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So here we are with questions to ask before you begin a close reading of a text questions to ask before you begin a close reading of a text. This could be a text from any domain, whether you're assigned to read it from history or art, biology, sociology, whatever it is, before you begin, you need to ask yourself a series of questions concerning the author and publication in which the piece appeared, as well as your own knowledge of an attitude toward the topic. Okay, I get that. But why again? Well, answering these questions may help you determine any biases present in the reading and help ensure that you remain open to any new perspectives or information that the author may have to offer. Speaking of the author, let's begin there with some questions concerning the author. So again, we'll start simply and move toward greater complexity, greater depth in our critical question asking. So first, who is the author? Like I said, simple beginning? Who is the author? What are their credentials? Kind of scoping them out? You know, building a kind of profile, if you will. So what who is the author? What are their credentials? What else have they written on the topic? Now notice that this question asks you to do a bit more, to at least take a preview of what else that author has written on the same topic that the article you have is concerned with. Okay. And then finally, the fourth question, we'll talk about what possible biases might have influenced that author's work, what possible biases might be present, or have influenced their work. So let's start after the name of the author with assessing the credibility and expertise of the author. Now, I've seen people characterize this as a kind of resume reading in the past. It's not really that it's, that's the resume reading. Interpretation of assessing credibility and expertise is a pretty facile one. It can lend itself to that kind of performative surface level show, you know, but it's more important than that, when we're assessing credibility and expertise. We want to ask this question, to see if the author has the relevant training and expertise, professional practice, experience in Word. All of this in the field that correlates to or is directly within what they're writing about. Do they have some authority? And can that authority be supported with evidence with references of good qualification? So again, the question Who is the author? And what are their qualifications for writing on this topic? So how about an example of this? Well, for instance, say you are writing a paper about global warming for your English class, and you find an article that you want to use in your essay. Well take note of whether you're reading a research report produced by a scientist who conducted their own studies on the topic, or if it's an informative article composed by a reporter who interviewed that scientist or some scientist, or if it's an opinion piece written by a television star who has no particular expertise in climatology. With the first author, the scientist is probably well qualified to offer expert opinion. The second author, yes, less qualified than the first, but still may be a legitimate source of information, however, approach that third author with cautious skepticism, because good actors rarely a good scientist, you know. So should you plan to use any of these readings to support a position of your own and an essay, you should understand that academic readers will tend to believe authors with solid professional credentials and demonstrated expertise in the topic. So yeah, that's the kind of game we're playing. And that's the field that we're playing it on.
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So along with this, we can think about biases too. So Determine as best as you can, any biases operating in the author's work. Note who the writers work for to when you do this. Note who they worked for note who supported their research. And also note who publishes their results. You know, no writer is going to be completely objective. All writers bring some kind of biases or preferences to their work. It could be political, religious, methodological, no matter where the bias sources from, it may influence the type of study that the author has conducted or the type of evidence that they've used to support their contentions, the language they employ, even can be affected by biases influenced by biases. And all of that leads to an influence upon the conclusions that they have drawn or maybe didn't draw. Alright, so if you're researching a paper on abortion, don't write about that, please, so ever done. Maybe there's a bias of my own. I'm an English teacher, and I don't want to read another paper about abortion, or that we should lower the drinking age, or why college athletes deserve professional salaries or should be getting paid or something. Yeah, alright, so. Okay, so anyway, I'll just give you the example. If you're researching a paper on abortion, it would definitely be important to note if that author had any kind of affiliation membership in an organization, such as the National abortion rights action League, or operation life, if some author is a member, or is an affiliate of an organization that takes a firm stance on the issue that they're writing about. Despite any claims to be presenting the results of some objective study, that kind of affiliation is at least suspicious. And it does call into question the credibility of the claims that they make in their writing. In college, you will often read expert testimony that presents conflicting views and interpretations, but of the same topic or data or event. So often, your job as a writer is to examine these different perspectives, and compare their quality or worse, and then use them to form and defend a position of your own. However, if you recognize bias or even recognize potential authorial bias in reading, it does not automatically disqualify it as a legitimate source of information. It simply puts you in a better position to read the work skeptically and to ask better, more critical questions. You know, it doesn't mean the work is not useful, just means you can put it to better uses. know, a lot of the sources that you'll find and ultimately use in college for college essays are academic journals. So how do we find stuff out about the authors in academic journals? Well, most of them most academic journals, will include brief biographical entries on the author's either at the beginning or end of each article, or sometimes in a separate section of the journal that's typically labeled contributor notes, or some journalists just call it contributors, popular magazines to they'll also include some information on the author of each article that they publish. If you ever need help finding this kind of information, or if you just can't find it at all, ask a librarian. Ask your teacher they'll help you locate these biographical dictionaries, Google will help to some extent, but it's really best to just ask a professional and in situations like this, it'll at least save you time. The point for finding this information out is that if you include in your essay, the credentials of the author's whose work you were quoting or paraphrasing, it will, you know, increase the credibility of your assertions, and that in turn gives your work more credibility it gives you as an author a more favorable response to the same question that you asked about the authors that you included in your own writing.