with the rest of the European Union.  So Panter-Downes posed her question: Why was the voter turnout so low?  Then she gave reasons and explained those reasons in depth.  Then in the conclusion, she looked ahead at the future results of the situation.

6.  Using either topics 3,5,7,8, or 9 on pg. 129-130 or one of your own, as usual, write an item analysis essay. Basically, it is the same as writing a cause-effect paragraph and all the same guidelines still apply, so you may want to go back and review the cause-effect paragraph slideshow to remind you of those.