Lecture 2 critical reading skills ii

Taking a Closer Look at Information
Critical Reading Skills Part II:

Recap of previous lecture:
• Barriers to Critical Thinking
• Making inferences and drawing
conclusions
• Identifying themes and main ideas of
texts

TODAY….YOU WILL LEARN
• Interpreting /
Analysing Information
– Identifying Author’s Purpose
– Understanding Claims
• Evaluating Information
– While reading
– After reading
• Fallacies

“What should I do as a critical reader?”
Answer: You question what you read!
HOW?
INTERPRETING / ANALYSING
• Think about “the what” – CONTENT (what the author
wants you to believe)
• Think about “the how” – (HOW the author tries to
convince you)

EVALUATING
• Decide finally if the author’s views are worthy
of YOUR AGREEMENT
(if you are an “anything-goes” person, you are
abandoning your critical abilities.)

Lecture 2 critical reading skills ii

Thinking about “the what” – the CONTENT
• requires careful examination of the author’s CLAIMS
(WHAT is the author suggesting / telling me?)
• look very closely at the author’s REASONS or
supporting EVIDENCE for each of his claims
(HOW STRONG is each reason or piece of evidence?
Is it based on fact or a mere opinion?)

• In a piece of writing / text, a claim is an
argument put forth by the author that
could either be accepted by you (the
reader) or disputed by you.

• As you consider Claims and Reasons/Evidence, you
may find it useful to develop a brief record as below:
AUTHOR’S CLAIMS REASONS OR EVIDENCE
Eg: Women in Asia have less
emotional composure than men
in the same region do.
•Women all over the world
tend to cry more often than
their male counterparts
•Statistics indicate that women
in Asia account for the bigger
portion of psychologists’
clientele as opposed to men.
Another claim Specific reasons / evidence to
carry the claim
Yet another one Specific reasons / evidence to
carry the claim

Do authors have purpose in their
writing?
Yes or No

Author’s Purpose
General Purpose:
•To Inform
•To Persuade
•To Describe
•To Entertain*
*for the purpose of this subject, your scope of
coverage will not include the last category

WRITING TO INFORM
• GAPS
• Think about genre, audience, purpose and style.
– Genre - could be giving instructions, recipes,
directions, manuals, science experiment
– Audience - could be anyone
– Purpose - to inform - giving unbiased
information which is reliable and factual
– Style - formal

WRITING TO PERSUADE
• When you are writing to persuade you are trying to
convince people to agree with your opinions or to do
something. Some examples of persuasive writing are:
newspaper editorials, reports, speeches,
advertisements, reviews, etc.
• The goal of writing to persuade is not to show you are
angry about an issue. The goal is to have us take a
closer look at our beliefs and the beliefs of others.
Persuasive writing gives us the opportunity to
consider different beliefs fairly and to justify our own
beliefs.
• When writing to persuade you should use evidence
to support your viewpoint, consider views that are
against your viewpoint, and present a strong
conclusion.

WRITING TO DESCRIBE
• To describe is to give a description of what something
or someone is like.
• When describing, remember your thoughts and
feelings are important. How does this place make
you feel and why?
• GAPS
– Genre - writing a story, describing a scene, a diary
entry
– Audience - could be anyone
– Purpose - to describe, to get a vivid picture in the
readers' head so they almost feel like they are there
– Style - informal

Author’s Purpose
• Specific Purpose:
• Requires a detailed statement of what the author is
trying to achieve through the general method that
he / she has made use of.
• Eg: General purpose of a text: To persuade
Specific purpose of the text: To persuade
the reader that commercial banks should
not be used for personal savings

EXAMPLE 1:
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was born on
February 7, 1867 in Pepin, Wisconsin
to Charles and Caroline Ingalls. She met
and married James Wilder in 1885. She
published many books based on her travels
to the West. Her writing became the
basis for the " Little House" series. She died
in 1957.
What is the author's specific purpose of
this writing?
______________________________________

