Critical Reading and Writing CSCI102 - Systems ITCS905 - Systems MCS9102 - Systems

Definitions Analysis Critical Critical Analysis The investigation of any production of the intellect, as a poem, tale, argument, philosophical system, so as to exhibit its component elements in simple form Critical Characterized by careful evaluation and judgment Critical Analysis An appraisal based on careful analytical evaluation

Critical Analysis The ultimate end of analysis is a deeper understanding and a fuller appreciation of the literature The purpose for writing a critique is to evaluate somebody's work (a book, an essay, a movie, a painting...) in order to increase your understanding of it Writing a critical paper requires two steps: Critical reading Critical writing

Critical reading: To read critically is to make judgements about how a text is argued This is a highly reflective skill requiring you to "stand back" and gain some distance from the text you are reading

Critical reading: A Process Identify the author's thesis and purpose Analyse the structure of the passage by identifying all main ideas Consult a dictionary or encyclopaedia to understand material that is unfamiliar to you Make an outline of the work or write a description of it

Critical reading: A Process Write a summary of the work Determine the purpose, which could be: To inform with factual material To persuade with appeal to reason or emotions To entertain (to affect people's emotions)

Critical reading: A Process Evaluate the means by which the author has accomplished his purpose If the purpose is to inform, has the material been presented clearly, accurately, with order and coherence? If the purpose is to persuade, look for evidence, logical reasoning, contrary evidence If the purpose was to entertain, determine how emotions are affected: does it make you laugh, cry, angry? Why did it affect you?

Critical reading: A Process Consider the following questions: How is the material organized? Who is the intended audience? What are the writer's assumptions about the audience? What kind of language and imagery does the author use?

How Do I Read Looking for Ways of Thinking? First determine the central claims or purpose of the text (its thesis) A critical reading attempts to assess how these central claims are developed or argued Critical reading occurs after some preliminary processes of reading Begin by skimming research materials, especially introductions and conclusions, in order to strategically choose where to focus your critical efforts

How Do I Read Looking for Ways of Thinking? Begin to make some judgements about context What audience is the text written for? Who is it in dialogue with? (This will probably be other scholars or authors with differing viewpoints.) In what historical context is it written? All these matters of context can contribute to your assessment of what is going on in a text

How Do I Read Looking for Ways of Thinking? Distinguish the kinds of reasoning the text employs What concepts are defined and used? Does the text appeal to a theory or theories? Is any specific methodology laid out? If there is an appeal to a particular concept, theory, or method, how is that concept, theory, or method then used to organize and interpret the data? You might also examine how the text is organized: how has the author analysed (broken down) the material? Be aware that different disciplines (i.e. history, sociology, philosophy, biology) will have different ways of arguing

How Do I Read Looking for Ways of Thinking? Examine the evidence the text employs Supporting evidence is indispensable to an argument You are now in a position to grasp how the evidence is used to develop the argument and its controlling claims and concepts The prior steps allow you to see evidence in its context Consider the kinds of evidence that are used What counts as evidence in this argument? Is the evidence statistical? literary? historical? etc From what sources is the evidence taken? Are these sources primary or secondary?

How Do I Read Looking for Ways of Thinking? Critical reading may involve evaluation Your reading of a text is already critical if it accounts for and makes a series of judgments about how a text is argued However, some essays may also require you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an argument If the argument is strong, why? Could it be better or differently supported? Are there gaps, leaps, or inconsistencies in the argument? Is the method of analysis problematic? Could the evidence be interpreted differently? Are the conclusions warranted by the evidence presented? What are the unargued assumptions? Are they problematic? What might an opposing argument be?

