Scott Bransford's Camping For Their Lives

Words: 744
Pages: 3

Introduction The article, “Camping for Their Lives” by Scott Bransford, is an informative piece talking about how some homeless Americans live in what is known as tent cities. The author is describing the development of tent cities, comparing today’s tent cities with squatter camps as well as how the people outside of the camps see the people inside of them. The author’s thesis is to inform his audience that because of job and housing cuts as well as overcrowded and outdated homeless shelters, these Americans have been forced to make a home for themselves, thus the tent cities. His thesis also states that America is in need of better social programs for its people. The article, “Camping for Their Lives”, written by Scott Bransford is a very well-structured article because of the …show more content…
In the beginning of the article, Bransford explains what exactly is a tent city and why these people are living there. He states that the “label implies that they are just a temporary phenomenon” (Bransford, 2009, p394). This piece of evidence was used to persuade the audience to side with him because he placed this sentence after telling his audience that the people in other country call it the “slums”, meaning that this can very will be a permanent phenomenon. Another example of a well place piece of evidence that the writer used is about how the United States’ Tent cities are related to other squatter settlements in other countries. The author interviewed a professor whom concentrated in urban studies named Rahul Mehrotra. Mehrotra stated that the cities were just “a reflection of the government’s inability to provide housing affordably across society (Bransford, 2009, p.395)”. This sentence was used to persuade the audience to side with him because it proves that the government needs to do