analysis a story

PART 2: ANALYSIS OF CLASS READING ASSIGNMENT

A. Context and Content of the reading

Write a one-paragraph analysis of the context and content of the reading.

Your paragraph should provide the following information:

-The main topic of the text

-Who wrote the text (authors)

-How are they experts in this topic or kind of writing

-Who did the author plan to read this text

-How this text fits the topic of the class

B. Outline of the reading

see the handout on how to outline the recording for an example of outline format

C. Outside sources in the reading

Make a list of each outside source referred to in the text. If complete reference

information is not available, at least give the author’s name or title.

For each source tell if the author used a paraphrase or a quotation.

Note: if your reading does not contain any references to outside sources, write an

explanation of why these text or kind of writing does not need outside references. Tell whether

or not it would be possible to add outside references to the text.

D. Difficulty of the reading

Write a one-paragraph analysis of the difficulty level of the reading.

We can measure difficulty in several ways:

1. Length of sentences

2. Length and rarity of words

3. Abstractness / complexity of ideas

In your paragraph write a few sentences to describe each of these qualities.

You can assume that 15-18 words per sentence should be fairly easy to understand for

academic writing. Thus, count the words in at least 10 sentences and give me an idea of how

many are longer than about 20 words per sentence. Did you have any trouble understanding

sentences because of their length or complexity?

Use your own judgment to evaluate word difficulty. Give examples of words that you

found difficult. How frequent were these: every sentence, many per sentence, once in 5 ot 10

sentences, etc.? Are the words very specific to the subject matter or just general academic

words?

Use your judgment to evaluate the difficulty of ideas. Did you have any trouble

understanding the reading? Why? Was it easy for you? Explain by giving examples of some of

the ideas in the text.