English 5 Critical Reading/Thinking Analysis
From the textbook you will choose ONE of the readings at the end of the book:
- Living With Less. A Lot Less. by Graham Hill
- You Are What You Speak by Guy Deutscher
- The Order of Things by Malcolm Gladwell
You will analyze the article from a rhetorical critical thinking perspective in response to the categories below. The assignment will be formatted in MLA style, with correct in-text citations and a Works Cited List.
Name of the article:
MLA Citation: correctly cite the article:
- I. Important Vocabulary: Choose a maximum of 5 words from the article that are unfamiliar to you and that are important to understanding the meaning of the article. Look up the words in a dictionary; give the part of speech, the definition (as used in the article), and a synonym. Then, write an original sentence using the new vocabulary word.
Word Part of Speech Meaning Synonym
1.
Sentence:
Sentence:
Sentence:
Sentence:
Sentence:
- Important Information:
- Write a statement of the main idea (Mention the topic and the author’s claim about it).
- Who is the intended audience? What are some of the writer’s assumptions about the reader, about his ethics, about his values, and about the issues?
- What is the author’s purpose or motivation for writing his/her argument?
- What is the author’s bias? Cite examples from the article to support your evaluation.
lll. Summarize the article (in detail) using your own words (Chunk the article into sections to help you).
Write “What does it say?” for every paragraph.
- IV. How is the essay organized? Identify the general pattern of organization that develops the thesis. Give examples that support your analysis. For example, chronological order, cause & effect, definition, explanation, evaluation, compare & contrast, and exemplification are organizational patterns used to develop arguments.
- How are ethos, logos, and pathos developed? Cite an example of each from the reading.
- VI. What role does the broader context (social, historical, cultural, and/or economic forces) play in the implications of the ideas in the article?
VII. Evaluate the supporting details – Are they sufficient? True? Verifiable? (Write in paragraph format). Prove why your evaluation is valid.
VIII. Evaluate the logic and validity of the writer’s arguments by applying the structure of Toulmin analysis. Do the author’s conclusions follow logically, and why do you think so? Are there any missing pieces in his arguments; what are they? Could the argument be made stronger? Identify the claim, warrants and backing.
- IX. Respond to the issue and to the author’s arguments. Do Not Simply agree OR disagree. Challenge the author’s assumptions, view point, arguments, and facts. Pretend you could ask the author questions; what would you ask?