Letter to the Editor Assignment
On August 22, 2006, Michael Noer published a story in Forbes Magazine which argued that women with careers are bad for marriages. The article sparked an enormous response (as you might guess). Your job is to read the article (posted on BB), and write a brief letter to the editor as a response. This assignment is designed to help you begin to use your critical thinking skills. Most of this course boils down to critical thinking skills, so it is important for you to begin exercising those muscles right from the start.
A. Carefully read the article and critically evaluate the validity of the author's conclusions. Along with other issues, you might want to consider the following:
- Does the data he cites support his conclusion?
- Are there factors he is not taking into account that might influence the interpretation of the data he cites?
- Get on the internet and find out who the author is - what are his qualifications with respect to interpreting and summarizing psychological data?
- Log in to PSYCHINFO and try to find the articles he mentions in his essay. Can you find them? Is he accurately reporting the results?
B. Write a "letter to the editor" responding to this essay. Don't be afraid to vent a little emotion and/or be creative with your language. But, the focus of the letter should be noting any problems you had with Mr. Noer's conclusions. This should be relatively short (~1 page). Imagine it would really be published in Forbes.
Submit your completed letter (one per group) to Blackboard. Click on the menu button labelled "Assignments" and carefully read the instructions. Then click where indicated and submit your assignment.