Psychology

• Read the following paragraph and analyze it for the author’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of scholarly writing, bias, opinion, quality of evidence, and appropriateness to its target audience:

  One of the great breakthroughs in the past 50 years has been the widespread availability of the personal computer. This powerful learning tool has revolutionized everything from commerce to education and changed the very way everyone conducts his or her daily lives. And most notably, where only a few years ago people wrote about the “digital divide” between those who could afford computers and those who could not, there is almost no discussion along these lines any longer. And, in fact, why would there be? Poor people can now save enough to buy their families a computer for home and school use. In fact, an article in Business Week in 2001 estimated that more than 80% of all high school students were “plugged in.”

The assignment: (1–2 pages)

• Write an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of this author’s effort at scholarly writing, and an assessment of the paragraph in terms of bias, opinion, quality of evidence, and appropriateness to its target audience. Be sure your analysis is written in a scholarly voice and uses your scholarly writing skills.