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Critical Reading
10 Steps - TEN
Critical Reading
Skilled readers are those who can recognize an
author’s point and the support for that point.
Critical readers are those who can evaluate an
author’s support for a point and determine whether
that support is solid or not.
This chapter will extend your ability to read critically
in three ways. It will explain and offer practice in
each of the following:
Separating fact from opinion
Detecting propaganda
Recognizing errors in reasoning
As illustrated in the picture on page 399 suggests,
facts are solidly grounded and can be checked for
accuracy; opinions are afloat and open to
question.
Look at the photograph on page 400 of a gravestone.
What do you think are the facts on the gravestone?
What do you think is opinion it contains?
Fact = information that can be proved true through
objective evidence
Opinion = a belief, judgment, or conclusion that
cannot be objectively proved true
Journal Assignment: Complete Writing Facts and Opinions Exercise
Page 402.
Point about Fact
Statements of fact may be found to be untrue.
Suppose you discovered that the Quad Tower is only
the second-tallest building in the city. The
statement would then be an error, not a fact. It is
not unusual for evidence to show that a “fact” is
not really true. It was once considered to be a fact
that the world was flat, for example, but that “fact”
turned out to be an error.
Points about Opinion
Value words (ones that contain a judgment) often
represent opinions. These are words like best, worst,
lovely, great etc.
Value words often express judgments—they are
generally subjective, not objective. While factual
statements report on observed reality, subjective
statements interpret reality.
Objective = the observation that it is raining outside
Subjective = it is the worst rainstorm ever
The words should and ought too often signal
opinions. Those words introduce what people think
should, or ought to, be done. Other people will
disagree.
Examples: -Couples should definitely not live together before marriage.
-Couples ought to live together before getting married to be
sure they are compatible.
Don’t mistake widely held opinions for facts. Much
information that sounds factual is really opinion. A
real estate agent, for example, might say, “At the
price listed, this rancher is a great buy.”
Buyers would be wise to wonder what the value word
great means to the agent. Or an ad may claim that a
particular automobile is “the most economical car on
the road today,” a statement that at first seems
factual. But what is meant by economical? If the car
offers the most miles per gallon but the worst record
for expensive repairs, you might not agree that it’s
economical.
Advertisers and politicians often try to manipulate us by
presenting opinions as if they are facts. For
instance, one politician may claim that another will
be soft on terrorism or will waste our tax dollars. But
accusations are often not facts. Clear-thinking
citizens must aim to get below the surface of claims
and determine as much factual truth as possible.
Finally, remember that much of what we read and
hear is a mixture of fact and opinion. Our job, then,
is to draw upon existing fact and opinion and to
arrive at an informed opinion.
On the Supreme Court, for example, nine justices
deliberate in order to deliver informed opinions
about important issues of our time. But even these
justices often disagree and deliver split decisions.
The reality is that most of what matters in life is very
complex and cannot be separated into simple fact
and opinion.
Our challenge always is to arrive at the best possible
informed opinion, and even then there will be
people who disagree with us.
Individual Activity: Journal the answers to Check Your Understanding
Pg. 404-405 (1-10)
Detecting Propaganda
View the picture on page 407.
Advertisers, salespeople, and politicians are constantly
promoting their points: “Buy our product,” “Believe
what I say,” and “Vote for me.” Often they lack
adequate factual support for their points, so they
appeal to our emotions by using propaganda
techniques.
Part of being a critical reader is having the ability to
recognize these propaganda techniques for the
emotional fluff that they are. The critical reader strips
away the fluff to determine whether there is solid
support for the point in question. None of us wants
to accept someone else’s point as a result of
emotional manipulation.
This section will introduce you to six common
propaganda techniques:
Bandwagon
Testimonial
Transfer
Plain Folks
Name Calling
Glittering Generalities
While there are other propaganda techniques, these
are among the most common. They all use
emotional appeals to distract from the fact they are
not providing solid evidence to support their
points.
1. Bandwagon
Old-fashioned parades usually began with a large
wagon carrying a brass band. Therefore, to “jump on
the bandwagon” means to join a parade, or to do
what many others are doing. The bandwagon
technique tells us to buy a product or support a
certain issue because, in effect, “everybody else is
doing it.”
A TV commercial may claim that more and more people
are watching the evening news with anchorperson
Kerrie Berger. Or a cell phone ad may show people
in many different kinds of occupations using a certain
cell phone.
Examples: -With appealing music in the background, flashing scenes show
many people wearing the sponsor’s jeans.
-On a beautiful day, almost everyone on the beach leaves .
