Assignment: The critics of Islam For the department of English and Media studies. By Prof DR Sohail Ansari Dead line: 2nd March
Objectives: Making students the critical consumer of
information.
Initiating students into the art of academic writing.
This assignment is the
first of the series that analyzes the assertions of the detractors of
Islam and of prophet
(P.B.H.U).
Same but different:
Students will read the article titled ‘The critics of Islam’
four times. Each time they will find different exercises to do. This is the second
time they read.
(The
assignments are in compliance to instruction from higher authorities so that
learning remains uninterrupted despite the closure of university)
ذَلِكَ
بِأنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا اتَّبَعُوا الْبَاطِلَ وَأنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
اتَّبَعُوا الْحَقَّ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ كَذَلِكَ يَضْرِبُ اللَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ
أمْثَالَهُمْ
3. That is because those who disbelieve follow falsehood,
while those who believe follow the truth [sent down] by their Lord. Thus does
Allah set forth for mankind their parables [for their awakening].
Eurocentrism is
the inspiration
Alexis
Heraclides states:
Stemming from
Eurocentrism's innate bias towards Western civilization came the creation of
the concept of the "European Society," which favored the components
(mainly Christianity) of
European civilization and allowed eurocentrists to brand diverging societies
and cultures as "uncivilized."
Critics
of Islam are committed advocate of “The White Man's Burden’’
The rooted belief of the inferiority of non-white and non-Europeans has
given justification for racial discrimination. These all critics of Islam
are committed advocate of “The White Man's
Burden," condoning ‘Western Imperialism’ colonialism, coercion, imposition and the colonial exploitation
of Muslim World as a mission-of-civilization: civilizing the unwilling savages (Muslims of
the world).
These all critics of Islam are committed to promoting the Eurocentric racism inherent to the idea by way
of Development aid or development cooperation the Western
world delivers civilization to the Muslim nations: the savages of the world.
Racialized narratives
The narratives
of these all critics of Islam are even heavily racialized, shaping beauty standards by racializing biological and popular beauty
ideals to suggest that mixture with whiteness is better.
The figurative superiority
resulting from the rise of "European Civilization" and the labels of
"civilized" and "uncivilized" are partly responsible for
eurocentrism's denial of Islamic social evolution, giving these critics of
Islam the advantage of dismissal of such ideas regarding Oriental civilizations
through comparisons to the West. The rooted belief of the inferiority of
non-white and non-Europeans has given these critics
of Islam justification for bringing discredit upon
the Islamic world, they, therefore, are unscrupulously eager for
preventing the account of lower-level explanation and account of Islamic cultures and their
social evolution, mainly through eurocentrism's idealist construct, espousing
the notion that the evolution of societies and their progress are dictated by
general tendencies, leading to the Islamic world's evolution becoming more of a
philosophical topic of history instead of historical fact, thus these all
critics of Islam tend to trivialize and marginalize the philosophies,
scientific contributions, cultures, and other additional facets
of the Islamic world.
Only Islam comes under vitriolic scalpel.
Almost all critics of Islam converted from Islam to Christianity
and migrated (immediately before or after conversion) to USA
or any European country and were immediately wrapped up in cocoons of
cotton wool, therefore the criticism of theirs has always been cocooned in humbug. Never known
as writers before conversion, these all critics of Islam
immediately after arriving to foreign lands became as if
by magic writers (those who do not believe in magic say that
writings of
theirs are ghostwritten). Surprisingly
it is only Islam which comes under the vitriolic scalpels
of these magician writers.
Prophet (P.B.U.H) is bête
noire and Jesus is Redeemer
To these
critics of Islam countries with European civilizations are the only civilized
societies and as the western societies favor Christianity as their main
component; therefore, almost all of these critics converted to Christianity
such as Ali Sina, Magdi Allam to name (but) a few
and started speaking of nirvana they had
attained because of conversion and condemning Islam and prophet for
depriving the world of peace.
Critics of Islam are obsequious Zionists
As The Israel lobby or
the Zionist lobby has pervasive influence over U.S and there are many Jews in
positions of influence in Hollywood, in network television, in sports and
entertainment, and in many other areas of American and European public life,
these critics of Islam before long become the avid supporters and political
activists on behalf of Israel; for example, Nonie Darwish founded the pro-Israel web site ‘Arabs for Israel’.
