ARTICLE CRITIQUE

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SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE: THE MORAL BUCKET LIST

Olusegun Adefolaju

NAIT

For

COMMUNICATION 1101

INSTRUCTOR: KATHY COCCHIO

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Brooks, D. (2015, April 11). The moral bucket list. The New York Times [New York Edition], p. SR1.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/opinion/sunday/david-brooks-the-moral-bucket-

list.html

Summary Word Count: 123

Critique Word Count: 411

Summary

Brooks (2015) describes a common path that individuals take to attain self-discovery and true

accomplishment. As opposed to being born perfect, individuals must follow a path that is shaped by

their experiences to become better versions of themselves. With the analogy of a bucket list, Brooks

explains some of the accomplishments and experiences that define a person who attains true fulfilment.

Brooks recognizes a pattern of challenge, self-discovery and fulfilment in people who stand out to really

make an impact. Brooks says that when an individual relegates self-gratification in favour of a search for

the true meaning of life, they experience true fulfilment and touch the lives of others. Brooks says that it

is this type of fulfilment that individuals should pursue.

Critique

Brooks (2015) believes that a person must take deliberate actions to become morally good and

attain inner fulfilment. They argue that a person’s good character matters more than marketable skills.

Brooks, a political and cultural commentator with the New York times illustrates the importance

of attaining true self-fulfillment. Brooks attempts to persuade readers to pursue goals that transcend

career success to improve themselves and build a good character. In a world that preaches more about

self, Brooks challenges readers to strive to improve themselves and look out for others.

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Brooks uses a range of rhetorical appeals to persuade readers. For example, Brooks establishes

ethos by comparing two sets of the virtues that a person might possess. Brooks explains that one set of

virtues is highlighted on our résumés and the other at our funeral and when we are long gone. The

second set of virtues define our moral character of caring for others, honesty and kindness. By saying

that moral virtues will be mentioned at our funeral, Brooks draws the attention of readers to the

moment they fear the most. As a result, the strategy may convince readers of the validity of Brooks

argument.

To support their argument, Brooks uses examples to explain some of the accomplishments they

identified as typical of persons who are fulfilled. Each example provides a testimony of a person who

worked to develop and improve their moral character and in doing so achieved fulfillment. Brooks

(2015) identifies these accomplishments to be “humility shift” (pp. 10), “self-defeat” (pp. 12) and

“dependency leap” (pp. 13).

Brooks states that everyone knows that moral virtues are more important than marketable

skills. To a large extent, this is not true because not everyone would agree with such statement. In

effect, readers who do not agree may find it difficult to agree with reasonings in the rest of the article.

Brooks uses an informal, friendly and encouraging tone to connect with readers. They introduce

the argument by describing how they admire people who are morally good. Brooks (2015) describes

such people as radiating “inner light” (pp. 1) that “brightens my day” (pp. 2). By expressing their

aspiration to attain a similar level of moral good, Brooks identifies with his readers that no one is

perfect. As such, we must all strive to be better.

By challenging readers to focus on their moral virtues, Brooks aims to promote the idea that one

can attain inner fulfillment and make the world better for all.

Continuous Connection The Age of

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Continuous Connection

Harvard Business Review May–June 2019 65

Nicolaj Siggelkow Professor, Wharton

Christian Terwiesch Professor, Wharton

A U T H O R S

P H O T O G R A P H E R PETE MAUNEY

New technologies have made 24/7 customer relationships possible. It’s time to change your business model accordingly.

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A seismic shift is under way.

S TA RT H E R E

Thanks to new technologies that enable frequent, low- friction, customized digital interactions, companies today are building much deeper ties with customers than ever before. Instead of waiting for customers to come to them, firms are addressing customers’ needs the moment they arise—and sometimes even earlier. It’s a win-win: Through what we call connected strategies, customers get a dramati- cally improved experience, and companies boost operational efficiencies and lower costs.

Consider the MagicBands that Disney World issues all its guests. These small wristbands, which incorporate radio-frequency-identification technology, allow visitors to enter the park, get priority access to rides, pay for food and merchandise, and unlock their hotel rooms. But the bands also help Disney locate guests anywhere in the park and then create customized experiences for them. Actors play- ing Disney characters, for example, can personally greet guests passing by (“Hey, Sophia! Happy seventh birthday!”). Disney can encourage people to visit attractions with idle

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I D E A I N B R I E F

THE OLD APPROACH Companies used to interact with customers only episodically, when customers came to them.

