How to read a political text? To know the answer first we have to know what political texts are and what format they follow. Basically political texts are “any textual activity that has a direct or indirect Impact on the political process (intentionally or otherwise)” (Baker, 8). A political text usually has strong title, abstract, clear organization of sections, mostly given statistics and numbers and an objective tone.
To read and understand a political text first we need to read abstract and then the titles very closely. After titles comes the need of reading introduction, as it is the map of the whole text, along with the author’s main argument. Introduction leads us to visualize the whole argument. Reading the topic sentences of each paragraph helps to get the idea of individual paragraphs. Lastly, the most important process in reading a political text is to interrogate the author. We need to figure out the puzzle set up by the author. Sometimes the author likes to provoke some thoughts in reader’s mind to make them think about the political changes that are going on, specially mentioned in his or her argument. We also need to review the evidences that the author provides and how it helps to support his or her argument.
To explain in details we can take the example of “Women’s capability and the right to education in Bangladesh”. In this particular text the authors talk about a political issue prevalent in Bangladesh: women’s capability for education. So, it can be considered as a political text. Again, it has clear titles like: “Approach and Methodology”, “Women’s Schooling and Marriage capital”, etc. which gives a clear idea of what the topic is about. Next, its abstract is summarizing the author’s argument on women’s capability in education. The authors in their introduction set a whole plan along with some background information about the topic. If we start interrogating author’s point of view, like “in the instrumentalist and capabilities approach whose interest is at stake?”, we can see their implication. Finally, the author show many relevant statistics, numbers to support their arguments. For example, in “More than 100 million missing women” Amartya Sen mentions, “the low ratio of 0. 94 women to men in South Asia, West Asia and China would indicate a 6 percent deficit of women” (2). Both of the texts have an objective tone which holds the interest of the readers.
Works cited
Arends-Kuenning, Mary and Amin, Sanjeda, “Women’s capability and right to education in Bangladesh.” International Journal of Politics and Society, Vol. 15, No.1, September 2001. Print
Baker, Mona. “ Translating Political Texts”. University of Manchester. April 7 2013.
Sen, Amartya, “More Than 100 Million Missing Women.” Nybooks Archives. Dec 20, 1990. April 7, 2013.
AUW's Interpreting Texts, Spring 2013 