How Do I Read Looking for Ways of Thinking? When highlighting a text or taking notes from it, teach yourself to highlight argument Look for those places in a text where an author explains Analytical moves concepts used how they are used How conclusions are arrived at

How Do I Read Looking for Ways of Thinking? Don't let yourself foreground and isolate facts and examples No matter how interesting they may be First, look for the large patterns that give purpose, order, and meaning to those examples The opening sentences of paragraphs can be important to this task

Critical Summaries A summary is essentially a tool to help you in the task of careful and critical reading Once acquired, the habit of critical analysis will serve you in everything you read You should make it a practice to continue writing such summaries for your own benefit even when you are not required to turn them in

Critical Summaries What follows are some tips on how to go about it Your summary should do two things: Analyse the argument and exhibit its structure Give a critical assessment of it

Analyse the argument To exhibit the structure of an argument, you will distinguish: Premises (the propositions that the argument requires you accept at the outset) Conclusions (the thesis that the author is trying to get you to agree with)

Analyse the argument Sometimes (not always), the conclusion will be meant to follow deductively Other times the argument will not be so tight

Analyse the argument It will often be useful to ferret out unargued assumptions including especially unexpressed ones, which are needed for the argument to go through Note that the premises don't necessarily come first Often a writer, for reasons of convenience or style, will say not "A, therefore B," but "B, because A."

Analyse the argument Pick out all and only the main points Use a Top-Down approach: First ask yourself what, in a sentence or two, is the point of the whole passage or article In your summary, you can start with that brief statement Then go on to each principal part of the argument, and repeat the process until you have got down to a level of detail adequate for the space available in your summary

Analyse the argument If the passage is very long, there will obviously have to be less detail Mastery of a text requires the ability to summarize it to any desired length When something remains unclear, don't gloss it over, but draw attention to it

Analyse the argument Pick out any "crux" or difficulty of interpretation Don't be afraid of admitting that you don't understand something, but try to say as clearly as possible what you find had to understand, and why Sharpen any difficulty found by offering alternative interpretations

Critical Assessment Make very clear when you are no longer stating what your author says, but have come to your own critical assessment Indicate briefly whether and why you think the premises and assumptions you have been asked to accept are True or false Plausible or implausible If the argument is deductive, indicate whether it is valid If it is not deductive say whether your find it acceptable, and if not, why

Critical Assessment One way is to look for more or less remote consequences of the thesis that may turn out to be unacceptable It is always a useful exercise to try as hard as you can to find good reasons to disagree with what a writer says, especially if you agree Conversely, if you disagree with the conclusion, try hard to make up an independent defense of it

Critical Assessment If the argument is bad, explain how: Are one or more of the premises false? (This makes the argument unsound) Does the conclusion follow? (This makes the argument invalid) Does the argument rely on assumptions that are unacceptable, or arbitrary, or debatable?

Critical Assessment Does the argument contain crucial ambiguities? (An ambiguous word or phrase is one that has more than one possible meaning. This can foul up an argument!) Is rhetoric substituted for argument at some crucial stage?

Critical Assessment In addition, point out anything about the logic of the substance of the argument that seems to especially interesting It can be interesting because you strongly agree or because you strongly disagree In either case, you should try briefly to justify your view

Your Assignment Read, summarise and provide a critical comment on the provided reading. The summary and critical comments are to be provided in sentence and paragraph format (no dot points) using your own words.

Your Assignment The article is available electronically at http://www.seanational.com.au/downloads/publications/Hourigan36-37.pdf The assignment must be between 250-300 words in length The assignment is to be submitted electronically through WebCT Due date for submission of assignment is August 6 2004 5:00pm.

Your Assignment Criteria for assessment of task 1 and suggested % weighting for each criteria Summary of article clearly identifies ( 1.5 % ) Author’s main argument/ main ideas Some of the author’s supporting details, evidence for main ideas Critical comment (0.5%) Student provides critical comment on the reading Grammatical accuracy (1.5%) Summary and critical comment are written in paragraph form Grammatically accurate sentence structure is used in the task Free from plagiarism (1.5%) Ideas in the summary are expressed in the student’s own words