THE NEW APPROACH Today, thanks to new technologies, companies can address customers’ needs the moment they arise— and sometimes even earlier. With connected strategies, firms can build deeper ties with customers and dramatically improve their experiences.

THE UPSHOT Companies need to make continuous connection a fundamental part of their business models. They can do so with four strategies: respond to desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution.

Harvard Business Review May–June 2019 67

ABOUT THE ART Pete Mauney creates time- lapse photographs of the lights of airplanes streaking across the night sky.

capacity (“Short lines at Space Mountain right now!”). Cam- eras on a various rides can automatically take photographs of guests, which Disney can use to create personalized memory books for them, without their ever having to pose for a picture.

Similarly, instead of just selling textbooks, McGraw-Hill Education now offers customized learning experiences. As students use the company’s electronic texts to read and do assignments, digital technologies track their progress and feed data to their teachers and to the company. If someone is struggling with an assignment, her teacher will find out right away, and McGraw-Hill will direct the student to a chapter or video offering helpful explanations. Nike, too, has gotten into the game. It can now connect with customers daily, through a wellness system that includes chips embedded in shoes, software that analyzes workouts, and a social network that

provides advice and support. That new model has allowed the company to transform itself from a maker of athletic gear into a purveyor of health, fitness, and coaching services.

It’s easy to see how Disney, McGraw-Hill, and Nike have used approaches like these to stay ahead of the competi- tion. Many other companies are taking steps to develop their own connected strategies by investing substantially in data gathering and analytics. That’s great, but a lot of them are now awash in so much data that they’re over- whelmed and struggling to cope. How can managers think clearly and systematically about what to do next? What are the best ways to use all this new information to better connect with customers?

In our research we’ve identified four effective connected strategies, each of which moves beyond traditional modes of customer interaction and represents a fundamentally

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new business model. We call them respond to desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution. What’s innovative here is not the technologies these strategies incor- porate but the ways that companies deploy those technolo- gies to develop continuous relationships with customers.

Below, we’ll define these new connected strategies and explore how you can make the most of the ones you choose to adopt. But first let’s take stock of the old model they’re leaving behind.

Buy What We Have M O S T C O M P A N I E S S T I L L interact with customers only episodically, after customers identify their needs and seek out products or services to meet them. You might call this model buy what we have. In it companies work hard to provide high-quality offerings at a competitive price and base their marketing and operations on the assumption that they’ll engage only fleetingly with their customers.

Here’s a typical buy-what-we-have experience: One Tuesday, working from home, David is halfway through printing a batch of urgent letters when his toner cartridge runs out. It’s maddening. He really doesn’t have time for this. Grumbling, he hunts around for his keys, gets into his car, and drives 15 minutes to the nearest office supply store. There he wanders the aisles looking for the toner section, which turns out to be an entire wall of identical-looking cartridges. After scanning the options and hoping that he recalls his printer model correctly, he finds the cartridge he needs, but only in a multipack, which is expensive. He sets off in search of a staff member who might know if the store has any single cartridges, and eventually he locates a manager, who disappears into the back of the store to check.

Much time passes. When the manager at last returns, it’s to report regretfully that the store is sold out of single cartridges. Because he has to get his letters done, David decides to buy the multipack. He grabs one and heads to the checkout counter to pay, only to find himself waiting in a long line. When he finally gets home, an hour or two later, he’s not a happy guy.

We find it helpful to break the traditional customer journey into three distinct stages: recognize, when the

customer becomes aware of a need; request, when he or she identifies a product or service that would satisfy this need and turns to a company to meet it; and respond, when the customer experiences how the company delivers the product or service. At each of these stages, David suffered a lot of discomfort, but at no point along the way did the toner company have any way of learning about his discomfort or alleviating it. Company and customer were poorly connected throughout, and both parties suffered.

It doesn’t have to play out that way. Each of our four connected strategies could have helped improve David’s customer experience at one or more of the stages and helped the company strengthen its business.

Let’s explore specifically what each strategy entails.

Respond to Desire T H I S S T R A T E G Y I N V O LV E S providing customers with services and products they’ve requested—and doing so as quickly and seamlessly as possible. The essential capabilities here are operational: fast delivery, minimal friction, flexibility, and precise execution. Customers who enjoy being in the driver’s seat tend to like this strategy.

