Comment on “summary55555“

Summary:

Ambrose Evans-Pitchard’s article in The Telegraph of the 23^rd October 2013 analyses the approaching European deflation in connection with debt.

At the beginning of the text, the author mentions that deflation had already occurred before. Deflation can influence the economy of countries positively if they are not too heavily in debt. This, however, is not the case in Europe: As many countries are overburdened with debts, repaying it becomes more and more difficult if the inflation is too low. This problem does not only affect national but also private debt.

It is argued that the ECB should try everything to maintain an inflation of at least 2% in order to prevent from an economic disaster, but according to the author Europe seems to be paralyzed. Italy, France and Spain should gang up on Germany and dictate a new policy, which combats deflation and could therefore help restoring the damaged economies. Yet, they fear that Germany might leave the EMU and leave it up to the rest to solve the debt problem.

Summing up, Europe is far away from a proper solution. It still seems to be in recession but

prefers to wait for an economic miracle instead of taking the initiative.

[201 words]

Comment:

In general, the student who wrote this text has produced a good summary. The introducing sentence hits the nail on the head and clearly explains what the original article was about. However, one thing I missed throughout the whole text is the emphasis on the opinion of the author. The student wrote “It is argued” and “It still seems” and reflects only one time the purpose of the author. Also the phrase that Italy, France and Spain should gang up on Germany sounds more like a general idea than the solution of the author. There are also numerous positive aspects of the summary. The student concentrates on the most essential information, lists them in a logical order and always writes in their own words. Moreover, the text producer remains an objective reporter. In terms of language, an appropriate register is used and I have just found two expressions with “it” where it is not 100% clear what the student wants to refer to.