9. Other Aspects of Critical Reading

Critical Reading by Parlin Pardede (for FKIP use only) Page 88

9

OTHER ASPECTS OF CRITICAL READING

n Chapter 2 through Chapter 8, you have successively dealt with seven major types of aspects of critical reading. However, your considerations of these seven aspects (together with their points) are not yet sufficient to help you be an effective critical

reader. You need to consider some other aspects of critical reading, i.e. the author’s competence, intention, attitude and bias; the time of publication of the reading material; the target readers and culture; and the policies of the publication. The accuracy of your consideration on these aspects largely depends on the scope of your background knowledge and experience. The richer your knowledge, the more intelligent your evaluation on these aspects will be. A. The Author’s Competence

There are many factors that affect what an author communicates through his writing. These factors cover scope of background knowledge and experience, education, habits, and skills. Their combination forms the author’s competence which makes some authors more competent than others do in certain fields. For instance, compared to a professor working in the laboratories, a professor who works at a teacher preparation college can rationally write papers that are more valid on any subjects in education. To give another example, a writer who has had children can probably write a more practical guide to child rearing than one who has never had children.

EXERCISE 9—1: This exercise will give you an opportunity to judge which person would likely be most competent to write about a certain subject. Read each statement and choose the person who is probably best qualified to make the statement.

1. Laws must be passed to protect the quail from hunters.

A. Game commissioner B. Lawyer C. Engineer D. Journalist

2. The Supreme Court has the right to rule on the constitutionality of laws.

A. College president B. Lawyer C. Personnel manager D. State police

3. A highway lane should be at least eleven feet wide.

I


A. Industrialist B. State police C. Engineer D. Chemist

4. American colonists were at first loyal to Great Britain, but later rebelled against British rule. A. Historian B. Musician C. Engineer D. Ornithologist

5. The people of Sweden can be seen sunning themselves in the cities during lunch hour.

A. An African B. An American C. A Scandinavian D. An Argentinean

6. The raven is a large bird that is a member of the crow family.

A. botanist B. chemist C. engineer D. ornithologist

7. The level of pitch is determined by the number of vibrations per second.

A. Physicist B. Chemist C. Musician D. Primary School teacher

8. The secret of enjoying a long life is to exercise regularly.

A. A young mother of five children B. A recent college graduate C. An octogenarian D. A ballerina

9. The downhill race is one of the most exiting competitive skiing events.

A. A sports commentator B. A newspaper editor C. A champion of water-skier D. A popular football player

10. The nation is in the midst of crippling energy crisis.

A. A representative of the steel industry B. A representative of the oil industry C. A representative of the electronics industry D. A representative of the tourism industry


B. The Author’s Intention

An author’s intentions in writing a passage may be various. However, there is usually a particular purpose that an author wants to achieve by writing a particular material at a particular time. The particular purpose must be one of the general purposes of the use of language, i.e. to maintain rapport, to inform, to convince, to persuade (and to move to action), and to communicate experience in esthetic form.

1. To Maintain Rapport. In it’s simplest form, maintaining rapport is exemplified by the conversation which

takes place upon chance encounters with strangers and casual acquaintances when conversation demands that we speak in order to avoid seeming rude. Thus, language is used primarily not for the communication of ideas, but for the establishment of appropriate social relationships. On such occasions, we are careful to introduce subjects immediately establishing a common meeting ground, such as remarks about the weather, inquiries about a person’s health, and inconsequential comments upon ‘petty’ topics.

In written communication, this is in parallel with reading materials written mainly for entertainment, like “Post Scripts” in the Saturday Evening Post, and “Lembergar” in Pos Kota. Such written matters use humor, anecdotes, exaggerations, the strange, the incongruous—anything that the writer thinks will genuinely please his reader.

2. To Inform.

To inform something to somebody else is the most common activity that people carry out using language. To inform means to explain and to share. To successfully achieve this type of purpose, professional writers often present their facts in a way that piques curiosity. Some times, they do it by offering explanations in a guise that both interests and informs. Take, for example, the success achieved by the book entitled Conquest of the North and South Poles.

3. To Convince

A writer who seeks to convince is desirous only of securing agreement; the appeal is to the understanding. Any attempt to convince uses facts. However, different from a writer who presents facts only for the sake of explaining something, a writer who intends to convince always starts by cautiously discovering ideas he knows are non-controversial. Then he examines the opposing viewpoints fairly and dispassionately; admits the strength and shows the weaknesses; relies heavily on facts and evidence; takes care to present a complete and logical picture; and, if possible, uses testimony from competent and acceptable authorities for reinforcement.