To provide a good respond-to-desire experience, companies need to listen carefully to what customers want and make the buying process easy. In many cases, what matters most to customers is the amount of energy they have to expend—the less, the better!

That’s certainly what David wanted in his search for a toner cartridge. So let’s imagine a respond-to-desire strategy that might serve him well in the future.

Say that upon realizing that he needs a replacement, David goes online to his favorite retailer, types in his printer model, and with just a click or two makes a same- day order for the correct cartridge. His credit card number and address are already stored in the system, so the whole process takes just a minute or two. A few hours later his doorbell rings, and he has exactly what he needs.

Speed is critical in a lot of respond-to-desire situations. Users of Lyft and Uber want cars to arrive promptly. Health care patients want the ability to connect at any time of day or night with their providers. Retail customers

In many cases, what matters most to customers is the amount of energy they have to expend—the less, the better.

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want the products they order online to arrive as quickly as possible—a desire that Amazon has famously focused on satisfying, in the process redefining how it interacts with customers. Years ago it set up a “one click” process for ordering and payment, and more recently it has gone even further than that. Today you can give Alexa a command to order a particular product, and she’ll take care of the rest of the customer journey for you. That’s responding to desire.

Curated Offering W I T H T H I S S T R A T E G Y, companies get actively involved in helping customers at an earlier stage of the customer jour- ney: after the customers have figured out what they need but before they’ve decided how to fill that need. Executed properly, a curated-offering strategy not only delights cus- tomers but also generates efficiency benefits for companies, by steering customers toward products and services that firms can easily provide at the time. The key capability here is a personalized recommendation process. Customers who value advice—but still want to make the final decision— like this approach.

How might a curated-offering strategy serve David? Consider this scenario: He goes online to order his toner cartridge, and the site automatically suggests the correct one on the basis of what he has bought before. That spares him the hassle of finding the model number of his printer and figuring out which cartridge he needs. So now he just orders what the site suggests, and a few hours later, when his doorbell rings, he’s had his needs smoothly and easily met.

Blue Apron and similar meal-kit providers have very effectively adopted the curated-offering strategy. This differentiates them from Instacart and many of the other grocery delivery services that have emerged in recent years, all of which are guided by a “you order, we deliver” principle—in other words, a respond-to-desire strategy. The Instacart approach might suit you better than spending time in a supermarket checkout line, but it doesn’t relieve you of the burden of hunting for recipes and creating shopping lists of ingredients. Nor does it prevent you from overbuying when you do your shopping. Blue Apron helps

on all those fronts, by presenting you with personally tailored offerings, creating an experience that many people find is more convenient, fun, and healthful than what they would choose on their own.

Coach Behavior B O T H O F T H E P R E V I O U S two strategies require customers to identify their needs in a timely manner, which (being human) we’re not always good at. Coach-behavior strategies help with this challenge, by proactively reminding custom- ers of their needs and encouraging them to take steps to achieve their goals.

Coaching behavior works best with customers who know they need nudging. Some people want to get in shape but can’t stick to a workout regimen. Others need to take medications but are forgetful. In these situations a company can watch over customers and help them. Knowledge of a customer’s needs might come from information that the person has previously shared with the firm or from observ- ing the behavior of many customers. The essential capabil- ities involved are a deep understanding of customer needs (“What does the customer really want to achieve?”) and the ability to gather and interpret rich contextual data (“What has the customer done or not done up to this point? Can she now enact behaviors that will get her closer to her goal?”).

Here’s what a coach-behavior strategy for David might look like: Perhaps the printer itself tracks the number of pages it has generated since David last changed the toner and sends that information back to the manufacturer, which knows that he will soon need a new cartridge. So it might email him a reminder to reorder. At the same time, it might encourage him to run the cleaning function on his printer— a suggestion that will help him avoid later inconveniences. Coached in this way, David will have his new printer car- tridge before the old one runs out; he’ll lose almost no time in replacing it; and he’ll have a clean printer that performs at its best.

To implement coach-behavior approaches well, a com- pany needs to receive information constantly from its customers so that it doesn’t miss the right moment to suggest action. The technical challenge in this sort of

Coaching behavior works best with customers who know they need nudging. In such situations a company can watch over customers and help them.

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them audio training guides and plans. This kind of timely and personal connection builds trust and encourages cus- tomers to think of Nike as a health-and-fitness coach rather than just a shoe manufacturer, which in turn means that when the company’s app nudges them to run, they’re more likely to do it. This serves customers well, because it keeps them motivated and in shape. And it serves Nike well, of course, because customers who run more buy more shoes.