2.Testimonial
Famous athletes often appear on television as
spokespersons for all sorts of products, from soft
drinks to automobiles. Movie and TV stars make
commercials endorsing products and political issues.
The idea behind the testimonial approach is that
the testimony of famous people influences the
viewers that admire these people.
What consumers must remember is that famous
people get paid to endorse products. In addition,
these people are not necessarily experts about the
products or the political issues, they promote.
Examples: -An actor promotes a product intended to help a man’s athletic
performance.
-A sports star praises the brand of sneakers he is wearing.
3. Transfer
The most common type of propaganda technique is transfer, in
which products or candidates try to associate themselves
with something that people admire or love.
In the illustration on page 407, we see a political candidate
holding a sign saying “Vote for Me” and standing next to a
beauty queen wrapped in a U.S.A. banner.
There are countless variations on this ad, in which a beautiful
and sexy woman (or an American flag) is used to promote a
product or candidate or cause.
The hope is that we will transfer the positive feelings we have
toward a beautiful person to the product or candidate.
Examples: - A beautiful woman in a slinky red dress is shown
driving the sponsor’s car.
-A hospital chain uses a portrait of Benjamin
Franklin in its ads and claims that it, like Franklin,
stands for new ideas.
4. Plain Folks
Some people distrust political candidates who are rich or welleducated. They feel that these candidates, if elected, will not
be able to understand the problems of the average working
person. Therefore, candidates often use the plain folks
technique, presenting themselves as ordinary, average
citizens.
They try to show they are just “plain folks” by referring in their
speeches to hard times in their lives or by posing for
photographs while wearing a hard hat or mingling with
everyday people.
Similarly, the presidents of some companies appear in their own
ads, trying to show that their giant corporations are just family
businesses run by ordinary folks.
Example: - Average-looking American kids are shown at home
trying and enjoying a cereal.
- A president of an insurance company is shown with his
family, talking about his concern for their safety and
well-being if he should not be there some day.
5. Name Calling
Name Calling is the use of emotionally loaded language to
negative comments to turn people against a rival product,
candidate, or movement.
An example of name calling would be a political candidate’s
labeling an opponent “soft,” “radical,” or “wimpy.”
Examples: -The fast-food industry labels critics of their industry
as “food police,” “cookie cops,” and “the grease
Gestapo.”
- During a taste test, consumers describe the other
leading brand of spaghetti sauce as “too salty” and
“thin and tasteless.”
6. Glittering Generalities
A glittering generality is an important-sounding but unspecific
claim about some product, candidate, or cause.
It cannot be proved true or false because no evidence is offered to
support the claim. Such claims use general words such as
“great” “magical,” or “ultimate.” “Simply the best,” an ad might
say about a certain television set. But no specific evidence of
any kind is offered to support such a generality.
“The right candidate for our city,” a campaign slogan might claim.
But what does “right” really mean? It and similar phrases sound
good but say nothing definite.
Examples: -A store ad claims, “Fashions that will bring out the
rainbow in you.”
- A canned-food ad boasts of “nutrition for today.”
Class Activity: Practice 2 Pg. 411-412 (1-10)
Peer Group Activity: Using magazines find
an ad that reveals a propaganda
technique.
Propaganda Techniques
-Bandwagon
-Testimonial
-Transfer
-Plain Folks
-Name Calling
-Glittering Generalities
--END 1st Day Instruction
Recognizing Errors in Reasoning
So far in this chapter, you have gotten practice in
separating fact from opinion and in spotting
propaganda. In this section you will learn about
some common errors in reasoning—also known as
fallacies—that take the place of the real support
needed in an argument.
As shown in the illustration on Pg. 412, a valid point is
based on a rock-like foundation of solid support; a
fallacious point is based on a house of cards that
offers no real support at all.
Regrettably, these fallacies appear all too often in
political arguments, often as the result of deliberate
manipulation, other times as the result of careless
thinking.
Two Common Fallacies
1.
2.
Changing the subject – attention is diverted from the issue
at hand by presenting irrelevant support—evidence that
actually has nothing to do with the argument.
Hasty generalization – a point is based on inadequate
support. To draw a conclusion on the basis of insufficient
evidence is to make a hasty generalization.
Below are six other common fallacies. In all of these fallacies,
a point is argued, but no true support is offered for that
point.
Three Fallacies that Ignore the Issue
Circular Reasoning
Personal Attack
Straw Man
Three Fallacies that Oversimplify the Issue
False Cause
False Comparison
Either-Or
Fallacies That Ignore the Issue
Circular Reasoning
Part of a point cannot reasonably be used as evidence
to support it. The fallacy of including such illogical
evidence is called circular reasoning; it is also
known as begging the question.