4. To Persuade

To persuade or to move to action is the most difficult purpose to achieve, because in persuasion, the final appeal is to the volition and most human beings are reluctant to change. It is difficult because everyone has reasons, often deeply hidden and unknown, for clinging to familiar ways, and because action may mean giving up opinions lived with a long time, overcoming fears, and altering habits. Thus, a writer who wants to get his writers to act usually tries to achieve the first three purposes as preliminaries to this forth.


5. To Present Experience in Aesthetic Form

This purpose is the goal a literary artist wants to achieve through the creation of his works. He wants to reveal a segment of experience in the most perfect form he can devise. Although at times he may inform, convince, or persuade, that is not his real purpose. Moved by the significance of some aspect of life, he seeks to share his insights concerning human values and human conduct.

C. The Author’s Attitude

An author’s treatment of a subject reflects an attitude toward it. Attitude is also important to understand, because it shows the author’s personal feeling about the subject he is writing. Attitude can range from sad to happy, angry to delighted, sympathetic to unsympathetic, tolerant to furious. An author also has an attitude toward the reader. Some writers assume they are writing to people inferior to themselves while others write to their equals. How many textbooks have you read where the author seemed to be writing to other aspects in the field rather than to you, a new comer to the field?

D. The Author’s Bias

To be biased means to be prejudiced about or to have a special leaning towards something. For instance, you may be biased about the type of music you listen to. May be you have no patience with classical music and prefer hard rock. That is a bias. Perhaps you are biased when it comes to food and you would rather eat vegetables than meat. Everyone is biased about something, whether it is food, music, religion, politics, or people.

Recognizing bias is very important in reading. If you are not capable of doing it, you may become the victim of an author’s propaganda. You may miss seeing how an author takes facts and misrepresents them. You may miss seeing that an author is being more subjective (using personal opinion) than objective (using undistorted facts). Or you may miss seeing how one-sided some writing is.

Sometimes recognizing an author’s bias is easy; at other times, it isn’t. Bias is apt to be present in advertisements, newspaper, and magazine editorials, and religions and political pamphlets. You generally pay little attention to an author bias when it matches your own bias. When you don’t agree with an author, the reverse is true. To read critically, you must always be aware of both your own and the author’s bias. This is, of course, means real involvement in and thinking through what is being read. In effect, critical reading is thinking.

EXERCISE 9—2: The following article is about gun control laws. As you read, look for the author’s intention, attitude and bias about the subject.

Guns and Batter (Richard Lipez)

The hue and cry over the so-called American gun problem is being raised again, but

what the “liberal” advocates of gun control continue to overlook are the legitimate uses to


which guns are put by millions of law-abiding Americans. Guns don’t kill people, people do. The gun critics conventionally choose to forget that the vast majority of gun-owners in this country use their weapons only for peaceful purposes.

Despite the popular misconceptions, most Americans’ rifles, for example, are used as tomato stacks. Or as curtain rods, or softball bats. Sometimes as rudders (extra oars) on small rafts. Many rifle owners also stuff bundles of straw up the barrels of their rifles and—presto—they’ve got a child’s toy broom. (Gun owners know that the sooner children start “pretending” to help keep the house clean, the sooner they’ll get into the habit of helping to do the real thing).

Hardly anybody ever loads and shoots a rifle at somebody or something. The last thing a rifle owner would do with his weapon would be to use it for its intended purpose.

Likewise with handguns. Many well-meaning but misguided “liberals” are trying to restrict the ownership and use of handguns. Again, the critics are ignoring the peaceful uses to which most handguns are put.

A popular use of the handgun, for example, is to take two large pistols and have them serve as shelf brackets. A gun lobbyist friend of mine was recently explaining to some members of Congress how average handgun owner does this, and the lobbyist let me listen it.

You get a power drill with a tough, well tempered one-eighth inch bit. Drill two holes through the barrel (top to bottom) and the butt (front to back) of each pistol. Place the guns against the wall where you want the shelf. The barrels should be pointing down, with the butts protruding away from the wall.

Next, screw the barrels into the wall with plaster screws. Lay the shelf across the protruding gun butts, and secure it with nuts and bolts.

Place books or objets d’art on the shelf, and there you are. Dangerous? Harmful? Not on your life. This admittedly widespread use of the handgun is practical and ecologically sound. It may even be necessary. Man’s primal urge to put up shelves cannot be denied, and doing it with handguns provides a “double-barreled” outlet that is wholesome and so far (cross your fingers) socially acceptable.

Another gun lobbyist friend of mine described, over dinner at the Washington Jockey Club, how millions of American handgun owners who prefer to take a shower under a hard shooting stream of water instead of a soft spray use their handguns as shower nozzles.