Automatic Execution A L L T H E S T R A T E G I E S we’ve discussed so far require customer involvement. But this last strategy allows companies to meet the needs of customers even before they’ve become aware of those needs.

In an automatic-execution strategy, customers authorize a company to take care of something, and from that point on the company handles everything. The essential elements here are strong trust, a rich flow of information from the customers, and the ability to use it to flawlessly anticipate what they want. The customers most open to automatic execution are comfortable having data stream constantly from their devices to companies they buy from and have faith that those companies will use their data to fulfill their needs at a reasonable price and without compromising their privacy.

Here’s how automatic execution might work for David. When he buys his printer, he authorizes the manufacturer to remotely monitor his ink level and send him new toner cartridges whenever it gets low. From then on, the onus is on the company to manage his needs, and David is spared several hassles: recognizing that he’s low on toner, figuring out how to get more, and buying it. Instead, he just goes about his business. When the time is right, his doorbell will ring, and he’ll have exactly what he needs.

The growing internet of things is making all sorts of automatic execution possible. David’s printer cartridge scenario isn’t just hypothetical: Both HP and Brother already have programs that ship replacement toner to customers whenever their printers send out a “low ink” signal. Soon our refrigerators, sensing that we’re almost out of milk, will be able to order more for delivery by tomorrow morning—but

relationship lies in enabling cheap and reliable two-way communication with customers. Traditionally, this had been difficult, but it’s getting easier all the time. The advent of wearable devices, for example, allows health care com- panies to hover digitally over customers around the clock, constantly monitoring how they’re doing.

Nike’s new business model incorporates coach-behavior strategies. By making its customers part of virtual running clubs and tracking their runs, the company knows when it’s time for their next workout, and through its app it can offer

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naturally only after checking our calendar to make sure we’re not going on a vacation and wouldn’t need milk after all.

Automatic execution will make people’s lives easier and in some cases will even save lives. Consider fall-detection sensors, the small medical devices worn by many seniors. Initially, the companies who made them did so using the respond-to-desire model. If an elderly person who was wearing one fell and needed help, she could press a button that activated a distress call. That was good, but it didn’t work if someone was too incapacitated to press the button. Now, though, internet-connected wearable technologies allow health care companies to monitor patients constantly in real time, which means people don’t need to actively request assistance if and when they’re in distress. Imagine a bracelet that monitors vital signs and uses an accelero meter to detect falls. If a person wearing the bracelet slips, tumbles down the basement stairs, and is knocked unconscious, the bracelet’s sensor will immediately detect the emergency and summon help. That’s automatic execution.

We’re excited about automatic execution, but we want to stress that we don’t see it as the best solution to all problems—or for all customers. People differ in the degree to which they feel comfortable sharing data and in having the companies serving them act on that data. One family might be delighted to receive an automatically generated personal memory book after a visit to Disney World, but another might think it’s creepy and invasive. If companies want customers to make a lot of personal data available on an automated and continuous basis, they will need to prove themselves worthy of their customers’ trust. They’ll need to show customers that they’ll safeguard the privacy and security of personal information and that they’ll only recommend products and services in good faith. Breaking a customer’s trust at this level could mean losing that customer—and possibly many other customers—forever.

A final important point: Given that companies are likely to have customers with different preferences, most firms will have to create a portfolio of connected strategies, which will require them to build a whole new set of capabilities. (See the sidebar “Which Connected Strategies Should You Use?”) One-size-fits-all usually won’t work.

Repeat E A R L I E R , W E M E N T I O N E D T H A T we like to think of the individual customer journey as having three stages: recognize, request, and respond. But there’s actually a fourth stage—repeat—which is fundamental to any connected strategy, because it transforms stand-alone experiences into long-lasting, valuable relationships. It is in this stage that companies learn from existing interactions and shape future ones—and discover how to create a sustainable competitive advantage.

The repeat dimension of a connected strategy helps companies with two forms of learning.

First, it allows a company to get better at matching the needs of an individual customer with the company’s exist- ing products and services. Over time and through multiple interactions, Disney sees that a customer seems to like ice cream more than fries, and theater performances more than fast rides—information that then allows the company to create a more enjoyable itinerary for him. McGraw-Hill sees that a student struggles with compound-interest calcu- lations, which lets it direct her attention to material that covers exactly that weakness. Netflix sees that a customer likes political satire, which allows it to make pertinent movie suggestions to her.

