Critical Reading Activity

Up this point we've mostly looked at other students' writing, but from time to time it's helpful to remember that professionals still rely on the same fundamental writing skills that we learn about in this class. For this assignment, each group will read the assigned editorial from the New York Times:

Group 1: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/opinion/dowd-cain-not-able.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Group 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/opinion/friedman-a-long-list-of-suckers.html?ref=opinion

Group 3: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/opinion/mr-corzines-big-bet-on-mf-global.html?ref=opinion

Group 4: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/opinion/how-to-prop-up-the-euro.html?ref=opinion

(Note: Registration may be required, but it only takes a minute.)

Within your groups, discuss your answers to the following questions and record your answers in a Google Doc. Each group need only create one document.

1. What is the article's thesis statement? Where does it appear? Does the thesis statement do the three things that we said all thesis statements should do? Explain your answer fully, noting in detail how the author fulfills each of these requirements. If you think s/he does not fulfill these requirements in the thesis statement, speculate as to why this is the case.

2. What kinds of appeals does the author make to his or her audience? Identify at least two specific appeals. Do you think the audience find these appeals convincing? Why or why not?

3. What kinds of research does the author employ to support his or her claim? Does this research come from popular, professional, or scholarly sources? If the author does not rely on research, how does s/he establish authorial credibility within the article?

4. Does the author employ strong paragraphing skills? Does each paragraph contain a topic sentences that expresses a single idea? Do all sentences in the paragraph explain that idea (and that idea only) fully and completely?

5. How does the author grab the reader's attention in the introduction? Can you categorize the introduction into one of the types we talked about in class?

6. Does the author employ a variety of different sentence types? Does the writing seem dynamic and powerful to you? Support your answer with specific details from the text.

At the end of the period I will ask each group to summarize their answers briefly for the rest of the class.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/opinion/dowd-cain-not-able.html?_r=1&ref=opinion