Critical Analysis of an Argument

Essay writing at the university level requires a set of skills that may be new to you (or not, if you had some awesome high school teachers). Most of the essays that you will have to write at university involve gathering, analyzing and synthesizing information from multiple sources. Although there is lots of information freely available on the Internet, many professors will ask that your essay research come from "academic sources"; in other words, books from the university library and journal articles. These articles are often written by other university professors for an academic audience (not necessarily a first year student). In order to use this research material in your essay, you need to be able to:

- Read the article
- Understand what is being said
- Identify the argument and how it is supported
- Choose relevant quotations
- Use this material in conjunction with your own thesis or argument

Critical reading means more than just skimming the subheadings of a textbook chapter or highlighting the occasional phrase. Critical reading means taking the time to think carefully about what is being said in a text. It involves identifying key features in the reading, such as the author's argument and the evidence being used to support it. It means not taking for granted that whatever you are reading is objective or absolute fact, but analyzing and evaluating the credibility of the text using a set of criteria.

Instructions

For this assignment, you will select one article from your sources in your Annotated Bibliography (it must be an academic journal source). Once you have selected your article, you will read it and begin your critique by answering the following five questions:

1. What is the main topic of the article?

2. What is the issue being discussed?

3. What position (argument) does the author make?

4. What evidence does the author put forward?

5. How convincing is this evidence (quality of evidence, inclusion/discussion of counter-arguments, glaring omissions)?

6. Identify and discuss points of critique in the argument/article

Requirements and Approach
Your Article Analysis should be 3-4 pages in length, double-spaced. Ensure that you've given sufficient detail in your answer to support your critique, and subsequently your argument.

Here is a recommended approach to the assignment:

1. Read through the article once to get a general understanding about what it's about.

2. Look at the points of criticism that are provided.

3. Read the article again, more closely this time. Highlight parts of the article that you think will help you to answer the questions. Make

notes and ask questions.

4. Write a first draft of the assignment.

5. Compare what you have written against the questions. Do you have everything in your assignment that you need to?

6. Read the article one last time. Did you miss anything?

7. Revise your assignment.