Reference no: EM132388549

ASSESSMENT: CRITICAL REVIEW

OVERVIEW

Critical thinking is the art of asking questions of what you read or hear in order to identify key issues, analyse arguments and make reasoned decisions. This assessment requires you to undertake a number of discrete critical thinking tasks, and to write a critical review of a business proposition.

PART 1: SHORT ANSWERS (500 words max)

(a) Work out the argument

The following is an example of a badly formulated argument. Identify the main argument of this piece of writing in one or two sentences.

For centuries, societies have suppressed women. Societies expect women to be well-rounded and balanced, giving them more responsibilities than men. In this respect, women already have a more difficult life than men. There are not only high qualifications for a respectable woman, but there is also a double standard. While men can feel safe about their status with other men, women have to worry about not offending both men and women with their acquired superiority. Although the reality is less prevalent in modern day, women also continue to struggle with oppression and degradation, especially women in the Chinese culture.Gender differences are not only physical but rather they are social.Women have been conditioned to be submissive and insignificant in the Chinese culture.Since physical labour is in high demand,the physical differences contribute to the prejudice towards female employees. Throughout time, Chinese women have been stripped of their power to make private choices such as who to marry. Women should not feel honoured to serve men but to serve with men, as should men to serve with women. Chinese women have been told by generations before them that their purpose is to entertain and care for their husband. Instead of condemning the differences as a curse, people should embrace them as a gift. If nothing else, the multitasking ability women have displayed throughout the years is evidence of possible prosperity. Society needs to stop reinforcing and validating its created gendered differences, and start finding a fulcrum where women and men can evolve as equals.

(b) Implicit assumptions

Identify the implicit assumptions in this article. (2-4 sentences only)

7 July 2004 Australian Financial Review
Immigrants taking local IT jobs: report

(c) Data analysis

You are a government decision-maker. What conclusions can you draw from this data? If you had to decide on a new job-skills education facility to service Melbourne East, what other information would you need? (2-4 sentences only)

(d) Flawed arguments

How can we criticise this article? (2-4 sentences only)

The more modern anthropologists learn about Australian Aboriginal civilization, the better they understand its intellectual achievements. Australian Aborigines were not the hunter/gatherers assumed by so many early writers, but rather some western tribes were farmers of indigenous plants and animals. Furthermore, numerous medical uses of these indigenous plants were discovered by the Australian Aborigines. Oral traditions indicate that the Aborigines seem to have had high levels of knowledge of the workings of the inside of the human body, perhaps indicating surgical knowledge.

PART 2: LONG ANSWERS (1000 words max. in total; 20 marks)

(e) Develop a thesis statement

Write 500 words which state a thesis based on the two readings, and support that thesis using only the two readings.

Attachment:- Assessment - Critical review.rar