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To review strategies for helping students to analyze and evaluate texts
Initially, your students might find a piece of writing impossible to comprehend—let alone analyze. However, if you tell them to separate the passage into manageable parts, looking for the essential textual elements, they will often be able to make sense of a seemingly impenetrable piece of writing. Suggest that they think about the questions of who, what, where, when, how, what-if, and why, and answer them based on the information they find in the passage.
When determining the textual elements of a passage, try the following techniques:
It’s easy to get waylaid in a particularly bulky passage of philosophy or political writing. If your students get stuck, suggest that they consider the purpose of the piece, and ask questions.
Read the following passage:
Green Power Communities are a new type of Partner for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Power Partnership. The EPA has established Green Power Communities as a method of providing assistance and recognition to organizations that demonstrate environmental leadership by choosing green power. EPA’s Green Power Partnership recognizes Green Power Communities for having area homes, businesses, organizations and local governments voluntarily commit to switch a portion of their electric power usage to green power through individual and organizational purchases.
What is the purpose of this passage?
No problem. Expository writing (which, by the way, is just another way of saying nonfiction essay writing), can be broken down into the following categories:
Cause and effect essays:
These essays are concerned with why things happen (causes) and what happens as a result (effects). Have your students ask these questions when evaluating whether an essay is a cause/effect essay.
Comparison/contrast essays:
These essays are concerned with comparing and contrasting two logical issues/items/situations, etc. Students should ask these questions when evaluating whether an essay is a comparison/contrast essay.
Problem/solution essays:
These essays are concerned with identifying a problem and then offering solutions to this problem. Students can ask these questions when evaluating whether an essay is a problem/solution essay.
Classifications essays:
These essays are concerned with classifying various, similar objects, situations, etc., (such as three novels that have similar plots), and then discussing these things in detail. These questions will help students evaluate whether an essay is a classifications essay.
Analogy essays:
These essays are concerned with drawing an analogy between two seemingly disparate items to draw the reader’s interest or to get her to think more inventively about a subject. Ask students these questions when evaluating whether an essay is an analogy essay.
Narrative essays:
These essays are concerned with using a narrative to tell a story. This narrative is often personal and from the author’s point of view. Students should consider these questions when evaluating whether an essay is a narrative essay.
Definition essays:
A definition essay explains what a term means, whether these terms have concrete meanings or are abstractions, such as emotions. These questions will help students evaluate whether an essay is an analogy essay.
Although the language used to present an argument in expository writing is more sophisticated than oral arguments (rarely does a written piece devolve into arguments such as “Because I said so” or “Just because”), there are still poor arguments in writing. These poor arguments include logical fallacies and errors in logic. Familiarity with the following logical fallacies will help you to explain to your students why some arguments fail to persuade:
Post hoc: A mistaken assumption that because one event follows another, then they have a necessary causal relationship, such as the following:
Music videos depend on quick, rapid images. Music videos contribute to attention deficit disorder in children.
Slippery slope: Wrongly assuming that doing one thing will unavoidably lead to doing another, often undesirable, thing – without using evidence for justification such as the following:
Doing poorly in math means that you will never get a job.
Questionable Cause/Misidentification of the Cause: Suggesting that a dubious or unlikely event caused another such as the following:
I owe my success in singing to learning nursery rhymes as a child.
Ad hominem argument: Refers to an attack on the person rather than on the argument or the issue. The assumption is that if the speaker is unacceptable in some way, his or her statements must also be judged unacceptable, such as the following:
Because Jimmy Carter was a democrat, he had no grasp of foreign policy.
Begging the question: This occurs when the arguer assumes what they actually need to prove, such as the following:
That terrible park should be closed.
Appeal to false authority: Citing testimony from a questionable source or unrelated authority, such as the following:
Britney Spears maintains that the best way to solve overpopulation is through education.
Two-wrongs-don’t-make-a-right: Diverting attention from the issue by introducing a new point; e.g by responding to an accusation with a counteraccusation that makes no attempt to refute the first accusation, such as the following:
Iraqi government officials suggest that the US can’t attack their civil rights record, because they aren’t innocent either.
Straw man: Consists of an attack on a view similar to but not the same as the one your opponent holds.
The Platonic ideal is a clumsy, unworkable concept. Plato’s Republic can therefore be disregarded in terms of its value to societies interested in building a just form of government.
Red Herring: Occurs when writers avoid countering an opposing argument directly, such as the following:
I agree that helping poor people go to college is important, but I wonder if they really want to learn in the first place.
Jumping to conclusions: Drawing conclusions or making assertions based on insufficient or biased evidence, such as the following:
The United States is completely racist, given its history of slavery.
Sweeping generalization: Attempting to draw conclusions that are too broad; making assumptions or conclusions that are all-encompassing but unjustified, such as the following:
Happiness is contagious.
Either/or reasoning: An oversimplification that reduces alternatives to only two choices, thereby creating a false dilemma, such as the following:
Either we outlaw pitbulls or thousands of children will be attacked needlessly.
Absurd reduction: An oversimplification of an argument that is so conflated that it becomes absurd; the argument is made to appear simplistic, when in fact it is complicated, such as the following:
Of course, the United States must ban handguns so that violence will be eliminated.
Non sequitur: Using irrelevant proof to buttress a claim, such as the following:
Many people have rejected organized religion. In the past century, people have rejected it; therefore, it’s a poor institution.
Ad populum: The arguer appeals to the prejudices of people; assuming that a claim can be made by emphasizing a belief or attitude that audiences share with them, without further evidence or support, such as the following:
Everyone in the United States should speak English, since most of us already do.
Circular reasoning: An argument that restates the same point in a different way, rather than proves what is being argued, such as the following:
Professor Karlson is an unfair teacher because he failed me this semester.
Faulty analogy: An argument based on a comparison of two things, ideas, events, or situations that are similar but not identical; this argument assumes without sufficient proof that if objects or processes are similar in some ways, then they are similar in other ways as well, such as the following:
Inner cities are like war zones and should be patrolled the same way.
What type of false argument is used in the following statement?
Kobe Bryant suggests that by starting after-school tutoring centers, the United States can cut down on the drop-out rate.
What types of evidence should students look for that will support the conclusions in a piece of writing?
One type of evidence in expository writing is empirical evidence. This evidence is:
Logical evidence is another type of evidence that can be used to support conclusions in expository writing. This type of evidence plays a crucial role in the defense of a piece of writing. Logical evidence does the following:
The weakest form of evidence is anecdotal evidence. Anecdotal evidence displays the following qualities:
In conclusion, all expository writing is not created equal.
Through evaluating its arguments, essay techniques, and supporting evidence, your students can decide whether an essay is well written, or whether its points are, well, pointless. False arguments, such as ad hominem and slippery slope arguments, are just two of the many that we reviewed in this section. Keeping a watchful eye for such tricky, improper arguments can help students distinguish between good and bad writing.