Sender

This part of the study guide is about the sender of the text, that is, the writer. We will look at who the writer is, the medium he chose and the credibility of the text. 

Writer

The writer of the article is journalist Terry McCarthy, reporting from Santee, the suburb where the shootings took place. Note that the piece was also written with the help of three other reporters, mentioned at the end of the article: Polly Foster, Jeffrey Ressner and Margot Roosevelt.

Consider the aim of the journalist. Besides covering a “hot” story of the moment, McCarthy also tries to illustrate the general psychology of troubled teenagers. “Charles Andrew Williams had been a lost boy for some time--hopelessly adrift in a dysfunctional, anonymous suburban landsca...