Answer
• To inform about the life of Laura
Elizabeth

EXAMPLE 2:
Calligraphy is a form of handwriting . A
special pen must be used.
Letters are formed using up and down
strokes. Most old documents were
written in this form. Diplomas, certificates,
and other awards are often
written in calligraphy.
What is the author's specific purpose?
________________________________________

Answer
• To inform about Calligraphy

Thinking about how the author tries
to convince you
• Look closely at the AUTHORITY of the author
(use any information that you have about
his/her training, experiences, political stand,
culture etc)
• Consider if the author could be biased in his
claim
• Look closely at how the author attracts your
interest

In considering the level of authority and possible bias of the
author, you may recreate the following:
AUTHORITY & POSSIBLE BIAS OF THE AUTHOR
CLAIM: Women in Asia have less emotional composure than men in the same region do.
List any information you have about the author’s background (training, life
experiences, political stand etc)
Eg: Male, 48 years old, unmarried, Professor of Biotechnological Science, 12 years
of experience in research into environmental impacts on genetically modified crops,
lived 26 years in Manila, now lives in Singapore, participated in a 2009 conference,
presented academic paper on: “Why Women Should Toughen Up at Work.”)
Is the writer knowledgeable in the specific area concerning the claim? Why or
why not?
Eg: Likely lacking knowledge in aspect of emotional development and composure,
Reason – expertise appears to be in completely unrelated field.
What biases or values may have influenced the writer’s claim?
Eg: There may be a bias against women, judging by previous academic endeavour.

In considering how the author achieves your interest,
you may explore the following:
WAYS IN WHICH THE AUTHOR ATTAINS INTEREST
CLAIM: Women in Asia have less emotional composure than men in the same
region do.
Does the author try to evoke respect for his/her authority? How? List examples.
Does the author try to get you to care about the issue? How? appeals to
emotion? statistics or other facts? anecdotes? detailed descriptions? something
else? List examples.
Does the author assume you have particular interests and/or values, and use
them as the basis for the claim? How? List examples.

Deciding if the author’s views are
worthy of your agreement
• Draw upon your own
experiences (observation,
personal history)
• Bring in your knowledge of
other texts (on similar areas or
topics)

AFTER READING…
After reading, you
will have to
evaluate what you
have read as a
whole.

• Often beguiling (Tricky)
• May seem plausible
• Psychologically persuasive, logically
impotent

• Fallacies have become so common that names are
assigned to them.
• As a student, you are exposed to these fallacies so that
you would not commit them.
• Fallacies can be used to reach a purpose but then,

1. Red Herring
2. Straw man
3. False Dilemma
4. Slippery Slope
5. Questionable Cause
6. Appeal to
Popularity
7. Hasty Generalization
8. Special Pleading

Definition :
• Raising an irrelevant issue during an argument
• Irrelevant issues used as a distraction from main
argument.
1. Topic A is under discussion.
2. Topic B is introduced under the guise of being relevant to
topic A (when topic B is actually not relevant to topic A).
3. Topic A is abandoned

A teacher catches a student cheating during a test. The
student in response says, “I know I’ve made a mistake. But
think of my parents. They’re going to kill me”
The student uses a red herring in
his response. He tries to distract
his teacher from the real issue.
updated January 2016

Although Malaysia is facing an economic downturn,
we can still be proud that we are one diversely
united nation.
updated January 2016
Do you know any examples of
a red herring fallacy?

