A Professor's Highly-Structured & Well-Written Take on ASEAN! ❤️

A Professor’s Take on ASEAN!

In today’s New Indian Express

#languageofeditorial

13 October 2023

Well, reading an article written by a Professor of Jawaharlal University, New Delhi, has its own special merits.

Professors normally take that extra care while drafting their sentences and their paragraphs, always on the alert to dot their i's and cross their t's in the process.

The reason: Their students would be reading their article as well. 😊

And so with all fairness, I’ve got a soft corner for any writing done by a Professor. 😊

It’s very much like the Academic critic and the Public critic!

While the academic critic reviews a movie or an event using established and authentic rubrics and criteria, the public critic goes by whatever they deem fit for the ‘public’!!! throwing rules to the wind in the process.

Professor Catherine Belsey, whose books I very often recommend to my students, is an example to the former!

Let’s now look at Shankari Sundararaman’s editorial piece on ASEAN –

She’s structured her article so well, by giving an introductory paragraph, that foregrounds the need and the reason for this article to the lay reader.

Then, she has meticulously outlined her article using three power points, that outline the three core challenges.

First, the focus on “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth.”

Second, among the resolutions adopted by the Jakarta Declaration, the most critical one falls under the subheading ‘ASEAN Matters’.

The third core challenge is that, the Jakarta Declaration re-emphasises the ASEAN’s Achilles’ heel.

Finally, what is the author trying to convey? Or

What is the author trying to tell us, as the outcome of her article?

If the ASEAN has to remain relevant, it needs to reinvent itself to suit the changing regional environment.

PS: There’s yet another article by Sashi Tharoor on the ‘Canada Connect’ which is yet another worthy read in the Editorial Page.

Here’s wishing you happy reading!