Second, in the repeat stage companies can learn at the population level, which helps them make smart adjustments to their portfolios of products and services. If Disney sees that the general demand for frozen yogurt is rising, it can increase the number of stands in its parks that serve frozen yogurt. If McGraw-Hill sees that many students are strug- gling with compound-interest calculations, it can refine its online module on that topic. If Netflix observes that many viewers like political dramas, it can license or produce new series in that genre.

Both of these loops have positive feedback effects. The better the company understands a customer, the more it can customize its offerings to her. The more delighted she is by this, the more likely she is to return to the company again, thus providing it with even more data. The more data the company has, the better it can customize its offerings. Like- wise, the more new customers a company attracts through

If companies want customers to make a lot of personal data available on an automated and continuous basis, they will need to prove themselves worthy of their customers’ trust.

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its superior customization, the better its population-level data is. The better its population data, the more it can create desirable products. The more desirable its products, the more it can attract new customers. And so on. Both learning loops build on themselves, allowing companies to keep expanding their competitive advantage.

Over time these two loops have another very important effect: They allow companies to address more-fundamental customer needs and desires. McGraw-Hill might find out that a customer wants not just to understand financial accounting but also to have a career on Wall Street. Nike might find out that a particular runner is interested not just in keeping fit but also in training to run a first marathon. That knowledge offers opportunities for companies to create an even wider range of services and to develop trusted relationships with customers that become very hard for competitors to disrupt.

We can’t tell you where all this is headed, of course. But here’s what we know: The age of buy what we have is

over. If you want to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the years ahead, connected strategies need to be a fundamental part of your business. This holds true whether you’re a start-up trying to break into an existing industry or an incumbent firm trying to defend your market, and whether you deal directly with consumers or operate in a business-to-business setting. The time to think about connected strategies is now, before others in your industry beat you to it.

HBR Reprint R1903C

NICOLAJ SIGGELKOW is a professor of management and strategy at Wharton and a codirector of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management. CHRISTIAN TERWIESCH is a professor of operations and innovation at Wharton and a codirector of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management. They are the authors of Connected Strategy (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019).

Which Connected Strategies Should You Use?

Respond to desire Customer expresses what she wants and when

Fast and efficient response to orders

Customers are knowledgeable

Customers who don’t want to share too much data and who like to be in control

Curated offering Firm offers tailored menu of options to customer

Making good personalized recommendations

The uncurated set of options is large and potentially overwhelming

Customers who don’t mind sharing some data but want a final say

Coach behavior Firm nudges customer to act to obtain a goal

Understanding customer needs, and ability to gather and interpret rich data

Inertia and biases keep customers from achieving what’s best for them

Customers who don’t mind sharing personal data and getting suggestions

Automatic execution Firm fills customer’s need without being asked

Monitoring customers and translating incoming data into action

Customer behavior is very predictable, and costs of mistakes are small

Customers who don’t mind sharing personal data and having firms make decisions for them

CONNECTED STRATEGY DESCRIPTION KEY CAPABILITY WORKS BEST WHEN WORKS BEST FOR

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COMM1101

DESCRIPTION: Assignment 3 Summary & Critique

Purpose of this Assignment

Being able to critique something you have read is a key skill in both academia and the workplace. Being able to critique data will help you to be a savvy consumer of information. This assignment provides you with the opportunity to further develop your evaluative skills. These skills will serve you well as you prepare for the final project in the course, Assignment 5 Research Paper.

Your Task

1. Summarize the assigned article. capturing its main ideas and using no more than 20% of the original article's word count.

2. Critique the article, providing evidence of your observations. Discuss the following aspects of the article:

• The degree to which the article reflects currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose • The rhetorical appeals the author(s) uses and their impact • Any logical fallacies that you identify and their impact • Any rhetorical strategies that you identify and their impact • The language and tone used by the author(s) and their impact

2

Rubric

0 –not provided 1 –not yet 2 –emerging 3 –developing 4 –effective 5 –strong Format 1” margins; 12 pt. Times New Roman; title page

as per template provided in Moodle; word counts provided; footer as per template provided in Moodle; page numbers in header, right aligned

1 2 3 4 5

Reference On page 1, prior to the Summary section; align with APA Standards (7th edition)

