Evaluating and critically analysing texts (purpose, audience, bias, reliability)
What this domain tests
Critical analysis asks why a text was made, who it targets, how it persuades, and how far it can be trusted. You may be asked to identify purpose, tone, bias, fact versus opinion, the strength of evidence, or the reliability of a source.
Core rules
- Purpose is a verb: inform, explain, persuade, instruct, warn, entertain, sell. A text can have a main purpose and a secondary one.
- Audience leaves fingerprints: jargon, assumed knowledge, formality, images, and what is left unexplained.
- Bias is selection and emphasis, not necessarily falsehood. Ask what is omitted, what is repeated, and which words carry judgement.
- Judge reliability by author expertise, evidence, date, publication process, and independent corroboration.
- Separate fact (checkable), opinion (a judgement), and prediction (a claim about the future).
Worked example
A fitness app’s blog publishes a review calling its own app “the most effective training tool available” and quoting three enthusiastic users. Question: How reliable is this review for comparing fitness apps? Reasoning: The author has a commercial interest, the evidence is anecdotal, and no independent testing or comparison is described. It is useful for learning the app’s features and user impressions. It is weak evidence for a comparative claim such as “most effective”. Answer: limited reliability for comparison.
Traps
Equating bias with lying; assuming a professional-looking design or a doctor’s quotation guarantees reliability; confusing an angry tone with a persuasive purpose; accepting a testimonial as representative data; ignoring the publication date or the author’s connection to the product.