Find one quality opinion articles on a topic and examine both the context and the content of the articles.

To examine the context of the articles, determine author credibility and publisher credibility, and explain the broader context in which the articles were published. To examine the content of the articles, analyze the authors' arguments, identify and evaluate the types reasoning the authors' use, and explain what else they would need to know before being able to come to a conclusion on the matter.

The articles selected for the project should be opinion essays containing an argument or a thesis, and the articles should be published in a reputable venue (broadly defined) in the popular press (not an academic journal and not on a blog or social media). Essentially, the article should have passed some sort of editorial process, meaning the person who wrote it and the editors who approved it are two different parties.

The article chosen should be published in the last four to five years, so that they are relevant to contemporaneity issues. Chosen article should not be a regular news report. It should be opinion essays intended to persuade audiences of a conclusion or thesis.

Part I: Importance of the Topic

What is your topic? Why did you choose this topic? What is the debate or controversy about and why is the issue important you and/or others?

Part II: Evaluate Publisher and Author Credibility

This five point analysis should be conducted for your article:

A. Provide the bibliographic information (author name, title of article, venue where published, date published, and URL or link to the article).

B. Who is the publisher and what is their position within the policy economy of news media? In other words, who owns the publisher and what is the publisher's target audience/demographic? How do these things affect the credibility of the publisher?

C. Who is the author and what credentials, expertise, training, or experience do they have on the topic? To what extent can they be a credible source/expert on this topic, and why?

D. Paraphrase the author's argument by identifying their premises and conclusion(s) (this does not have to be in standard form but the premises and conclusions should be clear).

E. Identify and evaluate two types of reasoning in the argument:

• Arguments from analogy
• Abductive argument or inferences to the best explanation
• Inductive generalizations
• Inductive applications
• Statistical reasoning
• If relevant, do you notice any fallacies in their argument?

Part III: What Else?

What else would you need to know or want to know before reaching a firm conclusion on this topic and why? Provide at least two examples to illustrate.