Interestingly, despite this symbiosis,
critics of Islam are
sycophants, groveling to
Jews for wooing and acting like the political toady. They condemn the
anti-Semitism and
identify with Israel’ in
the face of unprecedented violations of international law and human rights
standards by Israeli occupation forces and never even acknowledge the seriousness of Israeli violations of
human rights and international law.
Raheel Raza (born
1949/1950) is a Pakistani-Canadian Muslim critical of "Islamic
extremism" and of what she has called "inequality’’ toward Muslim
women but
never condemns Israel due to Israel’s systematic denial of Palestinian human
rights.
These
critics of Islam are pro-Indian
These critics of Islam
claim to have a rational, enlightened and humanistic outlook
but these critics of Islam endorse Israel as a modern state based on the
right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historical
homeland, but respond to
news indicating the trampling of human rights with impunity in Kashmir after
the abrogation of Article 370 as the "fabricated narrative" and do
not even acknowledge the right of the people of Kashmir
to self-determination in their historical homeland (despite the rights of
latter are supported by United Nations Security Council Resolution 39 resolution unlike the rights of former those are
disputed).
These
critics of Islam are not non-partisan
These critics of Islam
claim to have a rational, enlightened and humanistic outlook
but Tarek
Fatah is a
Pakistani- secular activist he likes, many other secular activists, is the
greatest proponents of secularism in the Pakistan. These all critics of Islam
want to see Pakistan dissociated from spiritual
concerns but never talk of the secularization of Israel and condemn BJP for de-secularization of India.
Disquisition of Faisal Devji
‘Faisal Devji’s
elegantly argued treatise, which explores the idea of Pakistan as an expression
of Zionism, an ideology most commonly associated with the creation of the
country’s closest ideological twin—Israel. Devji’s argument is simple: in order
to understand the enigma represented by Pakistan and Israel we must cease to
assume that either is a ‘nation’ in the conventional sense. Instead, Pakistan
and Israel represent political manifestations of an ideal form of the
Enlightenment state that harks back to an earlier moment in the Enlightenment
when the coming together of peoples was seen to rest on (the fantasy of)
political consent, legitimized by the force of an idea alone. In this sense,
both countries stand apart from the trajectory of nineteenth-century European nationalism,
which judged the nation to be the hallmark of a collective attachment born of
shared blood and soil….. Devji argues what distinguished Pakistan and Israel
from these earlier state forms was the conscious invocation of religion as the
basis of their social contracts…..
The focus of Devji’s
interest is neither Islam in Pakistan, nor indeed Judaism in Israel, after
independence. Instead he is concerned to highlight the nationalist moment when
religion as ‘the empty idea of a national will untrammelled by anything given
outside the idea itself’ was pregnant with radical possibilities (Devji
2013: 47). This is not to say that Devji is indifferent to the trajectory
of ‘religion’ in the unfolding of the social contract in Israel and Pakistan.
As he observes, ‘religion’ as an idea of belonging that holds the ‘nation’
together still endures in one important respect in the life of these two
independent states. For notwithstanding their statehood, both Israel and
Pakistan still determine their nationality by reference neither to shared
territory nor common descent but by the question: ‘who is a Jew and who is a
Muslim’ (p. 48).
These all
critics of Islam deny established realities and say:
·
That
the migration of Indian Muslim to Pakistan should not be seen to rest on
political consent, legitimized by the force of an idea alone.
·
Religion
was not the ‘the empty idea of a national will untrammeled by anything given
outside the idea itself’ for the creation of Pakistan
· Against all evidence on the contrary that Pakistan
was created for entirely
economic reasons and religion simply merely intervened
These secular critics
of Islam never criticize Israel but always Pakistan
These critics of Islam
claim to have a rational, enlightened and humanistic outlook
but these
secular critics of Islam never criticize Israel for the conscious invocation of
religion as the basis of its social contracts and determining
its nationality by the question: who is a
Jew
The Objectives
Resolution is vigorously condemned by these secular critics of Islam because it
simply proclaims that constitution of Pakistan would be modeled on the
divine sovereignty and democratic faith of Islam.