Definition :
• Distorting, weakening, or oversimplifying of
someone’s position so that it can be more easily
attacked.
1. Reinterpret claim X so that it becomes weak/absurd = Claim
Y.
2. Attack claim Y
3. Conclude that Claim X is unfounded

In a debate about the implementation of GST, the proponent
said that GST will not hurt the people because it replaces the
Sales and Services Tax (“SST”) which has higher rates of 10%
and 6% respectively.
Adam: Mom, can I go out for movies with my friends?
Mom: Not tonight, you haven’t finished your chores.
Adam: Ugh! You never let me do anything fun with my friends.
Mom: I never said you could never go anywhere with your
friends.
Updated January 2016

Definition :
• Asserting that there are only two alternatives
to consider when there are actually more than
two.
1. Either X or Y
2. If not X then it must be Y / If not Y then it must be X

In a recent commotion on the hike of toll prices, either you
get up at 3 am to avoid the roads with toll or end up
paying a high price for tolls every day.
Husband: I will be back late from work today. My boss
required me to meet an urgent deadline.
Wife: I don’t care! If you love me, you come home now!
Either you complete your degree and become a
professional, or you find a job and become a cheap labor.

Definition :
• Arguing that, taking a particular step will
inevitably lead to a further, undesirable step (or
steps)
1. Doing action A will lead to action B.
2. Doing action B will lead to Action C.
3. Doing action C will result to undesirable action D.
4. So, stop action A.

We should stop the hike of toll prices in Malaysia. If we
don’t, in near future, we will end up paying 15 ringgit for
every 10 kilometers.
If I let one student interrupt my lecture with a question,
then I'll have to let others and, before long, there won't
be any time left to complete the lecture.
If you do not ban the public demonstrations in Kuala
Lumpur, soon there will be public demonstrations in all
the states in Malaysia and eventually it will spread to
Singapore.

Definition :
•Committed when it is concluded that A is the
cause of B simply because they are associated
on a regular basis
•Concluding that A causes or caused B
because A occurs before B
1. A and B are associated on a regular basis.
2. Therefore A is the cause of B.
1 A occurs before B.
2. Therefore, A is the cause of B

It's Friday, the 13th. That's what caused me to fail the
test.
We never had any trouble with the TV until Muthu
moved into the house. He must be the one who
caused it to break.
Tim has been failing sick very often lately, it must
due to the food he is taking at the new restaurant.

Definition :
• claim is accepted as being true simply because
most people are favorably inclined towards the
claim.
1. Most people approve of X (have favorable emotions towards X).
2. Therefore X is true.

A lot of rich parents send their children to University Lake. So, it
must be an esteemed university.
Laptop Y is very popular among university students. Therefore, it
must be the best laptop.
GST is a good way to boost a nation’s economy because many other
countries have implemented it.

Definition :
• a person draws a conclusion about a population
based on a sample that is not large enough.
1. Sample S, which is too small, is taken from population P.
2. Conclusion C is drawn about Population P based on S.

Jambu, who is from Timbuktu, decides to attend graduate
school at RAT University. He has never been to the Malaysia
before. The day after he arrives, he is walking back from an
orientation session and sees two white (albino) dogs chasing
each other beside the road. In his next letter home, he tells
his family that Malaysian dogs are white.
Sam is riding her bike in her home town in Kuala Lumpur, minding
her own business. A car comes up behind her and the driver starts
beeping his horn and then tries to force her off the road. As he goes
by, the driver yells "get on the sidewalk where you belong!" Sam
sees that the car has a Penang plate and concludes that all Penang
drivers are notorious drivers.

Definition :
• a person applies standards, principles, rules, etc.
to others while taking herself (or those she has a
special interest in) to be exempt, without providing
adequate justification for the exemption.
1. Person A accepts standard(s) S and applies them to others in
circumstance(s) C.
2. Person A is in circumstance(s) C.
3. Therefore A is exempt from S

Barbara accepts that all murderers should be punished for their
crimes. Although she murdered Bill, Barbara claims she is an
exception because she really would not like going to prison.
Yes, I do think that all drunk drivers should go to prison, but your
honor, he is my son! He is a good boy who just made a mistake!
Superstition is a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of
the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of
causation -- unless it is astrology.
updated201505

Lecture 2 critical reading skills ii

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