Conclusion
In this course you developed your critical reading skills by asking questions about texts. You thought about your own attitudes and how these might influence your reading before analysing texts from different disciplines. You considered the importance of distinguishing between fact and opinion and of using reliable sources of evidence to support opinions. In your analysis of the texts you also considered a variety of factors relating to the author, the type of text and the context. Finally, you compared two texts from different subject areas written about similar themes.
Key learning points
In this course you have:
- considered the importance of examining your own attitudes to texts
- studied the organisation of argument texts
- distinguished between facts and opinions in texts
- examined hedging as a technique used by writers to express opinions and avoid making unsupported generalisations
- considered the importance of reliable evidence to support claims
- practised asking questions about the author, type and context of texts.