Designed as a four-part online diagnostic tool that allows individuals to self-evaluate their proficiencies in skill areas critical to success in many upper-undergraduate and postgraduate programs, the Skills Readiness Inventory will help you prepare for your future.
Whether you are a graduate, undergraduate, or returning student, the Skills Readiness Inventory will provide you with valuable recommendations for proficiency-building activities, independent follow-up study, and future coursework.
Critical reading is the ability to comprehend and analyze text. This includes the ability to determine the relationships between parts of the text and to draw reasonable inferences.
Paraphrasing
A paraphrase is a restatement in your own words of a key point or component of text. It is different from the main idea in that it deals with only a part of a larger argument or concept. Using or recognizing synonyms is an important component of this skill, so accurate paraphrasing comes more easily if you develop a good working vocabulary.
Main Idea
The ability to recognize or construct a summary of the primary theme or argument of a passage is the basic building block of critical reading. A good summary is very brief and includes all key ideas but does NOT add information or bias. The ability to distinguish between supporting details and key concepts is an important component of this skill.
Inferences
Many texts contain information that is not explicitly stated. This can include information such as attitudes or views, as well as other information that is implied by the text but not overtly addressed. Being able to recognize inferences is a key element in extracting meaning from text.
Text Structure
Persuasive writing uses different structures to convey meaning. Understanding the structure of the text helps you to navigate the passage. It allows you to anticipate what will come next, to classify the importance of information and its function (e.g., supporting evidence, hypothesis, or opinion) and to determine what is missing. Some common structures are:
- Compare and contrast
- Make a claim and provide support
- Summarize and evaluate
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Reasoning with arguments is the ability to understand, criticize, and complete arguments. This involves understanding an argument's structure and determining whether its conclusion is justified on the basis of the evidence that is presented.
Conclusions
The ability to determine what is supported by a given body of evidence is the key to evaluating the validity of an argument. Conclusions can be supported to varying degrees by evidence given in the text. For example, the evidence may provide conclusive support (i.e., it is guaranteed) or just support it as a reasonable conclusion (i.e., it is not guaranteed). Your ability to evaluate the extent of the support will help you decide if the conclusion is a valid one. This will also require you to make judgments about what inferences are appropriate under specific circumstances.
Assumptions
Many arguments are based on unstated assumptions. These unstated assumptions (or "gaps" in the argument) are essential to the success of the argument. That is, the argument cannot be complete in the absence of the assumption. Therefore, the ability to identify information that is not explicitly stated but that is required for the argument to succeed is a key part of evaluating the argument. In order to identify an unstated assumption, you must first identify the conclusion and the statements that are offered in support of the conclusion, or the premises. An argument with an unstated assumption is an argument in which the premises do not fully establish the conclusion. An unstated assumption will be a statement that fills at least one significant gap in the argument and without which the argument cannot succeed.
Argument Structure
Abstracting a structure from an argument is a useful technique for evaluating an argument and identifying parallel reasoning in other arguments. To evaluate the strength of an argument, you will first need to understand the role played by specific parts of the argument. Once you have identified the parts of the argument, you can consider how the parts are organized. The goal of identifying an argumentative structure is to determine the organization of the argument. A sound structure will demonstrate the strength of the argument’s reasoning.
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Reasoning with rules (or deductive reasoning) involves working with sets of rules and facts and understanding their interactions under specific conditions. Undergraduate and graduate study in many fields will require that you apply a specific set of rules to a variety of situations.
Basic Understanding Of Rules
Solving problems with rules requires you to create a representation or "schematic" that clearly displays the relationships defined by a set of rules. Having the relationships clearly laid out will help you make quick decisions about the effect of changes in conditions or events. This is the basic building block of reasoning with rules.
Inferring What Could Be True
In some cases the rules will determine what is possible or allowed, as opposed to what is not possible or not allowed. It is important to note that this is different from what is necessary or required. What is possible or allowed can be the case under the rules, but it need not be the case. There are other possibilities.
Inferring What Must Be True
In some cases the rules determine that something must be the case — that it is necessary under the rules. In that case there is no other possibility allowed by the rules, and it must be true in every case.
Considering the Impact of Additional Information
Sometimes you will apply additional information to a set of rules or conditions. In these instances, you will need to determine how the additional information impacts the possible outcomes. Additional information resolves some of the uncertainty in the original set of rules. That is, some scenarios that could be true based on the original set of rules will be transformed into scenarios that either must or cannot be true when the additional information is considered.
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Undergraduate and graduate students often need to write essays or papers in support of a particular position. Knowing how to write a persuasive essay that effectively argues in support of or against a position requires that you understand the basic elements of persuasive writing. These elements include Focus and Meaning, Content, Organization, Language Usage and Mechanics.
Focus and Meaning
Persuasive writing, sometimes known as an argumentative essay, uses logic and reason to prove that one idea is more legitimate than another idea. The essay presents an argument that attempts to persuade a reader to adopt a certain point of view or to take a particular action. Two important ingredients for a successful persuasive essay are a clearly written thesis statement, and a thorough understanding of the reader's perspective.
Content and Development
An effective persuasive essay constructs its argument using extensive, specific, accurate, and relevant details. These details can include facts, examples, anecdotes, details, opinions, statistics, reasons, and explanations, all for the purpose of supporting your conclusion. The most persuasive essays also anticipate and rebut counter arguments that may be made against the author's reasoning or conclusion.
Organization
The organization of the argument in a persuasive essay is an extremely important part of winning the reader over to your side. The essay must be carefully plotted out and constructed, much like a stone wall is built, from the bottom up. It must tell the reader what you are arguing in your thesis statement, then lead the reader logically and simply through the argument, paragraph by paragraph, using convincing evidence throughout.
Language Use and Style
Precise language and careful word choice help to clarify the writer's meaning, the use of active voice helps to keep the tone of the argument lively and interesting, and well-structured and varied sentences help the reader to understand the points of the essay without hesitation.
Mechanics and Conventions
In an effective persuasive essay, the writer must show a command of the mechanics and conventions of grammar, including noun-verb agreement, proper verb tense, and simple punctuation.
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