Critical Reading Assignment (CRA) (#1)

Page Length: 3 pages

Value: 10% of course grade
Due Date: Beginning of section during Week 3. After this time, late penalties will apply
(see MMW Style Sheet). Assignments submitted after Week 5 (section) will
be considered "not completed," and student will fail the course.)

Purpose
In MMW, you are learning to evaluate scholarly arguments and to make effective arguments of your
own. In this assignment, you will improve your critical reading skills by carefully analyzing the
argument in a secondary source assigned by your professor (hereafter referred to as the CRA
source). While in the final assignment you will evaluate the strength of the argument made in this
source and advance your own position on the subject, in this assignment your focus will be to fully
understand what the argument is, analyze how the scholar constructs it, and determine what more you
need to know in order to assess its strengths. In this assignment, you will identify the components
of the argument with annotations, summarize the scholar's argument, and consider areas for further
research; in the process you will improve your skills in critical reading, analysis, summarizing,
paraphrasing, and research. You will continue to develop all of these skills in the next two writing
assignments this quarter, and you will use them to evaluate scholarship, make your own arguments,
and write better research papers in MMW 5 and 6.

Part I (50%) – Identifying and Labeling the Components of a Scholarly Argument

Print/photocopy the entire source assigned by your professor. In the margins next to each
paragraph of the text, make a note of what the paragraph says and what it does. (How does each
paragraph contribute to the scholar’s argument?). Comment on:
what the paragraph says about topic of the article.
what the paragraph does (for example: what's the purpose of this paragraph in making the
argument?) You should locate and label any or all of the following that apply:
o Background of the problem/issue
o Research question (explicit or implied)
o Thesis (and where the thesis might be restated)
o Claims
o Evidence to support the thesis or a claim
o Where scholar deals with conflicting evidence and/or opposing or alternative views
o Examples or stories that illustrate a point.
o Where the scholar addresses the significance or implications of the thesis (implicit or
explicit)

Part II (50%) – Summarizing the Argument and Considering Areas for Further Research (3
pages)
Now that you have identified what the scholar is arguing and how the argument is constructed, you
will summarize the argument and consider what you still need to know in order to critique the
source and advance your own scholarly position in the final writing assignment. In three (3) pages:
 1. summarize the argument in your own words. There should be no direct quotations in this
summary because it is entirely your analytical interpretation. You may, if relevant,
provide pages numbers to direct the reader to specific parts of the source you are
discussing. Here are some things to consider in your summary:

 What sources (and how many) does the scholar use?

 What research question did the author set out to answer?
 What is the author's thesis?
 What claims does s/he make within the overall argument?
 What evidence is used to support those claims? Be specific when you
identify and discuss the evidence.
 Is there enough discussion of claims, evidence, and other important points?
 What examples and stories are used to illustrate points?
 What does the author offer as the significance of the thesis?

2. articulate what you have observed about the scholar's argument and what you think you
still need to know before you can skillfully critique the argument and form your own
opinion in the final writing assignment. In reading this argument, what observations
have you made that need follow-up? What questions do you still have? Where do you
need more information about the topic? Have new questions been raised? Is there
anything that challenges what you had previously thought? Are there other viewpoints
to consider? Are there other sources that should be considered? Conclude your paper by
discussing how you will conduct further research.

What to submit:
___ (1) Three-page Critical Reading Assignment
___ (2) Photocopied source with annotations in the margins
___ (3) An exact copy of your three-page CRA summary to Turnitin.com within 24 hours
of submitting it to your TA.