Feb22Sample Critical Response Essay PDF

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5-paragraph Sample Critical Response to an article Essay

Introductory Paragraph Sentence 1: what makes an author, publication and author’s sources for their claims credible: Credible articles are written by authors who identify with the subject matter of their article, have written on the subject before in credible publications that publish original articles, and check all author sources to ensure they come from other credible publications and that the sources actually support the author’s claims. Sentence 2: Summary statement of the article being responded to: In the article “Canada’s race problem? It’s even worse than America’s” in Maclean’s magazine, author Scott Gilmore argues that Canada’s Indigenous population lives with more racism than does the U.S.’s Black population because the number of Canada’s Indigenous high school drop outs, incarcerated, and murdered represent a higher percentage of Canada’s total population compared to Afro-Americans as a percentage of U.S. population. Sentence 3: Thesis statement: Although Maclean’s is a reputable magazine, and Gilmore is an established journalist, the statistics that he presents to support these claims are misleading, making the article less credible overall. Body Paragraph 1

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Maclean’s magazine is a credible, trustworthy source, which one would think would make any article it publishes credible. It has a longstanding reputation and many loyal readers. For example, it has more than 225,000 paid subscribers and was established in 1905, making it the Canada’s oldest magazine. In addition to its long history, the magazine’s home page shows its numerous fact-checkers, which are supposed to check authors’ evidence against their claims and a large editorial board that is supposed to make decisions as to what stories are of interest to Canadians (macleans.ca). Just as Maclean’s is credible, so too, is the author Gilmore. Body Paragraph 2 Gilmore is credible as a Canadian author, but not to write on this subject. He has written many articles for Maclean’s as well as other reputable Canadian ones. However, he has not written on Indigenous issues before, and nowhere on his online profile, which shows a photo of a white, middle-aged man, does he say that he, himself, is Indigenous (https://www.macleans.ca/author/scottgilmore/). This nonIndigenous, non-Black identity makes him less credible to write about this sensitive issue, and it causes the reader to be more critical of his claims. As a result, this writer’s otherwise good reputation is not relevant in the context of this article, making him less credible and the article less credible overall. Therefore, Gilmore, as a white man, should not have written an article on

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racial comparisons between countries because without revealing the source of his evidence and then misinterpreting it. Body paragraph 3 Despite this publication’s and the author’s usual credibility, Gilmore’s evidence is weak and misleading. For instance, the author’s first piece of evidence for his claims that Canadians are more racist than Americans is a table called “A National Disgrace.” The table compares 14 various criteria such as unemployment, homicide, incarceration, and high school dropout rates between Aboriginal Canadians and African-Americans as percentages of their total populations. However, neither the author nor the publication provide a source for this table. Second, Gilmore misinterprets the facts provided in this table, which actually weakens, not strengthens, his claims that Canadians are more racist than are Americans. For example, the table shows that Canada’s Indigenous population is 10 times more likely than the average Canadian of being incarcerated versus the U.S.’s Afro-American population being 3 times more likely than their average. But this statistic misrepresents the real fact that the U.S. overall incarcerates 2,207 per 100,000 of its citizens versus Canada’s 1,400 per 100,000. Third, the table shows that Canada’s Indigenous are 6.1 times more likely than the average Canadian to die of homicide versus Americans’ 3.7 times the rate of their average citizen. But, again, America’s homicide rate is higher to begin with – 17.3 out of 100,000 citizens on average versus Canada’s 8.8 per 100,000 3

citizens. Therefore, not only is the table Gilmore provides as evidence for his claims problematic because no source is provided, he misinterprets the table’s statistics, so that they do not even support his claims, which makes the article not credible overall. Concluding paragraph Restated thesis in other words: In conclusion, a reputable publication and a journalist who has many articles in credible publications has published a not credible article overall because he does not provide the source for his evidence and his claims are misleading. Topic sentence 1 restated in other words: The magazine has 115 years of publishing – Canada’s oldest magazine. Topic sentence 2 restated: Gilmore’s online presence shows that he has written for many reputable publications too. Topic sentence 3 restated: But this long-standing history and experience cannot hide the fact that the author took statistics out of context to try to support his claims. Solution: Maclean’s should have commissioned the article to a non-white person who has a history of writing about racism and who compared the racism faced by Canadian Indigenous people to American Indigenous people or Canadian Blacks to Afro-Americans.

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