Additional reading:
Citation and Reference
A citation tells the readers where the information
came from. In your writing, you cite or refer to the source of
information. A reference gives the readers details about the source
so that they have a good understanding of what kind of source it is and could
find the source themselves if necessary.
Citation STYLE
refers to the formal style used for
the citations. Referencing is usually used to refer to the list
at the end of the document (which describes the full source for
the citation).
Additional reading:
Importance of References
References
or works cited are always included in research articles. References or works
cited are the articles and books that the authors drew upon to advance his
arguments and to support their discussion.
When writing academic document, authors must
include in-text citations whenever they refer to, summarize,
paraphrase, or quote from another source. ...
Authors
can “cite the citation" in case they'll have less time but better they
hunt down and read the primary articles or the
original research article.
In an academic paper the citation must be to
the original paper.
The one case where one cites a review
article if he wants reader to know that he finds that review helpful and how
so.
The article
titled The critics of Islam is marred by
the absence of references or works cited
The author
claims that he finds no work for citation; therefore, he writes to different
research scholars and says that he wants to publish his research that has no
reference.
Below is the
response from researchers.
Responses:
Response 1
‘In principle there is nothing wrong with that.
But, it is difficult to believe that there is
nothing published whatsoever on anything that forms the basis of one’s research
concerns. The problem must have some origin and there is probably literature
that forms the basis for one’s work; for example indicating that one’s problem
is a gap in knowledge. So even if it would theoretically be possible to publish
a paper with no references, it seems so unlikely that the problem should be
sought elsewhere. There is exactly
one published paper in the field of math with no references
whatsoever.
Mark H. Overmars and
Emo Welzl. The complexity of cutting paper. Proc. [1st] Symposium on
Computational Geometry, 316–321, 1985.
Response 2
‘Even if Newton was going to write a research
article related to "law of universal gravitation" would have found
related work. Related work gives a broader view of research topic e.g, if
newton was going to write article related to "law of universal
gravitation" might have given a reference to Aristotle who believed that
there is no effect or motion without a cause. Everybody can find
material as knowledge is so advanced you must find related work. Or might be
you are genius inventing new field’. anon.
Response 3
‘References are used when we are going to
extend the work which has already been done or we want to do something related
to that. In your case if you have no references, then you can go for that. Meirion Hughes
Response 4
Yes, this is
one of those things that is not technically against any rules, but the
circumstances giving rise to it are so vanishingly unlikely that one is
unlikely to ever truly have literally nothing they can cite. – Batman Curve
Response 5:
The fact is
there is no related work that has been done on the problem one is solving and
therefore there is no paper which you can cite as a starting point for your
work. So there can be no need to cite any particular papers for that. But as this
is near impossible so it's not acceptable to have a paper with no references.
One of the first things a referee looks for is whether the paper shows proper
awareness of the current state of the art in the field and references previous,
recent work properly.
Response 6:
let's see it
another way: if one claims to have solved a problem that no one else has
solved, worked on, or more generally discussed. And one did so using only
elementary techniques, which have been known for so long that they do not
require citation. Stated like that, it
may sound like either one is a genius opening an entire new field, or one is
working on a useless problem that nobody cares about’. xdumaine
Response 7:
Though there's no any hard rule
against having a paper with no reference, it seems pretty weird. Note that
references are not only for citing other people's results which one has used,
but more broadly to recognize other's contribution. For example:
·
Has the problem never been discussed
before? Who first realized it was a problem, stated it, formalized it?
·
One probably put the problem into the
broader context of one’s field. This sure requires citations on recent work on
related problems, even if nothing was ever done on the one problem one is addressing.
Response 8:
·
It is almost impossible
to say that your work is entirely new. How you can know this? You must read
survey papers? So you may find much to cite.
·
If no one has expressed
a need for someone to do what you are doing? If not? Why should one care about your work?
Response 9:
References
or works cited are always included in research articles. References or works
cited are the articles and books that the authors drew upon to advance his arguments
and to support their discussion. With no citation of reference or works authors
has nothing to draw upon, and hence cannot advance his arguments, thus
discussion remains unsupported. smci
Response 10:
Any notion that work and ideas
are unconnected or non-derived from any previous research endeavor is delusion.