First, you remove the hammer from a well-made pistol and have a pipe fitter thread the (upper) end of the firing chamber. Remove your shower nozzle and screw on the pistol. This will give you a good, stimulating shower, and it will keep you plenty clean if you remember to shower at least once a day. As they say down at the National Rifle Association, “Shower nozzles don’t let people get smelly, people do.” And, “Register stinky people, not shower nozzles.”

Yet, another gun lobbyist acquaintance explained how handguns are used quite often for whipping up a mouth-watering batch of blueberry-and-sour-cream muffins:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Sift before measuring: 2 cups cake flour or 1¾ cup all-purpose flour Resift with: 1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons

sugar; ½ teaspoon soda.

Measure: 1 cup cultured sour cream; 1-cup blueberries Combine with: 1 beaten egg Pick up (unloaded) handgun by barrel and beat batter for ten to twenty seconds. Pour


batter into well-greased muffin tin and bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes. Then

pop ‘em into your mouth, lean back, and say, “Mmm! Mmm! Mmmm!” Answer the following questions by circling the correct responses. More than one response maybe necessary. 1. The author’s intent is:

a. to support gun control laws b. to show that gun owners use their guns for peaceful purposes. c. to make fun of NRA’s gun control position. d. to show that guns are not used for peaceful purposes. e. to argue against the NRA position

2. The author’s attitude toward guns as expressed in the article is: a. neutral b. negative c. positive d. not apparent

3. The author is strongly biased against: a. strong gun control laws b. NRA arguments for lax gun laws c. Guns d. Keeping and bearing arms

4. Is the article mostly subjective or objective? ____________________________Why

do you say so?

______________________________________________________________________

__________________________

5. Which of the following statements show bias on the author’s part? a. “A popular use of the handgun, for example, is to take two large pistols and have

them serve as shelf brackets.” b. “As they say down in the National Rifle Association,’ Shower nozzles don’t let

people get smelly, people do.’” c. “Despite the popular misconceptions, most Americans’ rifles, for example, are

used as tomato stakes.” d. “The last thing a rifle owner would do with his weapon would be to use it for its

intended purpose.”


6. What is your bias regarding gun control laws? ______________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

E. The Time of Publication of the Reading Material

The validity of ideas depends greatly on time. An idea that was valid some years ago may no longer hold true at the present days. Perceive the following example. For nearly 2,000 years, it was believed that the sun and other planets revolved around the earth. However, in 1530 Copernicus in his Commentarioulus showed that the earth and other planets move around the sun. And in his 1609 publication entitled Aetological Astronomy, Keppler further refined the ideas of Copernicus, in which he showed that the planets do move around the sun, but in an ellipse. Thus, anytime you read a material, especially the one you need to take as a reference, don’t forget to check its time of publication. Many points in a book published more than twenty years ago might not valid any more to refer to. F. The Policies of Publication

The policies of the publication often determine the type of the published material. You would not expect to find liberal publications in a country strictly dominated by certain doctrinal power, such as religious and military dictatorship. Those who hold power will try to prevent the publication of ideas considered potential to undermine the political integrity and stability. Thus, in nearly all places, censorship is continuously practice. The government of all nations imposes censorship of one sort or another. Different degrees of censorship have at different places been applied to all forms of communication. Extreme censorship may take the form of an absolute ban imposed on a particular medium of expression or banishment, or even execution of the commentator.

However, to a certain extent, censorship has both positive and negative dimensions. In some cases, due to its obligation to protect public morals, a state may need to censor what it considers to be corrupting in order to keep the continuity of the existence of its society. On the other hand, the censorship need not be absolute. It may be restricted to only those sectors of the public which are susceptible to the evils that are supposed to arise from the particular form of communication.

Realizing the existence of censorship, then, as a critical reader you should always be alert that the policies of publication of the materials you are facing might have influenced their validity.

G. The Target Readers

One of the most important questions a writer has address to himself while he is writing is: “To whom am I writing?” The type of the targeted readers affects the materials being written. An article on the nature of language learning to be consumed by a college student will be written differently from the one written for a layman. That is why a literary work that has been “adapted” or simplified for primary school pupils must have lost some of its beauty, compared to the original version. Thus, in order to criticize fairly, you should take ‘to whom the material is written’ an aspect of your consideration.


EXERCISE 9—3: This exercise will give you an opportunity to consider miscellaneous aspects of critical reading while facing a reading material. Read the article carefully and answer the questions that follow by choosing the correct option among the alternatives given. (The answer for questions 7-14

may vary, depending on your background).