0 1 2 3 4 5

Summary No more than 20% of original length; logical order; key ideas identified and presented clearly; original phrasing; no opinions (if the article has no word count, calculate 250 words per double-spaced page)

0 1 2 3 4 5

Critique Logical order; ideas presented clearly with supporting evidence; reflects analysis of components outlined in assignment description; writer’s voice is dominant WORD COUNT: 300-600 words

4 8 12 16 20

In-text Citations

Align with APA Standards (7th edition) 0 1 2 3 4 5

Readability Clear, concise, and coherent; plain English; single-themed paragraphs; professional, conversational tone

2 4 6 8 10

Standard English

Align with the conventions of Standard English (no grammar, punctuation, or spelling errors)

2 4 6 8 10

Screenshot of Microsoft WORD Readability Measures for this submission

Measures align with class discussions 0 3 4 5

Total /65 Grade /15

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS & REPORTING

What’s the Difference?

Critical Analysis: The process of exploring data to extract meaningful insights and inform conclusions.

Critical Reporting: The process of organizing data, meaningful insights, and conclusions into informational summaries that can inform future practice.

Figure 1 provides a schematic for critical analysis and reporting.

Figure 1

Critical Analysis and Reporting

Finding and Critically Analyzing the Data

Before you can critically analyze the data, you have to find some! For many students, the first impulse is to turn to the World Wide Web, which typically provides scads of information on any topic. Resist!

Post-secondary students pay hefty non-instructional fees as part of their tuition assessment. A portion

of these fees pays for access to curated—critically analyzed--content. Curators review the content to ensure that it meets rigorous criteria around currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose (CRAPP). This process seeks to ensure that content is not crap—irrelevant, unreliable, or deceptive. Figure 2 outlines the curator process.

Claim (Thesis)

Evidence

Facts

Examples

Testimony

Explanations

Resasons

Refuted Counter-arguments

Support

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Figure 2 Curating Data Sources

Curating data takes time and some level of curator expertise. Why would you take this task on if you

have already paid someone else to do it for you? Searching the databases in your academic library takes no skill than searching the World Wide Web.

However, searching the databases typically does save time. If you are having difficulty finding content in the

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library databases, the issue is likely your search terms—not lack of content. Ask a librarian for assistance— there is nothing they enjoy more than helping students!

This is not to suggest that you should never use the World Wide Web—only that it shouldn’t be your

first or only source of data. If you do venture onto the Web, consider using Google Scholar to get scholarly results. Also consider using the GOOGLE ADVANCED SEARCH function to quickly limit your results. Figure 3 provides an overview of types of data sources and a rating of their reliability. Figure 3 Types of Reliable Sources

Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles or books –reliable, providing thorough, well-reasoned theory, argument, discussion, etc. based on strong evidence. Written by researchers for students and researchers. Original research, extensive bibliography. Found in curated databases and/or Google Scholar. Of note for students: your non-instructional fees pay for access to licensed databases with curated content—resist the urge to go to the Internet first…leverage your investment to support gold-medal research. Anatomy of a Scholarly Article.

Trade/professional articles/books –generally reliable, providing thorough, well-reasoned theory, argument, discussion, etc. based on strong evidence. Written by practitioners in a field to impart practice-oriented information. Often found in academic databases. Some may also be found online. Beware of sources on the internet that look like trade/professional articles, but don't have reliable content.

Magazine articles and newspaper articles from well-established newspapers – generally reliable. Written for a general audience by authors or journalists who have consulted reliable sources and vetted through an editor. Newspapers and magazines often contain both researched news stories and editorial/opinion pieces that express the view of the writer. It is important to be able to distinguish between them. Beware of sources on the internet that look like reputable magazines, and newspapers, but don't have reliable content.

Websites - can be reliable or unreliable. It's up to you to evaluate the quality of what you find online. Online news sources are particularly notorious for false or biased information. The following resources can help you to evaluate news sources: False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical 'News' Sources and Media Bias/Fact Check.

Social Media – can be reliable or unreliable. It's up to you to evaluate the quality of what you find online. Although scholars and professionals are increasingly sharing knowledge via social media, there is evidence that social media is fraught with echo chambers that skew reliability. Click here to open the article Echo Chambers on Facebook.

Wikipedia –generally reliable. While much of what is on Wikipedia is accurate, most academics frown on using it as a resource in an academic submission. Why? The authors are anonymous, so there's no way to determine their expertise, or the expertise of the Wikipedia editor who oversees the entry. Similarly, Wikipedia shouldn’t be cited from in a professional (i.e. work-related) submission.

