Careful Commentary

The Ears have been listening and they've been piqued to a comment on my previous article that was left by a colleague - The writer of Politically Texas.  Her view was positive but critical and raised some points that I thought I should justify as well as others that were legitimate writing concerns!  Firstly, to address what I would consider a legitimate writing concern is the obvious lack of and introductory paragraph that summarized my intent.  I do believe that my mini-essay could (and should) contain an introductory paragraph that briefly expresses my position.  That being said, another contention was the length of my article and I believe that this requires justification.  The length of my article is primarily due to the substantive nature of the journal article I reviewed.  The article I reviewed was a concise neonatal medical ethics overview; since we are not in a medical ethics course, I thought it was pertinent to discuss the nature and context of the argument the author puts forward.  Also, the author's background is a salient feature of the article.  The article is not written by a science academician or even a healthcare professional.  This changes how the article reads substantially and makes it that much more powerful.  Normally such a thing would detract from the author's credibility; however, she has done considerable research and is well respected in the neonatal-ethics community.  If I had left these pieces out of my review it would have severely detracted from both my argument and my credibility.

Regarding length I believe an overly dense piece of writing detracts from its quality.  It is more important to analyze what an article says, the point it makes, and how concisely it can make that point.  

This is DW signing out!