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Critical Reading and Critique
Chapter Guide

Reading Critically

Reading critically involves both summarizing and evaluating a piece of writing. For academic writing, you seek information on a topic. Sources for a topic are not equally valuable, however, so you must learn to discern what is and isn't useful to you. To determine validity in your source material, ask yourself the following questions about the passages, articles, and books that you read:

What Is the Author's Purpose?

  • Identify the author's thesis.
  • Identify the author's purpose: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain?
  • Determine how successful the author has been.

Does He or She Succeed in This Purpose?

Informative Writing.
If the author's purpose is to inform, first consider answers to any Who, What, Where, When, and How questions related to the subject matter of the article. Next, consider its accuracy, significance, and fair interpretation.

Persuasive Writing.
If the author's purpose is to persuade, assess its validity by determining whether the author has accomplished the following:

  • Clearly defined key terms.
  • Used information fairly.
  • Argued logically and not fallaciously.

Logical Fallacies.

  • Emotionally Loaded Terms—using terms with powerful connotations to sway the reader's emotions
  • Ad Hominem Argument—rejecting the opposing views by attacking the person who holds them
  • Faulty Cause and Effect—assuming one event caused another without proving it
  • Either/Or Reasoning—assuming only two possibilities for a given situation exist
  • Hasty Generalization—drawing conclusions from too little evidence or unrepresentative evidence
  • False Analogy—assuming two things that are similar in one way are also similar in other ways
  • Begging the Question—assuming as a proven fact the very thesis being argued
  • Non Sequitur—concluding with a point that does not logically follow from a premise
  • Oversimplification—offering easy solutions for complicated problems

To What Extent Do You Agree With the Author?

Distinguish between the argument's merits and your agreement or disagreement with the author's views. You may agree with an author's views, but you might find that the work contains flaws in logic or inaccuracies in statements of fact. On the other hand, you might find that although you disagree with the author's point of view, you find that the work is logically sound and reasonable. The best approach to your critique, then, is twofold. First, you will identify the author's purpose and design; second, you will respond with points of agreement and disagreement as you evaluate the validity of the argument. As you respond to the work, you should state your position clearly and provide evidence for your position.

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