Critical Reading Assignment (Journal Article and Press Release posted on Blackboard)
Carefully read the article "Taking up Binge Drinking in College: The Influences of Person, Social Group, and Environment" by Weitzman, Nelson, and Wechsler posted on Blackboard (10 pages). Print yourself a copy so that you can mark and make notes on that copy. Also, print and read the Press Release, "Environment, not Education, a Stronger Predictor of Binge Drinking Among College Freshmen"about the same study(See link on BB). Essentially, you are comparing and contrasting the audience, purpose, and content of the article and the press release. Follow the prompts below.
Paragraph 1 - Introduce both the article published in the Journal of Adolescent Health and the press release from the Harvard School of Public Health with correct titles (in quotation marks) and the author's names in a sentence, which notes that there are differences in these two pieces in terms of audience and purpose.Read the abstract for the article, "Taking up Binge Drinking in College: The Influences of Person, Social Group, and Environment." What is the purpose of an abstract? What important information does it tell you? By contrast, why doesn't a news article need an abstract?
Paragraph2 - What is the problem that is being investigated?Who is the audience that is being addressed in the journal article ("Taking up Binge Drinking in College: The Influences of Person, Social Group, and Environment")? How do you know? What kinds of background information does the author provide to help us understand the problem/investigation and why it is important? In the journal article, what is the author's preliminary thesis or statement of purpose (look on p. 27)?
Paragraph 3-How did the researchers obtain the data in this study? What three groups were the students who were the subjects of the study classified into? Identify the groups and give a brief definition of each. What factors encouraged (or made students more likely) to consume alcohol? (Review the press release, "Environment, not Education, a Stronger Predictor of Binge Drinking Among College Freshmen" to help you with this also.)
Paragraph 4 - Contrast the journal article published in the Journal of Adolescent Health ("Taking up Binge Drinking in College: The Influences of Person, Social Group, and Environment") to the press release about the same study. Who is the audience for the press release? How do you know that the two are written for different audiences? (Notice the differences in format, style, vocabulary, and presentation of material/evidence/results.) What is the purpose of the press release as compared to the purpose of the journal article? Conclude with a statement about how a piece of writing changes based on who the audience is and what the purpose is as well as why it is important to understand these differences.