08 Aug Identify the overall argument of the article, or a particular passage of the article that makes an argument.
Write a 1-2 page (double spaced, 12pt font, roughly 250-500 words) analysis of an opinion article published by a well-known media source within the last 5 years. In order to complete the assignment, you must pick an article that makes an argument — that is, the article must try to convince the reader of some conclusion by supporting that conclusion with premises. The analysis should be broken into two sections: a descriptive section and a critique section. In your analysis, you should do the following.
Section 1: Description
In this section, you should do your best to summarize and present the argument, without criticizing or evaluating it (that will come in the next section). Here, you should:
1) Identify the overall argument of the article, or a particular passage of the article that makes an argument.
2) Identify the conclusion of the argument — that is, what the argument is trying to convince the reader to believe. Identify the premise(s) of the argument that are used to support the conclusion.
3) Reconstruct the argument in premise-conclusion form.
4) Identify whether the argument is deductive or inductive.
Section 2: Evaluation
Here, you should use the tools we’ve encountered to give your evaluation of the argument. Is it a good argument or a bad one? Why? In this section, you should:
1) If the argument is deductive, identify whether the argument is valid or invalid. If inductive, is the argument strong or weak? Do the premises actually support the conclusion?
2) Identify whether there are any false (or probably false) premises.
3) If the argument relies on any use of emotive meanings or persuasive definitions, you should also point these out here.
