Interpreting writers’ points of view, attitudes or intentions

In other words, it can be describe as trying to understand a text through the writer’s perception, which is influenced by his personal beliefs on an issue. In addition, the writer’s beliefs might be neutral (taking no side) or biased (in favor of one side only).

The writer attitude towards an issue is shown through the tone he or she uses in his or her writing. Tone refers to the writer’s use of words and writing styles to demonstrate his or her stand towards the issue in the text. Examples of tone words: abstruse, absurd, ambivalent, angry, apathetic, awestruck, bitter, celebratory, comic, compassionate, complex, condemning, condescending, critical, cynical, dismay, detached, earnest, evasive, excited, formal, impassioned, incredulous, indignant, intense, ironic, malicious, mocking, nostalgic, objective, optimistic, pessimistic.

You can understand the writer’s intention by asking yourself what the writer’s reason(s) for writing is/are,. Writer’s normally write for one of these four reason; to inform, to instruct, to persuade or to entertain.

Analyzing and evaluating reading text

In order to analyses a reading text, you must first able to determine the writer’s point of view, tone and intension. All the skills that have been discussed in the earlier such as making inferences, distinguishing facts and opinions and drawing conclusions can also help you in analyzing a text  before evaluating it.

Below are some examples of flawed reasoning:

1)          Personal attack:  focusing the argument on the person’s personality/background etc rather than the issues at hand.

2)         Over-generalization: forming a general opinion based on inadequate examples.

3)         Jumping on the bandwagon: trying to persuade reads to agree on an idea because the majority does.

4)         Quoting to the wrong authority:  citing a person who is famous but is not an authority on what he or she is taking about.