The Importance of Being Beautiful” How Boys Become Men”

Write an analytical essay evaluating the quality of the information from one of the following two articles in Bridging the Gap chapter 9:
”The Importance of Being Beautiful” OR
”How Boys Become Men”

Make sure to prewrite, write, and revise this short analytical essay (2-3 pages, typed, double-spaced) analyzing the quality of thought in the article you choose. Analyze the quality of the article by asking and answering analytical questions about content and language.

HINT: Your thesis should comment on the quality of the information, and your groups of support should give your reasons for your judgment by explaining your analysis of content and/or language items, as appropriate.

Basic Analysis Questions:
What is the main idea?
What is the author’s purpose?
What pieces of the text do I want to test” (content or language or both), based on the author’s purpose?

Questions to Analyze Content:
Is the support related to the conclusion [the main idea]?
Is the support believable or highly suspicious?
Does the support hold together or does it fall apart and contradict itself?
Is the support sufficient at all levels-supporting ideas and type and amount of evidence needed for the supporting ideas?
Does the support consider the opposing viewpoint if there is a significant opposing viewpoint?

Questions to analyze language:
What do the words imply/connote and how do the words influence the reader’s understanding of the main idea?
Are the author’s tone and general point of view intended to sway the reader to a certain way of thinking about the main idea?

Assignment Checklist/Evaluation Criteria

Essay
introduction-body-conclusion structure
main idea clearly stated in introduction
supporting ideas organized into groups
enough details/examples/specifics so the reader can understand your main and supporting ideas
clear, grammatically-correct language
analysis essay judges the quality of the author’s work by breaking it into parts and examining the parts and their relationship to the main idea
main idea or thesis should offer your general assessment of the quality of the article and may also indicate the reasons for that assessment (e.g., The quality of information in the article, _________,” is not good because it lacks sufficient support, includes a number of logical errors, includes irrelevant support, and also uses language tone and inference to sway the reader in lieu of solid evidence)
support should use specific examples from the text of the article