Critical Analysis Forms

CRT/205 Version 8

Associate Level Material

Critical Analysis Forms
Fill out one form for each source.
Source 1 Title and Citation: Abortion Medical Issues

COPYRIGHT 2014 Gale, Cengage

Learning.

Identify the principal issue

presented by the source.

The principle issue is abortions for medical issues and

safety issues that arise due to abortions.

Identify any examples of bias

presented by the author. If none
exist, explain how you determined
this.

Much of the facts seem to cast a harsh light on

abortions that are performed. Information is given
about abortions and all of the bad things that happen
due to abortions. However no information is given
saying what medical condition the mother may have
had, and how the abortion may have been able to keep
the mother alive or other medical or safety reasons that
the mother may have been dealing with and may have
been a factor in the choice to have an abortion.

Identify any areas that are vague

or ambiguous. Explain your
reasoning.

Do you find the source credible?

Explain your reasoning.

Identify and name any rhetorical

devices used by the author.
Explain your reasoning.

Identify and name any fallacies

used by the author. Explain your
reasoning.

In the first paragraph it states these illegal abortions

harmed women physically, increased the risks
associated with future pregnancies, and even resulted
in death but the author never gives specifics about
what increased risks there were or specifics on how
they harmed women. Other than that I think the author
was very clear in article.
I did notice the sources that were sighted as being
used as a reference for the article. However, Im unsure
of how much information was used from the source. So
I wouldnt say that the article was totally credible.
In the article, even as professional as it aims to be
there are certain words that are used as a way to
produce a negative effect. Words constantly used
throughout include life-threatening, battles, serious
harm I believe using these words would automatically
induce a negative feeling in any article. I think the
rhetorical devices used is dysphemisms.
I notice that the author gives details about abortions in
a way almost that would scare women about having an
abortion. I believe its a scare tactic. Id expect to be
reading many other types of fallacies on this subject
such as argument from pity or argument from
outrage from an article that is talking about abortion.
But perhaps the reason those fallacies are not present

Critical Analysis Forms

CRT/205 Version 8
is that this article is focusing on the medical issues, and
not the moral issues.

I think the author uses deductive arguments. The

premise is being demonstrated to be true. For example,
if you have an abortion, you will probably end up with
an infection or other medical issue due to the abortion.

State one argument made by the

author.

Identify the premises and

conclusion of the argument.

The premises in this article are that there are risks from
having an abortion. The conclusion points out that
there are far too many risks from having a surgical
abortion. The best option would be to use the abortion
pill instead.

Is the authors argument valid or

invalid, sound or unsound, strong
or weak? Explain how you
determined this.

I think the author (who is using deductive reasoning)

has a sound, valid argument. The argument is strong
because there is a lot of supporting information to back
up the basis of the argument.

10

Does the author use moral

reasoning? Explain how you
determined this.

I dont think that in this particular article uses moral

reasoning. I think that will come up more in the
following article. The author bases the argument more
on medical reasoning, not moral reasoning.

Source 2 Title and Citation: Abortion Ethical and Social Issues

COPYRIGHT 2014 Gale, Cengage Learning.

The principle issue is that abortion is a subject that
many people feel strongly about. There are people who
take a stance of either side of abortion. It has even
become an issue that many politicians have gotten
involved in as far as passing laws protecting womens
rights.

Identify the principal issue

presented by the source.

Identify any examples of bias

presented by the author. Explain
your reasoning.

I think this article greatly takes a stance on both sides

of abortion. It supports those who are for abortions and
their reasoning behind that support. It also supports
those who are against abortions and the reasoning
behind that. However, on each side there are words
used that show bias. Words like Murder Loss of life

Identify any areas that are vague

or ambiguous. Explain your
reasoning.

I feel that in this article the author did a very good job at
making sure the information provided was clearly
written, and supported. There wasnt any areas that I
had to go back and try to re-read and try to interpret in
certain ways.

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Do you find the source credible?

Explain your reasoning.

Again, there are credible sources cited by the author,

but I am unsure just how much information was taken
from the cited sources. I do think that the majority of
information is credible, but I think if this article was to
be used in research it would be best to find an article
that had a more complete outline of credible sources.

Identify and name any rhetorical

devices used by the author.
Explain your reasoning.

In the article it talks about how not allowing abortion

can be a strain on society not only in the US, but also
in less-developed nations. I noticed a proof surrogate
device here as the wording made it seem like this was
factual information that could easily be proven
however, there was no actual proof offered. Much like
the first article, I think there were certain words that
produced a negative feeling about the topic. So I think
the rhetorical device of dysphemisms was also present.

Identify and name any fallacies

used by the author. Explain your
reasoning.

I notice one major fallacy throughout this particular

article. I notice that rationalization fallacy quite a bit.
Not only on one side of the argument either, its present
for those who are for and those who are against
abortion. The author points out that those who are
against abortion rationalized that thought because they
want to believe a fetus is a person from the moment of
conception, so an abortion would be murder. Those
who are for abortion rationalize their belief by asking
what if the woman was raped, or what about incest?

State one argument made by the

author.

Again, I think the author uses deductive arguments.

There is tons of information to prove the argument as
truth.

Identify the premises and

conclusion of the argument.

There are two premises in this article. The first being

that women should be able to choose what to do with
their body. The second being that abortion is not
necessary and should be against the law. The
conclusion over all is that there are specific reasons
that abortions should be legal. Whether it is to keep the
mother from harm, or reduce the strain on the
economy.

Is the authors argument valid or

invalid, sound or unsound, strong
or weak? Explain how you
determined this.

The author gave very good supporting information in

their argument. The argument was definitely valid. For
every aspect the author explored in the article there
was always supporting information.

10

Does the author use moral

reasoning? Explain how you
determined this.

I do think that moral reasoning was present in this

article. The author talked about the fetus being a
person, and should that person have rights? I think that
statements like that show moral reasoning.