A Secret Dossier on Every American

Federal Agencies builds up too many private files U.S. citizens. … that possibility is cited by an official report which calls for new laws to prevent it.

As more and more information about individual Americans piles up in Government “data banks”—

Demands are growing for new safeguards to prevent the potential abuse of these computerized files.

The largest proposals for protecting the rights of citizens against official “snooping” have just made by a government advisory committee.

After a year-long study, this group concludes that people are losing control over facts and figures on file about them, and that it’s time for Congress to enact a “Bill of Rights” for the computer era.

The committee makes two broad recommendations: Stiff new laws are needed to give people the right to know what information about

them is recorded in computer systems, and how it is being used—along with the right to correct any mistakes that show up in the files.

The government should call an immediate halt to the expanding use of social security numbers as lifelong identification tags. This swing toward a “universal identifier” for everyone in the country, the report warns, could encourage “government agencies and certain types of private organizations to develop dossiers on much of the nation’s citizenry.”

Studying the problem. The advisory panel of 24 lawyers, educators, computer-

industry executives and others was recruited early in 1972 to look into “changes in American society which may result from using computers to keep records about people.”

Behind the study lies a rising chorus of complaints from individuals worried about invasion of personal privacy through computer banks, and the widespread use of Social Security numbers for computer-coding purposes.

The committee found that worries of this sort are justified. “Under current law, “ the report notes, “a person’s privacy is poorly protected against

arbitrary or abusive record-keeping practices.” Information collected legitimately for one purpose, it adds, can easily be used by another agency for a completely different purpose unfair to the individual concerned.

No personal-data system whose very existence is secret should be permitted, the committee cautions. It calls for the creation of a code of fair information practice for all automated-data systems—whether run by government agencies or private organizations,

Reprinted from U.S. News & World Report, August 27, 1973.


such as credit bureaus, banks, educational institutions or others—to define “fair practice” in record-keeping, and set penalties for any violation of the rules.

Common denominator. Just as the spread of automated files can threaten individual privacy, so can the drift toward using an individual’s Social Security number as personal identification, the new study points out.

It cites a growing tendency to use the number as a “password or authenticator of identity” when a name alone is not considered sufficient—as for cashing a check or using a credit card to make a purchase.

“Such use is not necessary, just convenient,” the report notes, giving this example from one of the committee’s own meetings: “We met on a Sunday in a conference room in a government facility.”

“Security procedures required us to give names and Social Security numbers from a telephone located outside the locked main entrance to a guard who was out of sight inside the building. The guard had earlier been furnished with a list of our names and Social Security numbers.

“Given the wide dissemination of Social Security numbers, we were impressed by how easily someone could have impersonated any of us to gain entrance to the building.”

Authorities on data-handling recall that when the Social Security program was set up in 1936, the impression was widespread that an individual’s number would be a confidential matter, and that it would never be used outside of the Social Security program.

But in 1943, an executive order by President Franklin D. Roosevelt required the Social Security Administration to make the number available for identification use by other agencies.

Explosive growth. In more recent years, with the mushrooming growth of computers, the use of Social Security numbers as “identifiers” in all sorts of files has proliferated. For example, they have taken the place of the traditional military serial numbers in the armed forces. They are required on individual’s income-tax return, and on most State income-tax forms. Many states require them on driver’s licenses.

The numbers frequently are used for purposes having nothing to do with identification or record keeping, the committee explains. This practice can have “undesirable effects,” it says, giving these examples:

Some “lucky number” contests involve the drawing of a specific SS number whose holder is awarded a prize. This is objectionable, the committees states, because it may induce people to try to get an extra SS numbers to increase their chances of winning, and it also “trivializes the Social Security number.”

Various items of merchandise, such as wallets, sometimes are sold with a facsimile with

a Social Security card enclosed, bearing a sample number. The committee refers to one instance in which buyers of such a wallet thought the sample number on the facsimile card—078—05—1120—was to be used as their own Social Security number. At one point, more than 5,700 wage earners were claiming the series of digits as their legitimate Social Security number.

Some “skip tracing” organizations mail out postcards showing a false number and asking, “Is this your Social Security number? If not, call the phone number listed below to correct this matter.” Says the committee: “This is blatantly deceptive and violates reputable business practice.”

To combat these and other unwarranted uses of Social Security numbers, the advisory


committee suggests that Congress enact laws which would prohibit the use of the numbers for promotional or commercial purposes and also prohibit any organization now required by law to record Social Security numbers from disclosing them without the consent of the individual concerned.

The report recognizes a possible drift toward a “dossier society” in the U.S. and suggests that the time has come to keep computerization of private data from getting out of hand.