However, Wikipedia can be a launching point for research: providing an at-a-glance overview of a subject, cues as to key terms on the topic, and links to related articles.

Adapted from: University Libraries, University of Georgia. (2019, October 24 ). Finding Reliable Sources: What is a Reliable

Source? Galileo @ UGA. https://guides.libs.uga.edu/reliability

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Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical analysis provides a systematic way of critically analyzing the way an author(s) presents data—and in

the process, it helps you to determine the validity of a particular text. Rhetorical analysis identifies the strategies that an

author(s) uses to appeal to or persuade a given audience, and measures their effectiveness/impact. Rhetorical analysis

also identifies the strategies that an author(s) doesn’t use and measures those omissions on the impact of the argument.

Figure 4 provides a template for rhetorical analysis of an article.

Figure 4

Using Rhetorical Analysis to Determine Validity

WHAT YOU NEED TO LOOK FOR WHAT SUPPORTING EVIDENCE DID YOU FIND IN THE ARTICLE? (USE QUOTES/SUMMARIES/PARAPHRASES)

The degree to which the article reflects currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose (CRAPP)

Identify the reliability of the authors and the article.

Aristotle: Rhetoric appeals used to persuade

What type of rhetoric appeals does the author use? What is the impact?

Claims in Argument: Click here for a review of the 5 types of claims.

What claims/assertions does the author use? What is the impact?

Purposes for Arguing: • State or defend a viewpoint • Change a situation • Critique a viewpoint, position, or text • Expose a problem/raise awareness • Solidify an opinion • Reach a compromise

What is the author’s purpose?

Language and Tone

 Bias: Strong emotional words can denote bias or manipulation

 Denotation: Non-symbolic, literal, dictionary definition of a word

 Connotation: Suggested, implied, or symbolic meaning

 Tone: Implied through language choices and sentence structure.

What is the author’s underlying attitude or emotion to the argument? What language and tone does the author use to convey an underlying attitude? ? What is the impact?

5 Critical Analysis & Reporting

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Kinds of Evidence

What type of evidence does the author use as support? What is the impact?

Two Kinds of Reasoning

What type of reasoning is the author using? What is the impact?

Refutation Strategies (CLICK ON THE GRAPHIC TO ACCESS THE ORIGINAL)

Does the author utilize a counter-argument or refutation (rebuttal) strategy? What is the impact?

Logical Fallacies 15 common logical fallacies explained here

Identify any weaknesses (fallacies) in the author’s arguments. What is the impact?

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Emotional and Ethical Fallacies

 Emotional fallacy: Manipulative or unfair emotional appeal You have to buy the latest iPhone app. Everyone else has one.

 Ethical fallacy: Manipulative or unfair ethical appeal Illegal downloading is okay; everyone does it.

 Slanted language: Extreme language that shows writer’s bias How bad can whale hunting be when an extremist group like Green Peace opposes it?

Identify emotional and ethical weaknesses in the author’s argument.

Propaganda Techniques

Ten propaganda types explained through commercials

Does the author utilize any propaganda techniques? What is the impact?

Conclusion: 1. Remind the reader of your overall evaluation of the article 2. Ensure your audience understands the significance/implications of

your critical analysis. 3. Is there another point of view that the audience should consider? 4. Encourage the audience to think critically about the topic 5. Avoid repeating what you have already stated.

Note: stay in third person (avoid phrases like “I think, I believe, in my opinion”

Thesis Statement Template A thesis statement outlines the goal of an article/essay/report without resorting to a mundane sentence starter like, The purpose of this report is to outline…

An effective thesis statement has 3 parts:

1. the limited subject 2. the precise opinion 3. the blueprint of reasons

Limited Subject The limited subject tells the reader exactly on what or whom the article/essay/report focuses.

Snowboarding

Precise Opinion/Claim The precise opinion/claim gives your answer to a question about the subject. A precise opinion is vital to the reader's comprehension of the goal of the article/essay/report.

The precise opinion/claim should be open to debate: it should be possible for a reasonable person to present a counter claim.

The terminology should be precise, leaving no room for reader interpretation. Note the narrowing of the term sport to winter sport. Note the term teens: much more precise than young people.

Snowboarding is the best winter sport for teens.