Research without reference is contradicted by reality and rational argument.
Martin Argerami
Response 11:
The main point
of the references is to give context to your work.
When you reference a recent paper (which in
turn references other papers), you are including that full body of knowledge of
hundreds of years of work.
You must be willing to dedicate
thousands of pages to reinvent and reestablish everything your work is based
upon. Marste
Question:
Find out the common thread that runs through responses.
Writer thinks
of himself as the original researcher or thinker as he has not cited any
reference. He writes to different scholars to tell that no reference means
originality.
Below is the response of different scholars
defining originality?
First response:
Researched subject are to come to be researched without any influence or
inspiration from something that exists. That is originality. F'x
Second response:
But "All
legitimate areas of inquiry are already fields with published literature"
It cannot be true or should be true, even if it is almost
always true that work does not fall within an established field.
Third response:
Work needs to be
self-contained. That means idea needs to be built, first and foremost, on a
solid foundation that is called originality. You reference other people's work
to establish that foundation. With one sentence (and reference) you can
establish all the knowledge that one’s work AND paper is based on but with no
reference your paper has no basis. Zackkenyon
Question:
Find out the common thread that runs through
responses.
Additional reading:
Research gap
Research gap specifically refers to the scientific process of
solving the issue or answering the research question which has
yet to be carried out.
Indiana Wesleyan
University
knowledge gap and Research gap
I actually
perceive these as two different things. The knowledge gap is that which
needs to be filled by new research either because we know little or
nothing. The research gap to me (and I am an applied researcher) is the
gap between the discovery of knowledge relevant to practice and the time it
takes to put that information into practice in the field.
Indian Institute
of Technology Indore
Research gap is a
problem which has not been addressed so far in a particular field.
if you want a practical suggestion for helping
to identify the research gap, try a word search for the term 'further research'
in existing articles, starting with any research reviews, ideally systematic
reviews.
Question:
What knowledge
gap is that which needs to be filled by this article?
Question:
Response 9 states: ‘If no one has expressed a need for someone to do what you
are doing? If not? Why should one care about your work? How an
author is most likely to respond to response 9 as he is committed to fill the
knowledge gap.
Additional reading:
A REVIEW PAPER?
The purpose of a review paper is to
succinctly review recent progress in a particular topic.
Overall, the paper summarizes the current state of knowledge of the topic. It
creates an understanding of the topic for the reader by discussing the findings
presented in recent research papers.
Research articles
Sometimes referred to as empirical or primary sources, report on original
research. They will typically include sections such as an introduction,
methods, results, and discussion.
Review articles, sometimes called literature reviews or secondary sources, synthesize or
analyze research already conducted in primary sources. They generally summarize
the current state of research on a given topic.
A literature
review is a type of critical review in which you
analyze and evaluate many sources on a specific topic. ... You will probably
include less detailed information on each source than you would in a critical review of a single book or article.
A critical review is the
summarization and evaluation of the ideas
and information in an article. ... Reviewing critically means
thinking carefully and clearly and taking into consideration both the strengths
and weaknesses in the material under review.
Systematic Review
|
Definition
|
High-level
overview of primary research on a focused question that identifies, selects,
synthesizes, and appraises all high quality research evidence relevant to
that question
|
Question:
The author
claim to find none of the work so he claims to do primary research himself,
therefore what his paper or article can be called?
Additional reading:
What is the
difference between a point, a claim, and an argument in academic reading terms
and in academic writing terms?
An argument to be effective contains a thesis,
supporting claims, and evidence to support those claims. The thesis is the
writer’s central argument, or claim, and the supporting claims
reinforce the validity of the thesis. [Jennifer Janechek, Home]
·
A writer’s thesis
articulates the direction he or she will take with his or her argument.
EXAMPLE:
Thesis (the Central Claim): Smoking should be
banned on campus because of its health and environmental repercussions.
·
Main
points (which function as support for the author’s central
claim or thesis:
o Smoking should be banned on campus.
§ Because of health repercussions
§ Because of environmental repercussions
·
Sub-claims (support
for main points):
o Smoking should be banned on campus.