Answer the following questions by circling the correct responses.

1. The main purpose of this article is to inform readers that …

A. The widespread use of the automated files on private citizens can result in a secret

dossier on every American. B. Social Security numbers have been misused by “lucky number” contests, widely

distributed facsimiles, and “skip tracing” organizations. C. The government should call an immediate halt to the expanding use of Social Security

numbers as authenticators of identity. D. Government advisory committee is asking for safeguards to prevent the potential

misuse of computerized files and Social Security numbers.

2. This official report was prompted by complaints from …

A. individuals who resent being required to give their Social Security number as identification too frequently.

B. organizations and agencies which sometimes have difficulty obtaining personal information for their own purposes.

C. individuals worried about invasion of personal privacy through computer banks and use of Social Security numbers.

D. government officials who feel that they should have exclusive rights to personal information regarding the United States citizens.

3. After a year-long study, the committee … A. recommended new laws to prevent misuse of files on individuals and Social Security

numbers. B. made no recommendations. C. advocated new laws concerning the individuals’ knowledge about personal information

in computer systems. D. recommended limiting the use of Social Security number.

4. A basic concern expressed in this article is …

A. the conflict between governmental and private agencies. B. excessive record keeping. C. the need for precise identification of every student. D. the abuse of personal freedom.


5. Following its investigation, the committee found that the complaints were …

A. unjustified. C. justified. B. exaggerated. D. in need of further investigation.

6. (Choose as many possible answers as you feel apply.) Opponents of the thesis of this article might reasonably argue: A. With a rapidly expanding population, it is necessary to have a dossier on every

individual. B. Social Security numbers are a convenient form of identification. C. Individuals do not need to know what information is recorded about them and how it

is used; this knowledge might upset them. D. The people actually benefit by having information about them widely distributed and

readily accessible. 7. What do you know about the publication in which this article appears?

A. I am familiar with this publication. I know that it is reputable and I can assume the information is accurate.

B. From my former reading of this publication, I know it is sometimes biased. This article, therefore, may be slightly biased.

C. I have never read this publication, but I know of it from people whose judgment I trust.

D. I know nothing about this publication.

8. Do you have sufficient background on this subject to make an intelligent evaluation? A. I’m thoroughly familiar with the subject from reading of it in a variety of publications

and hearing it discussed by competent people. B. I know something about the subject, but my knowledge is incomplete and my

thinking may be biased. C. I have heard something about this subject, but not enough to form an opinion. D. I know nothing at all about the subject.

9. The place of publication is Washington D.C. Therefore, you can assume: A. that the article accurately reflects the prevailing views on this subject since the

subject is a concern of this country. B. that the article probably presents the thinking of American people. C. very little because many different views are held on subjects within this country. D. nothing, because an article published in another country might present a more

subjective report. 10. Was the material recently enough so that the information provided is still valid?

A. The information is recent enough to be considered valid. B. Most of the information is probably still valid, but new information may have become

available recently. C. The information was probably written too long ago to be accepted without checking

more recent sources. D. The information was written so long ago that it is completely out of date and useless.


11. This article is based upon an official report from a Government advisory committee consisting of “24 lawyers, educators, computer-industry executives and others.” The source of information, therefore, you would judge to be: A. excellent, since it has the endorsement of the Government, and the committee

consisted of well-qualified individuals from varying occupations. B. Fairly good, because of the varied representation on the committee, but nothing is

said about the personal biases of these individuals.

C. Fair, because not enough information is given about the qualifications of the committee members or their selection.

D. Poor, since members of Government committees are usually influenced by politics rather than good judgments.

12. What is the author’s reason for writing this material?

A. To provide the reader with information he should know. B. To discuss a topic that may be of concern to a limited number of people. C. To persuade the reader to think the same way as he does. D. To present his own ideas for personal advantage.

13. Is the reasoning logical and are the conclusions justified?

A. The situation is clearly stated, the reasoning makes sense, and the conclusions are

well supported. B. Considering my limited background of knowledge, I feel that both the reasoning and

conclusions are probably correct. C. The reasoning appears to be based on incomplete information and the conclusions

fail to consider the other side of the situation. D. Only one side of the case is presented and therefore the reasoning is biased and the

conclusions are unjustified. 14. On the basis of the previous seven questions (items 7-13), evaluate your ability to make

a critical judgment of this article.

A. I feel eminently qualified to evaluate this article critically. B. With only a few reservations, I am ready to make judgment about this article. C. Since I have known little about the subject until know, I am unable to make a valid

judgment without additional information. D. I am unable to make any evaluation of this article.

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9. Other Aspects of Critical Reading