A Blueprint of Reasons A blueprint is a plan. It maps out the placement and dimensions of each room in a house, for instance. The blueprint of an article/essay/report maps out each reason (room) in the article/essay/report (house). Generally, a thesis statement is a single sentence. Occasionally, however, the complexity of the content lends itself to splitting the above three parts into two sentences.

The subsequent sections and paragraphs in the article/essay/report should be presented in the exact order in which they appear in the blueprint of reasons. Generally, each reason is preceded by a heading that captures the gist of the reason. In the example below, the reader might expect to find the following headings: Accessibility, Affordability, Community.

Snowboarding is the best winter sport for teens because of its ease, relative inexpensiveness, and the many opportunities for socialization that it provides.

OR

Snowboarding is the best winter sport for teens. Its ease, relative inexpensiveness, and opportunities for socialization are a good match with the teen mindset.

1 Critical Analysis Questions

Critical Analysis: What Questions Should You Ask Yourself?

A good critique is not about whether or not you liked or agreed with the author(s), but about

whether or not the author(s) was able to achieve the intent of the work – whether it was compelling or

not, motivating or not, convincing or not, entertaining or not, enlightening or not, valuable or not.

At first glance

 What does the title alone tell you?

 What does the title lead you to expect or anticipate?

 What does the subtitle add to the expectations of the article?

 How are chapter titles or headings used?

 Are there any photos, tables or graphics? What do they say about the text?

 What information is given about the author(s)?

 What information is provided about the background of the text?

 What is the known stance of the publisher?

 What do you already know about the author(s) or topic?

 What is the genre or category of the text?

 What do you think the purpose of the text will be?

After the first reading

 What did the purpose turn out to be: to persuade, entertain, instruct, or motivate?

 What is the main theme?

 Is it a controversial subject?

 On what side of the issue does the author(s) stand?

 What emotions are stirred by the imagery or vocabulary of the text?

 What is the most important idea in the text?

 What pertinent ideas were included and what were not?

 Is there a discernible subtext?

After the second reading

 What didn’t you notice the first time?

 What evidence does the author(s) provide to support their assertion(s)?

 Is the supporting data accurate, relevant, or adequate?

 Does the author(s) betray a bias?

 What limitations does the author(s) impose on the discussion?

 Does the author(s) set up an easy adversary (straw man or paper tiger) to make the argument seem

stronger than it is?

 Is the author(s) knowledgeable or well researched about the subject?

 Are the examples representative or unique?

 Does the author(s) employ narrative, and to what effect?

 What are the author(s)’s assumptions, paradigms and ideologies?

 Are the author(s)’s assumptions valid?

 Are they open to challenge or question?

 How does the author(s) demonstrate fairness toward conflicting views?

 Are there other purposes than the one you saw after the first reading?

After researching beyond the text

 What events or circumstances prompted the text?

 What is the context of the text? What additional information is available about the background of

the text?

 What else has the author(s) written that might relate to the text?

 What have other authors written on the subject? Do they agree or disagree?

 What have you, the reader, experienced relative to the subject?

 What ideas, facts, or arguments does the author(s) ignore?

 Why might the author(s) have made such choices?

 Is there any known response to the text?

 What does the author(s) have to gain by such a response?

Rhetorical analysis

 Who is the anticipated or intended audience?

 What common values are assumed between the author(s) and audience? What is the impact of

these assumptions?

 What other audience is implied by the text? What is the impact of the implication?

 On what kind of appeal does the author(s) primarily rely: ethos, pathos or logos? What is the impact

on the argument?

 What does the author(s) do to establish their authority? (ethos) What is the impact on the

argument?

 To what other authority does the author(s) appeal? (ethos) What is the impact on the argument?

 What does the author(s) do to create an emotional response in the reader? (pathos) What is the

impact on the argument?

 Does the author(s) exploit common fears or prejudices? (pathos) What is the impact on the

argument?

 How much and what kind of evidence is presented to support the ideas? (logos) What is the impact

on the argument?

 How is the information in the text organized? (logos) What is the impact on the argument?

 What tone is created by the vocabulary and choices of supporting material? What is the impact on

the argument?

 What combinations or juxtapositions of ideas influence reader interpretation? What is the impact

on the argument?

 What questions are raised by the text? What is the impact on the argument?

 Is the author(s) successful in achieving the objective of the text? Why or why not?

 What contribution to rhetorical discourse does the text make? Who cares?