Assignment Task

You are required to choose one newspaper article discussing a contemporary policy issue and critically reviewing the article.

Instructions

Background (why am I doing this?)

This assessment task is a preparation for Assessment 2, but is also a good practice for writing for department heads and ministers who are busy people and, even if they have the expertise to understand a complex argument, will need to explain it to the voters.

Instructions (what do I have to do?)

Your critical review essay should address the following:

(a) Briefly summarise the main points of the article (in particular, the issues/questions the article tries to address; its main findings, and conclusions).

(b) How do you assess the significance of the issues/questions the author writes about in the article? Are you convinced the issues/questions are important? Why? Why not?

(c) Does the article make a clear policy recommendation? Why do you think this?

(d) Are you convinced by the main arguments and findings of the article? Why? Why not?

(e) Do you think the author shows any biases in their writing? If so, why?

(f) Is the article well written? How could it have been done better?

Writing your response (how do I do this?)

You can select the newspaper article for your critical review from one of the sources listed below. You can also select from other newspapers not included in the list but you need to get the unit convenor’s permission first (and it must be English language). The article you select should not be more than 5 years old.