Author: Who is the author? What is the author’s background? With which organisations or institutions is the author associated?
Context: When was the text produced? For what purpose was the text produced? To what broader social. economic, or cultural debates does the text contribute?
Values: What values and assumptions are present in the text? How is language used to convey values? To what effect?
Though your response must address these three areas, you should produce a submission that also adheres to an essay structure—introduction, body, conclusion– and contains an argument. This argument is likely to be tied to your assessment of the values embedded in the text.
Structure While your submission must consider the author, context, and values of the text, you needn’t give these areas equal weighting in the submission. As noted above, you should include a clear and concise introduction. In the introduction or first paragraph, you may be able to address the author and context succinctly.
The majority of your submission should be a close analysis of the values and argument of chosen text. To help construct your own independent argument, you may want to consider what kinds of evidence are used in the text and whether these are persuasive. Does the text achieve its aims? What are strengths or weaknesses of how those values are communicated? What are the key assumptions in the text.
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