Modes of Analysis for Critically Reading the News

1. PRE-READING QUESTIONS: Based only on glancing at a headline or accompanying photograph, generate a list of questions that you expect the article to address/answer. How well, if at all, did the article answer these questions? Why?

2. INFORMING QUESTIONS: After you have read the article, generate a list questions that seemed to inform the text of the article, that the article actually addressed. Were you satisfied with the focus that these questions provided? Why or why not?

3. UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS: Have the writer(s) of the article made any assumptions about the topic or the readers' opinions that inform the article? What are they? How relevant are they? How fair are these assumptions?

4. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Is there any background information that the article depends upon or that the writer(s) you will know? What is this information? Why is it revel ant? How does it inform the article?

5. LANGUAGE--WORD CHOICE AND RHETORIC: How does specific word choice reveal the objectivity of the article or its biases (subjectivity)? How does such a use of language mold your opinion on the subject of the article?