After reading the article carefully, use your knowledge of English 1C analysis devices to answer the following questions in complete, well-organized essay form. Quote phrases from the article to support your analysis. Remember: a good analysis explains enough so a reader who hasn’t read the original article knows what you’re critiquing and why, but at the same time, it is organized around your own thesis about the article, and is not a summary of the article point by point.
Suggested format
1) Introduction: Identify the author, his/her purpose for writing, conclusion, and target audience. State your thesis evaluating the overall strength or weakness of the author’s arguments and a brief reason why, not your personal feelings about the issue.
2) Body: Identify author’s support points—the premises and evidence used to support the conclusion—using brief quoted examples as references.
a. Set out the strengths—
i. What points best support the thesis?
ii. What kinds of reasoning does the author use (statistics, analogies, cause/effect reasoning)? Other persuasive devices?
b. Set out the weaknesses—
i. Are there fallacies (label them), contradictions, omissions, unsupported claims, unwarranted assumptions, non-credible references, biased language?
3) Conclusion: Assess and respond to the persuasiveness of the writing. Give specific examples for your statements. Remember, you can acknowledge that an argument is strong even though you may not agree with it, or acknowledge that an argument is weak even though you do agree with it.
a. Do the strengths outweigh the weaknesses?
b. How does the author’s argument conclusion compare with your own about the issue?
c. Did this article change your views on the issue in any way?
SCORING: The majority of your score on the 6-point English 1C Scoring Guide will depend on your analysis of the author’s logic in Nos. 2a and 2b above, using logic terms and concepts we’ve studied throughout the semester. Your personal feelings on the issue should only appear in Nos. 3b and 3c. Remember, evaluating an argument’s strength does not depend on whether or not you agree with it, but on the quality of its reasoning, amount of evidence, and absence of fallacies.
Exams that refer to the author briefly but consist mainly of your own opinion or argument on the issue will not qualify for scores above the 65 (D+) level. Exams that find all strengths and identify no specific weaknesses or specific fallacies, and exams that find all weaknesses and no strengths, will not qualify for scores above the 70 (C) level.
After reading the article carefully, use your knowledge of English 1C analysis devices to answer the following questions in complete, well-organized essay form. Quote phrases from the article to support your analysis. Remember: a good analysis explains enough so a reader who hasn’t read the original article knows what you’re critiquing and why, but at the same time, it is organized around your own thesis about the article, and is not a summary of the article point by point.
Suggested format
1) Introduction: Identify the author, his/her purpose for writing, conclusion, and target audience. State your thesis evaluating the overall strength or weakness of the author’s arguments and a brief reason why, not your personal feelings about the issue.
2) Body: Identify author’s support points—the premises and evidence used to support the conclusion—using brief quoted examples as references.
a. Set out the strengths—
i. What points best support the thesis?
ii. What kinds of reasoning does the author use (statistics, analogies, cause/effect reasoning)? Other persuasive devices?
b. Set out the weaknesses—
i. Are there fallacies (label them), contradictions, omissions, unsupported claims, unwarranted assumptions, non-credible references, biased language?
3) Conclusion: Assess and respond to the persuasiveness of the writing. Give specific examples for your statements. Remember, you can acknowledge that an argument is strong even though you may not agree with it, or acknowledge that an argument is weak even though you do agree with it.
a. Do the strengths outweigh the weaknesses?
b. How does the author’s argument conclusion compare with your own about the issue?
c. Did this article change your views on the issue in any way?
SCORING: The majority of your score on the 6-point English 1C Scoring Guide will depend on your analysis of the author’s logic in Nos. 2a and 2b above, using logic terms and concepts we’ve studied throughout the semester. Your personal feelings on the issue should only appear in Nos. 3b and 3c. Remember, evaluating an argument’s strength does not depend on whether or not you agree with it, but on the quality of its reasoning, amount of evidence, and absence of fallacies.
Exams that refer to the author briefly but consist mainly of your own opinion or argument on the issue will not qualify for scores above the 65 (D+) level. Exams that find all strengths and identify no specific weaknesses or specific fallacies, and exams that find all weaknesses and no strengths, will not qualify for scores above the 70 (C) level.
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