Questions for Discussion

1. lan draws heavily on her experience as a musician and a recording artist to support her position on music

downloads. Evaluate her use of personal experience as evidence. How effectively do you think it supports

her main argument? Do you think she could have used other kinds of evidence to support her argument?

Explain. (In answering these questions, you might wish to review the discussion of appraising evidence

on pages 91-97).

2. lan begins her essay by telling an anecdote about the number of messages she received from people who

learned that she was writing about free music downloads. Why do you think she begins her essay in this

way? Do you think this beginning is an effective way for her to introduce her subject? Explain.

3. lan writes, "There is zero evidence that material available for free online downloading is financially harm-

ing anyone. In fact, most of the hard evidence is to the contrary." To what extent do you think lan pro-

vides such "hard evidence" in her essay? Do you think she is persuasive on this point? Why or why not?

4. What sort of persona, or ethos (see pages 67-73) does lan establish? How might her background and

experience as a recording artist contribute to that persona? To what extent do you think her persona

contributes to the effectiveness of her argument?

5. lan devotes a considerable amount of her essay to discussing the positions of music industry people who

oppose free music downloads. Why do you think she does so? Do you think she presents their concerns

fairly? Explain. How does she characterize the music industry people who oppose her position? In what

ways might her argument be strengthened-or weakened-by the way she characterizes these people

and their interests?

6. This essay was published in ZDNet, a network of Internet sites that is, according to its website, intended

for "IT [information technology] professionals and business influencers" and "provides an invaluable per-

spective and resources so that users can get the most out of their investments in technology." In what

ways do you think lan addresses this audience? Do you think she does so effectively? Explain.