Passage - General Questions

[Administrator]

Passage Discussion

VIEWSTAMP Analysis:


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[ashirachugh]

Hi Powerscore!
Could you please share the VIEWSTAMP analysis for this passage as I found some sentences confusing in the second sentences ("law giver") and how that serves the passage. Thank you!

[Ryan Twomey]

Hey ashirachugh,

Paragraph 1:

Goody Point of view---reading and writing was important for the development of political democracy in Greece and writing in general

Author point of view--- at this point it looks like the author does not completely agree with goody. The author believes popular access to books and documents is also important.

I would rank this paragraph as very difficult to understand. It may be worth reading twice, because it is necessary for the rest of the passage. I always like to spend a little more time in the first paragraph and then I can go faster in the following paragraphs if I have a good understanding to begin with.

Paragraph 2:

Author point of view and author argument:

The author makes the argument that in ancient Greece there needed to be access to laws by the people in order for things to be changed.

Paragraph 3:

The author concedes that every class of people were on juries, but states that the common man did not have access to legal statutes except what was read to them in court.

Paragraph 4:

The author concedes that today's society still relies on a highly educated minority, but does state that today's society is different than the past because of access to things like newspapers.

Viewstamp summary

Views: Authors and Goody. The author critiques Goody's point of view because Goody did not address the importance of access to documents.

Structure: addressed in what happened in each paragraph. This passage is an argument which is stated above.

Tone: author is critical of Goody.

Argument: stated above.

Main point: I consider the mainpoint to be the topic and the author point of view. The topic is a debate on whether literacy helps democracy. The author suggests that literacy does help democracy flourish, but the author would add that we need the public to have access to the necessary information and documents to help democracy flourish and makes arguments throughout the passage as to why public access to documents and information is so important.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Ryan