Example: Mr. Edwards is a great teacher because he
is so wonderful at teaching.
Personal Attack
Personal attack ignores the issue under discussion
and concentrate instead on the character of the
opponent. It takes the form of accusations made
about the opponent’s personal life or character.
Example: Senator Brill’s opinions on public housing are
worthless. He can’t even manage to hold his own
household together—he’s been married and
divorced three times already.
Straw Man
An opponent made of straw can be defeated very
easily. Sometimes, if one’s real opponent is
putting up too good of a fight, it can be tempting to
build a scarecrow and battle it instead.
Example: Ms. Collins opposes capital punishment.
But letting murderers out on the street to kill again
is a crazy idea. If we did that, no one would be
safe.
Ms. Collins, however, never advocated “letting
murderers out on the street to kill again.” In fact,
she wants to keep them in jail for life rather than
execute them.
The straw man fallacy suggests that the opponent
favors an obviously unpopular cause—when the
opponent really doesn’t support anything of the
kind.
Fallacies That Oversimplify the
Issue
False Cause
You have probably heard someone say as a joke, “I know it’s going
to rain today because I just washed the car.” The idea that
someone can make it rain by washing a car is funny because the
two events obviously have nothing to do with each other.
However, with more complicated issues, it is easy to make the
mistake known as the fallacy of false cause.
The mistake is to assume that because event B follows event A,
event B was caused by event A.
Cause-and-effect situations can be difficult to analyze, and people
are often tempted to oversimplify them by focusing on one
“cause” and ignoring other possible causes. To identify an
argument using a false cause, look for alternative causes.
Example: The Macklin Company was more prosperous before Ms.
Williams became president. Clearly, she is the cause of the
decline.
Event A: Ms. Williams became president.
Event B: The Macklin Company’s earnings declined.
However, Ms. Williams has been president for only a few months.
What other possible causes could have been responsible for
the decline? Perhaps the policies of the previous president are
just now affecting the company. Perhaps the market for the
company’s product has changed.
Example: I knew I shouldn’t have taken the baby to the park
today. Now he’s got a cold.
There are many ways the baby could have caught a cold besides
being taken to the park.
False Comparison
When the poet Robert Burns wrote, “My love is like a red, red
rose,” he meant that both the woman he loved and a rose are
beautiful. In other ways—such as having green leaves and
thorns, for example—his love did not resemble a rose at all.
Comparisons are often a good way to clarify a point. But because
two things are not alike in all respects, comparisons
(sometimes called analogies) often make poor evidence for
arguments. In the error in reasoning known as false
comparison, the assumption is that two things are more alike
than they really are.
Example: It didn’t hurt your grandfather to get to work without a car, and it
won’t hurt you either.
Grandpa didn’t have to be at work an hour after his last class. In fact,
Grandpa didn’t go to school or even have a family car available to
him.
Example: I don’t know why you’re so worried about my grades. Albert
Einstein had lousy grades in high school, and he did all right.
Either-Or
It is often wrong to assume that there are only two
sides to a question. Offering only two choices
when more actually exist is an either-or fallacy.
For example, the statement “You are either with us or
against us” assumes that there is no middle
ground.
Example: People opposed to unrestricted free
speech are really in favor of censorship.
This argument ignores the fact that a person could
believe in free speech as well as in laws that
prohibit slander or that punish someone for falsely
yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater.
Example: If you don’t study at least three hours a
night, you’re not really serious about being in
college.
(Some issues do have only one side—Will you pass
Reading?)
CHAPTER REVIEW
Critical readers evaluate an author’s support for a point
and determine whether that support is solid or not.
Critical reading includes the following three a abilities:
1.
2.
3.
Separating fact from opinion. A fact is information that can
be proved true through evidence. An opinion is a belief,
judgment , or conclusion that cannot be proven true.
Detecting propaganda. Advertisers, salespeople, and
politicians often try to promote their points by appealing to our
emotions rather than our powers of reason. To do so, they
practice six common propaganda techniques: bandwagon,
testimonial, transfer, plain folks, name calling, and glittering
generalities.
Recognizing errors in reasoning. Politicians and others are
at times guilty of errors in reasoning—fallacies—that take the
place of the real support needed in an argument. Such
fallacies include circular reasoning, person attack, straw man,
false comparison, and either-or.
Peer Groups Activity:
--Complete Review Test #1 Pg. 419 (1-10)
(Journal Answers)
Individual Activity:
--Read “Gambling—A Dangerous Game”
Pg. 423-427
--Complete “Reading Comprehension
Questions Pg. 428-429 (1-10)
(Journal Answers)