Book Censorship can be Justified in Some Cases
1. Use at least 3-4 detailed annotations per page (4 pages only)
For your annotations, try to identify, paraphrase, question, and *analyze the following:
- Main claim and sub-claims. What is the central point the author is making? What do they want to convince you to do or see differently? What sub-claims contribute to their larger claim? Sub-claims will always be smaller in scope, and only relevant in how they back up the larger one.
- Reasoning. What is the reasoning they use to justify their claim? For example, “Red cars are bad (claim), because they cause more accidents than the average rate (reasoning).”
- Evidence. What are the facts, figures, expert testimony (“Professor Smith from MIT says that…”), anecdotes (stories or experiences), etc. being used to show that the reasoning is true?
- Weaknesses or Gaps in the Argument(s). Where does the argument fall short? What does it fail to address, or what does it need to address?
- Structure and Connectivity. How is the text or argument structured? How do the pieces fit together? Is there anything you expected to find at a certain point, and didn’t, or weren’t expecting and came across it? What is the architecture and blueprint the author is showing in the text?
*Analysis is the attempt to break down an argument or text into smaller parts (for example: Argument -> Claim, Reasoning, Evidence) to understand the intentions of the author. This means you will be trying to guess what the author is doing based on how they present the text to you. For example, if an author is writing an argument about the treatment of homeless individuals in New York City, based on how they present their case, they could be trying to get you to see them differently.