1. The University of Missouri Press Facing Major Threat

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/us/university-of-missouri-press-closing-incites-anger.html?_r=1&ref=books

         Timothy M. Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri, has discussed plans to close the university's press, which caused many angry professor, authors, and students to deliberately protest. John Eligon, author of the article, starts out by listing a number of academic titles the university is best known for. The university is best known for printing  "The Collected Works of Langston Hughes," "The Complete Sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson," and "Mark Twain and His Circle." The University of Missouri Press not only suffered a $400,000 annual income, but it is threatened to be closed shortly. The author supports his statements by presenting a major fact: many other universities have closed their publishing houses in the last three years; both the Utah State and the Louisiana State's press have all merely survived the threat of being suspended. The author then mentions the early university presses like Cornell, which at first had the intention of publishing research results. However, most universities in the United States are being threatened to be closed because the financial situations have not favored the presses. As a result of this financial crisis, the universities have no other choice but to close the university's press which does not bring any sort of profit.
         The author John Eligon tries to inform the reader at first, using as an example the University of Missouri Press, that most university presses in the United States are either in great danger of being closed or have already been suspended. The author uses several different examples like the Utah State and the Louisiana State Press. Eligon proceeds by supporting his view that university presses are essential by listing the number of well known works the University of Missouri Press has printed. The author then states the reason for such threats to close presses: that university presses are nonprofitable and as a result, have only "wasted" money without even replacing it. In other words, the author makes it seem that universities have belittled the presses' importance and value. Eligon also uses several different historical facts to support his argument; early university presses in the United States had the intention of publishing certain works, but now they are being threatened to be closed or suspended because of the university's lack of money, and that resulted in professors, students, and other authors and supporters to be extremely frustrated by the fact that recently the president of the University of Missouri discussed plans to close the university's press. The author uses a number of different university names, facts, and historical bases so that the reader can understand that not only is the University of Missouri Press in great danger, but supporters are also stirred up.