Chapter 2: Evidence
Constructing Your Two-Storey Opening, Part 2
The observational paragraph we produced at the end of Chapter 1 already contains textual evidence and the author’s purpose:
Example
Though he is quick to clarify that he “straight-up” believes in copyrights and patents, Bollier is also equally quick to establish his claim that contemporary corporations have converted these property rights and claims into “crude, anti-social instruments of control and avarice.” He very clearly establishes a binary between these greedy corporations rushing to privatize, manage, and outright own songs, words and even prefixes, and the public who seek only to share “fundamental knowledge” for the sake of the “common good.” Through continued use of this contrast, Bollier makes certain his readers cannot miss what is really at stake in this quest to manage “creations of the mind”: an “over-patenting” of thought to the point where the average person can no longer access freely the accumulated wisdom of humanity.
In our two-storey opening we present the interpretive leap we will be taking in our unique and purposeful reading of Bollier’s article:
Example
In “The Plot to Privatize Common Knowledge” David Bollier examines the perceived threat to “fundamental knowledge” and the “common good” posed by contemporary corporations who are converting property rights and patenting claims into “crude, anti-social instruments of control and avarice.” He uses this examination as a warning to his readers that such “over-patenting,” if continued unchecked, will result in much of what has been previously considered the shared and accumulated wisdom of humanity becoming “off limits” to the average citizen.
