Introduction
The essay under analysis is Nuclear Terrorism: Risks, Consequences, and Response by Jim Walsh. This essay can be regarded as an example of the process of writing or the writing that “analyzes the process in which we are interested, break it down into steps, and shows how the process works” (Vandermey, Meyer, Rys, and Sebranek 229). This paper presents an analysis of Walsh’s essay concerning such traits as stimulating ideas, logical organization, engaging voice, appropriate word choice, overall fluency, correct, accurate copy, and reader-friendly design (Vandermey et al. 134).
Stimulating Ideas
The essay under analysis presents the information in which the entire world is currently interested. Not only is it devoted to the subject of terrorism, but it considers nuclear terrorism, the kind of terrorism the peaceful citizens fear most of all. The essay focuses on its main purpose, to look “at the problem of terrorism and, in particular, at the role of state and local officials who may have to respond to such an event” (Walsh in Howitt and Pangi 175). Moreover, the essay develops this focus by elaborating on different details of the topic. For instance, first, the author defines nuclear terrorism; then he considers several threats and risks it presents, rates these risks, and discusses their consequences. Through this, Walsh holds the attention of the readers and answers their most widespread questions about nuclear terrorism.
Logical Organization
The essay seems to be properly structured and logically organized for its biggest part. It has a solid introduction; though it is not long (taking into account the length of the essay), it is quite rich in content. It has a well-defined statement of the problem: “Today, threats of nuclear war and nuclear proliferation persist, but many worries that a new danger threatens the United States – a terrorist attack involving nuclear bombs, materials, or facilities” (Walsh in Howitt and Pangi 175). In addition, the essay has a succinct thesis and clearly defined tasks. These tasks are then fulfilled step-by-step; the essay has separate sections for each task, which facilitates reading and understanding of the essay’s topic. Since the arguments are presented in separate sections, the author rarely utilizes linking elements. However, this does not hamper reading in any way.
Engaging Voice
What makes Walsh’s essay especially interesting to read is his laying out the facts in a natural way. For instance, he never uses specialized terms that would be unknown to the audience, as well as he does not try to smooth anything over. However, this does not mean that he frightens his readers; after writing about the danger of nuclear terrorism, he calms his readers stating that “no terrorist group is known to have come close to developing a nuclear weapon” (Walsh in Howitt and Pangi 179). This points to his sincerity and his interaction with his readers. Besides, this testifies to the fact that Walsh cares about the things he writes and, just like any of his readers, is preoccupied with the problem of terrorism as such and the issue of nuclear terrorism in particular.
Appropriate Word Choice
The vocabulary used in this essay is especially interesting to discuss. The author uses specialized words, but they are not complicated. Among these, there are such words and word combinations as “radiological dispersal device,” “nuclear facilities,” “nuclear stockpile,” “fuel storage facility,” etc. Apart from this, he uses several proper names (of people, countries, and cities) that are related to the subject he discusses. In general, the words he uses (apart from specialized ones) are clear and specific. The essay does not contain complicated phrases or turns of speech that hamper reading. However, this does not mean that all the sentences are extremely simple. The level of the author’s language is appropriate for the target audience and the type of writing that the author has chosen. The language is complicated enough to count as specialized but easy enough to be understood by an average reader.
Overall Fluency
The essay under analysis can be characterized by normal fluency. The ideas presented by the author gradually flow from one into another, which means that there are no odd sentences and phrased that could be removed from the ext. Therefore, the essay can be considered fluent because, if, for instance, one of the sentences is removed from a paragraph, the whole paragraph loses its meaning. This testifies to the fact that all the sentences in the paragraph are interrelated and should be perceived as a whole. Moreover, the beginnings of the sentences are varied. Some sentences start with the linking phrases, such as “in addition,” “similarly,” “still,” “indeed,” etc, while the others are rhetoric questions that start with “what,” “how,” and so on. All the sentences are different in length and structure (there are simple, complex, and composite sentences with objective, attributive and adverbial clauses of different complexity). Finally, a non-academic style that fits the given situation adds to the general fluency of the essay.
Correct, Accurate Copy
The accurateness of this essay is evident. It is written by all the rules of English Grammar and punctuation, as well as conforms to the style peculiarities. The author does not use conversational phrases. Besides, the punctuation is correct throughout the essay; Walsh uses commas, semicolons, periods, and question marks where it is appropriate. The established documentation guidelines are also strictly followed, which once again proves the author’s high level of writing.
Reader-Friendly Design
The design of Walsh’s essay can be called reader-friendly because much has been done to make the essay appealing to the readers. For example, the author uses different graphic means (hyphens, different fonts, brackets, quotation marks) for the text not to be boring visually. The headings of the sections are typed in italics, which gives the essay a fancier look. Besides, this shows that the author cares about the looks of the paper and wants it to be not only informative but attractive to his readers. His typographical choices and professional design make the essay easy to read. The author does not use any direct quotations in his paper, but there are several footnotes with the data from where the information has been taken (mostly books and Web sites). The footnotes are written in Harvard citation style. Lastly, the paper in general is formatted accurately and correctly.
Conclusion
In sum, Walsh’s essay can be regarded as a great example of process writing. His essay can be characterized by consistent stimulating ideas, great logical organization, engaging voice that is achieved through the constant interaction with the readers, appropriate choice of words that make the essay easy to comprehend, fluency achieved through the use of liking phrases, accurateness, and reader-friendly design.
Works Cited
Howitt, Arnold M. and Pangi, Robyn L. Countering Terrorism: Dimensions of Preparedness. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.
Vandermer, Randall, Meyer, Verne, Rys, John V., and Sebranek, Patrick. The College Writer: A Guide to Thinking, Writing, and Researching. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2008.