Critical Reading & Evaluative Statements

Critical Reading as Form of Reasoning

• Critical reading is a crucial academic skill
• It involves being careful, thorough, thoughtful, and actively engaged with the text
• Strategies include:
  • Previewing before reading to gather information
  • Annotating by jotting down notes while reading
  • Summarizing to test comprehension
  • Analyzing to understand relationships between parts
  • Re-reading for deeper meaning
  • Responding to react to the content
• Reasoning utilizes logical thinking focused on cause and effect, pattern, etc
• Critical reading helps formulate arguments and reasons in response to the text by understanding details thoroughly

Formulating Evaluative Statements

• An evaluative statement explains strengths and weaknesses in writing
• It offers a value judgment based on specific criteria
• Steps
  • Read the text critically to understand the essence and check for fallacies
  • Formulate statements just like any other writing, but focusing on the judgment of the text's content and property
  • Compose the evaluative statements in two steps:
    • Formulating assertions about the content and properties of the text
    • Formulating a meaningful counterclaim in response to claims in the text
• Examine ideas for facts/opinions, make inferences/conclusions, and assess overall quality
• Use evaluative languages such as useful, significant, important, insightful, detailed, up-to-date, comprehensive, practical, etc
• A counterclaim opposes a writer's claim
  • Recognize the value of hedges when stating counterclaims
  • Consider the major points of disagreement with the author
  • Identify the strongest argument and its defense
  • Evaluate the merits, weaknesses, shortcomings, and hidden assumptions
  • Find textual support for the formulated counterclaim
• A hedge minimizes the negative impact of criticism, providing a courteous tone when presenting a counterclaim
• Tips for writing assertions
  • Be knowledgeable and back it up
  • Be clear, concise, and thematic
• Assertion is a declarative sentence that claims truth

Common Types of Assertion

• Fact: objectively proven statement.
  • Example: "The sampaguita's roots are used for medical purposes, such as an anesthetic and a sedative"
• Convention: something done based on historical precedent, laws, rules, usage and customs
  • Example: "The sampaguita belongs to the Jasminum of the family Oleaceae"
• Opinion: difficult to objectively verify but based on facts
  • Example: "The popularity of sampaguita flowers is most evident in places of worship"
• Preference: subjective personal choice
  • Example: "Sampaguitas are the most beautiful and most fragrant of all flowers"
• Inference is reacting to a conclusion
• Conclusion sums up as a result of something
• Fallacy uses invalid or faulty reasoning
• Judgment is a product of careful thought

Evaluating Information

• Critical Evaluation is a way of expressing opinions
• Ways of expressing evaluation
  • Begin with positives
  • Keep feedback concise
  • Focus on the situation, not person when noting negatives, and mention why it is negative
  • Suggest solutions or improvements with justification

Determining Textual Evidence

• Textual evidence includes details supporting the author's claim
• Gathered from original sources or other texts supporting an argument or thesis
• Two sides
  • A claim that is a statement of the writer's point or argument
  • A counterclaim that opposes the claim
• Two forms
  • Explicit evidence that is directly stated
  • Implied evidence that can be gathered through clues given thought the text
• Evidence includes
  • Facts
  • Statistics
  • Expert opinions
  • Personal anecdotes
• Characteristics of good evidence: unified, relevant, specific, accurate, and representative
• Important steps for examining evidences
  • Read and understand the question or claim
  • Find textual answers
  • Note inferences and quotations supporting the answer or claim
  • Analyze and cite evidence

Features and Requirements in Composing Texts

• Academic writing should be clear, concise, focused, structured, supported by evidence, and have a formal tone.

Types of Academic Writing

• Book Review:
  • Analyses a book's content, approach, and form
  • Can be an opinion piece, summary review, or scholarly review
• Structure of Book Review
  • Introduction includes title, writer, thesis statement
  • Summary gives the purpose, method, and claim
  • Review/Critique examines methodology, theoretical soundness, explanation sufficiency
  • Conclusion gives overall impression, scholarly value, benefits, suggestions
• Common features of a book review
  • concise summary
  • critical assessment in relation to other studies
  • scholarly evaluation with recommendations
• Article Critique
  • Presents assessment through an intensive analysis
  • Written in formal language with a structured format
  • Includes introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion
• Purposes of article critique
  • Describe writer's thoughts
  • Analyze points and explaining
  • Interpret author's intention
  • Summarize and consider the article's value
• Literature Review
  • Compiles information on a topic from various sources over a period
  • Provides the current know-how, including findings and theoretical contributions
• Structure of Literature Review
  • Introduction gives purpose, scope, and organizational pattern
  • Body covers historical background, relevant theories, relationships, strengths, and viewpoints
  • Conclusions restate the main argument, agreements, and perspective
• Guidelines for Writing
  • Review the documentation style
  • Focus on topic
  • Determine the types and number of sources needed
  • Survey online databases
  • Search with relevant keywords
  • Evaluate sources for coverage and currency
• Research Report
  • Gathers data to interpret the topic
  • Highlights findings, recommendations, and essential details
• Structure of Research Report
  • Title page, author, addresses, submission date
  • Abstract with summary
  • Introduction with background
  • Literature Review that summarizes sources, concepts, and studies
  • Methodology including participants, instruments, procedures, and analyses
  • Results, description, and interpretation
  • Discussion and explanation
  • Conclusion which restates findings
  • References
• Features of a Research Report
  • Detailed information
  • Formal language
  • Written in third person
  • Informative and verifiable
  • Pattern with recommendations
• Project Proposal is the initial document for solving a problem which is understandable to the audience
• Basic features of Project Proposal
  • Clear problem statement
  • Solution
  • Supporting idea
  • Evaluation of positive effects
  • Awareness of possible objections
  • Careful topic selection
  • Acceptable writing emotions
• Types of Project Proposal
  • Solicited external responds to a request
  • Unsolicited internal is self-initiated
  • Solicited external is response to a request
  • Unsolicited external is self-initiated

Structure of Project Proposal

• Cover letter includes:
  • Proposal
  • Title
  • Date of Request
  • Purpose
  • Scope
  • Acknowledgment
• Title page that includes:
  • Title
  • Lead organization
  • Place and date
  • Client's name
  • Proponent's name
  • Organization
  • Submission date.
• Abstract (200-250 words)
  • objectives
  • organization
  • activities
  • cost
• Context of the situation
• Project Justification – rationale, problem statement, strategy of implementation
• Personnel involved
• Project implementation – activities and resource allocation
• Activity plan - schedule
• Resource plan items needed
• Budget – expected income and expenses
• Monitoring & Evaluation
• Reporting scheme
• Conclusion
• References
• Position Paper presents a debatable view and outlines someone's attitude
• Structure of a Position Paper
  • Introduction with lead, issue, and position
  • Body gives arguments, evidence, and counterarguments
  • Conclusion has position, suggestion, and powerful closing statement
• Features of a Position Paper
  • Well-defined, controversial issue
  • Clear position
  • Convincing arguments
  • Reasonable tone