Airline Merger

Many people have become worried over the recent airline merger between US Airways and American Airlines, thinking that the result will drive airline fares up and cause one airline to hold an extremely large share of the market.  This article, written by a business professor at the University of California - Berkeley, aims to persuade the audience that the merger will actually benefit both the airline business and the normal airline consumer.  The article states that competition will actually increase because the other two major airline corporations (Southwest, Delta) will be more motivated to open up more hubs that will compete with the additional routes offered by American.  Also, the article notes that this will be the last major merger in the airline industry, which has been condensing rapidly due to deregulation. Overall, the merger is expected to both drive stock prices up for all airlines and lower airline tickets across the board.

In order to get the audience's attention on the topic of the article, the author starts out with a series of rhetorical questions appealing to the general consumer.  These questions are specifically designed to mirror the thoughts of Americans on the issue, and the readers then infer that these questions will be answered in the following paragraphs.  Following these questions, the author isolates one abrupt sentence, which serves as the article's claim.  Isolating this has the effect of explicitly stating the contents of the article in a way that cannot be mistaken.  It also answers the questions posed immediately, so at the very least readers are aware of the effect of the merger, at least in this professor's opinion.  The author then incorporates statistics that show the minimal effect on the change in competition and to show how the consumer will actually benefit from the merger.  This logical format calmly and effectively persuades the reader of the positive effect of the merger.

Link to Article