No Spanking No Time-Out, No Problems Summary

The elements of non-fiction writing play a beneficial role when attempting to teach readers. Some, like characterization or style, can add interest to a reader’s imagination, while others, including arrangement and issues just cause readers to produce extra thought. Most people are unaware that the elements of non-fiction writing can even aid them in understanding their reading text better. Olga Khazan, author of “No Spanking, No Time-Out, No Problems,” presents issues, anecdotes, and questions in her article to inspire her readers to follow her specified methods.

Olga Khazan presents issues in her article to teach parents the right way to discipline their children. The use of issues in Khazan’s article, brings out many emotions, which can

By asking questions like, “Where do parents get their ideas about parenting?” (2) or “What does that mean?” (4), Khazan gets the readers’ minds to start asking the same questions. Khazan answers all the questions in the text quite accurately, which enables readers to learn even more. Norman Bardburn and the other authors of the book, "Asking Questions: The Definitive Guide to Questionnaire Design -- for Market Research, Political Polls, and Social and Health Questionnaires" declare that the wording of questions presents the most important aspect of asking them (3). Bradburn et al. also state, "…Well-written questions can quickly engage the interest of the participants" (22). Overall, Khazan uses a total of eighteen question marks. This means that while reading this writing, readers ask themselves eighteen questions and answer them, thus receiving far more advice from the article than they probably planned on. The Mind Tools Content Team, who wrote the website article "Questioning Techniques" observes, "But by consciously applying the appropriate kind of questioning, you can gain the information, response or outcome that you want even more effectively" (Sec. 7). This once again proves that by asking questions that readers should answer, they receive a better understanding of the