Reading Activity -- Critical Reading
To be a good reader, you need to be able to recognize strategies that writers use to persuade their audience, so you can understand how the writer is trying to manipulate your feelings and reactions.
Two strategies that authors often use when writing a persuasive piece are:
Follow the link below and read the short Newsweek article, keeping in mind the points mentioned above. After you have finished reading, answer the following questions.
Reading – “A Moment of Genius, Years of Obscurity”
Questions:
1) For each of the following sentences, write one or two synonyms for the underlined word. After doing that, explain why you think the author used her word rather than the synonyms.
“But for a country so huge and ethnically diverse, I’m surprised by the media’s disinterest in international events.” (paragraph 5)
“He was ostracized by local farmers for having crazy hair and being more interested in flying than in raising cows. By the end of his life he was so disheartened that he gave up inventing and died penniless and alone.” (paragraph 8)
2) In the following sentence (from the second paragraph), which information do you notice most?
“It was March 31, 1903, historians and witnesses say, eight months before the Wright brothers flew.”
What if the sentence read, “Historians and witnesses say it was March 31, 1903, eight months before the Wright brothers flew”?
Is there a difference in meaning between these two sentences? Is there a difference in the reader’s focus? Why did the author choose to use the first one?