Read “The Operator”
Instructions
Read “The Operator,” an article published in the New Yorker magazine February 4, 2013. The question the article asks is whether Dr. Oz, described in the piece as “the most trusted doctor in America,” is doing more harm than good.
Your task is to read the article carefully and critically. Pay careful attention to its language and to the ways it presents information about Dr. Oz—to the selection of details it includes (and the way(s) it includes those details). Apply what you have learned in the course thus far. Of particular help should be the work from Hayakawa’s Language in Thought and Action, especially his distinction between “reports, inferences, and judgments.” Also of value will be the work you did for the Lesson, Resources, Forum, and Assignment on “Denotation and Connotation.” Examine the assumptions and the evidence used to support the author (Michael Specter’s) point of view—his perspective on Dr. Oz, a perspective you will have to determine yourself.
Support your view with evidence from the text of the article, including brief quotations.
Length: 1000 words
You will be able to do the following:
- Formulate analytical questions about the structure/organization, reasoning, language, concepts, issues/topics, conclusions, theses, and evidence of different types of texts.
- Demonstrate critical reading skills by identifying textual viewpoints, main ideas and supporting details, organizational patterns, connotative meanings, uses of evidence, theses, reasons, and conclusions.
- Analyze the key elements of an argument: the topic/issue, thesis/claim, reasoning (stated and unstated), evidence, and conclusion.
- Construct strong sense analytical arguments by problematizing issues, developing propositions/theses, weighing counterarguments and claims, providing different types of reasoning, offering sound evidence, and reaching conclusions.