§ Because of health repercussions
o Smoking affects students with allergies.
o Smoking affects students with asthma.
§ Because of environmental repercussions
o The cigarette butts are harming animals on campus.
o The cigarette ash is killing the grass in the campus green
areas.
·
Evidences (support
for sub-claims):
Smoking affects students with allergies.
·
(Cite a poll taken on
campus proving that students with allergies have suffered more when walking
through smoky areas.)
Smoking affects students with asthma.
·
(Cite a report
released by Student Health Services connecting the increase of on-campus asthma
attacks to on-campus smoking.)
One
Example from the article is done for you:
Almost
all critics of Islam converted from Islam to Christianity….because of being
succumbed to the allure of financial enticements (implied thesis)
·
Thesis (the
Central Claim): critics have converted before or after migration.
·
Main
points (which function as support for the author’s central
claim or thesis: critics have converted before or after migration.
Sub-claims (support
for main points):
§ Conversion and migration is because of financial enticements
Question: pick lines from the article for thesis,
main points and sub claims.
Difference between a point and a claim
A point is a single observation or premise. Example: There
are two possible outcomes for the soul after death, nothingness or a pleasant
afterlife. (A statement that is not the main point of the Phaedo, but needs
some explanation.)
A claim is a series of points that culminate into a larger
idea. Example: If there are only two outcomes for the soul after death and
I only need to fear suffering, I do not need to fear death because if there is
only nothingness I won’t exist to know it or suffer, and if there is a pleasant
afterlife I will not suffer. (Uses if…then format, other formats are possible.)
Additional reading:
The
difference between argument and statement
Argument is a fact or statement used to
support a proposition; a reason
Statement is a declaration or remark.
Proposition
A statement or
assertion that expresses a judgement or opinion.
Flaw in article:
The
author makes many claims but develop none into the larger idea for example he
says:
‘Almost all critics of Islam converted from
Islam to Christianity’
‘And migrated (immediately before or after conversion)
to USA or any European country’
What an author
must do
The author must show proper awareness of the research or studies looking
into conversion and migration and then subsequent wrapping up and reference
previous, and recent work properly.
The author insists to
develop without any reference
The author,
despite the responses from different scholars, insists to develop his claims
into the larger ideas without any reference because he claims to find no work for citation.
What an author
must do if he is doing primary research
The author for example
says:
‘These all
critics of Islam immediately after arriving to foreign lands became as if
by magic writers (those who do not believe in magic say that
writings of
theirs are ghostwritten).
If the author claims to find none of the work so he must do primary
research himself and provides references from the books of the critics of Islam
to prove what he says.
If Writings are accused to be ghosted
written; then the author must prove that accusations of ghost
writings are either right or wrong.
For proving or disproving the accusation of
ghosting writing, a writer has to find a great similarity between style and
dictation etc found in the writing of these critics of Islam with those found
in the writing of other writers, in case he succeeds so he can not only prove
that writings are ghostwritten but also establish the authorship. He must
however settle the questions in a way questions surrounding the authorship of
the Fourth Gospel are settled.
Evaluation is possible in other way:
The author can evaluate allegations in another
possible way, if he in case fails to find the actual identity of the author:
He is to select
any piece of writing authored by these critics of Islam before becoming the
critics of Islam to highlight the proficiency of English as demonstrated in it
and then compare it with excerpts of books authored by them to highlight the
proficiency that is demonstrated in them by these
critics of Islam to underscore that one man can or cannot be the author of
these two similarly or differently written works.
Sampling
error is the villain
However
even the author proves through juxtaposition of texts, he remains open to
charges of selective selection; therefore the author must be careful to know
that sampling error is the villain. It can sneak into idyllic
scene and sew chaos and doubt, to the point that it undermines the credibility
of entire outcome.
Question:
What understanding
an author requires that drive the range of sample size decisions he needs to
make. What size of sample can be the right size crucial in finding the
reliable results?
Analysis of analysis
The analysis
of two pieces of written work juxtaposed for comparison needs as well the
analysis. The author is a human being and can have the flawed or biased
analysis downplaying something important or exaggerating something unimportant.
