Molly Ivins writes about politics and Texas, and in recent years has focused
her brand of sarcasm and sharp wit upon the Bush administration. Ivins is a
syndicated columnist and the author of the bestseller
Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? (1992) and
Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush.
Sites about Molly Ivins:
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Read this wonderful column about Ivins at Salon.com.
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Creators.com ("a syndicate of talent") offers this biography of Molly Ivins as
well as an archive of her syndicated columns.
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Molly Ivins has left the Fort Worth Star Telegram, but read about how
she made her mark and ruffled feathers at this Texas newspaper.
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A short Ivins biography appears on the "Famous Texans" Web site.
Read some of Ivins's columns on one of the Web sites listed on her Biography
page. What qualities characterize Ivins's writing? Why are these qualities
appealing, particularly for a political columnist?
Go to Creators.com:
http://www.creators.com/opinion.html. Choose a different columnist, and read
through a few columns. Then compare these to Ivins's pieces. Do you think, as
the Salon interview suggests, that Ivins goes farther than other columnists in
her mixture of passion and humor? Why or why not? Use examples from both
writers' work to support your argument.
Be a columnist yourself. Pick a hot current events topic (search newspapers like
The New York Times
or the Boston Globe),
and write an Ivins-esque piece about it. Use humor, sarcasm, and irony to get
people to read about topics they've sworn never to consider again.
Read though some of the other Op-Eds in The Norton Reader
(Regular, 402), and think about what it takes to write an Op-Ed column. How do
you present a topic that is bound to alienate at least some of your readers? How
do the Op-Ed authors in The Norton Reader handle this
task? Do some fare better than others?
Ivins puts her Texas background to great use in her writing, incorporating
southern phrases and colloquialisms. Why do you think she does this? Look
through The Norton Reader to find other examples of
this technique and think about how it affects the tone and style of the pieces
in question. Try writing a short piece that effectively employs the quirky
verbal characteristics of your own hometown, state, or region.