It is quite
possible that author may not be proficient enough to pick the similarity or
difference of language as exhibited in two pieces of writings.
Question:
What an author should do
for the analysis of analysis.
Question:
It is possible that critics of Islam have not
written anything before conversion so in case what the author is to do?
The author owes an answer
What will be the most
likely respond of the author that he ‘is working on a useless topic that nobody cares about?’
Additional reading
These 2 types of data
Primary Data and secondary Data
Primary data is the type of data that is
collected by researchers directly from main sources while secondary data is the
data that has already been collected through primary sources and made readily
available for researchers to use for their own research.
Question:
If Primary data collected by the author fails to become secondary data, then what it
means?
Primary data sources
include; Surveys, observations, experiments, questionnaires, focus groups,
interviews, etc., while secondary data sources include; books,
journals, articles, web pages, blogs, trade
publications, government statistics, journals etc.
Question:
The author has selected text/lines
from the work authored by the critics of Islam for analysis. This is his
primary or the secondary data?
These are two sources of information in research
Primary Data and secondary Data
Primary Sources
·
Original documents such as diaries, speeches, manuscripts,
letters, interviews, records, eyewitness accounts, autobiographies.
·
Creative works such as poetry, music, video, photography.
·
Surveys,
observations, experiments, questionnaires, focus groups, etc.,
Question:
Suppose the author failed to find any written evidence to
prove or disprove the allegation of ghost writing so how can speeches, interviews, or eyewitness
accounts help him?
Secondary sources
Secondary source describe,
summarize, or discuss information or details originally presented in another
source; meaning the author, in most cases, did not participate in the event.
Significant theories and principles, and summaries of major studies/events as
related to the topic.
Examples of
a secondary source are:
- Publications such as textbooks,
magazine articles, book reviews, commentaries, encyclopedias, almanacs
Locate secondary
resources in NCU Library within the following databases:
- Annual Reviews (scholarly
article reviews)
- Credo Reference (encyclopedias,
dictionaries, handbooks & more)
- Ebook Central (ebooks)
- ProQuest (book reviews,
bibliographies, literature reviews & more )
- SAGE Reference Methods, SAGE
Knowledge & SAGE Navigator (handbooks, encyclopedias, major works,
debates & more)
Question:
‘There is no
intersection between the primary and secondary data sources
but secondary data helps
to generate new insights into existing primary data’ what
kind of secondary data can generate new insights into the primary data of the
author.
…………………………………………………….
Sample critical review - Swinburne University
Critical review task:
Sherry Turkle, a professor of the Social Studies of Technology,
has written extensively about the effects of technology on human relationships.
Read Chapter 1 (Connectivity and its discontents) from her book
Alone Together:
Why we expect more from technology and less from each other.
What evidence does Turkle provide for her main argument that
technology has served to diminish the quality of our relationships?
How persuaded are you by this argument?
Turkle, Sherry (2011).
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New
York: Basic Books (Extract from Chapter 1 - Connectivity and its discontents)
Now read the sample review.
Read the accompanying comments as you go. Is this is a well written review in
your opinion?
(At the beginning of a
review, you should provide all the BIBLIOGRPAHICAL INFORMATION about the text
you are reviewing.)
The last 20 years have seen a revolution in the way we
communicate, all brought about by the quite extraordinary developments that
have occurred in the field of information and communications technologies..
There is no doubt that the way people interact with each other nowadays –
whether in business, education, in one’s personal life – is drastically
different from the way things were done in the not-so-distant pre-digital past.
But have these developments been positive ones? Can we say that human relations
have improved as a result of these changes? I am quite sure that this is not
the case.
Review
These opening sentences give some BACKGROUND to the text that is
being reviewed. They introduce the general SUBJECT area covered in the text
(the rise of digital communication), and also the main ISSUES being considered
(Have these technologies improved our relationships?)
In her study, based on interviews with users of technology
across a wide spectrum of society, Turkle argues that, while it may appear that
people are more in touch with each other, the effect paradoxically of all this
new communication is that people are becoming more socially alienated. “We are
increasingly connected to each other”, she states, “but oddly more alone: in
intimacy, new solitudes” (p. 19). Turkle quotes many stories from her
interviews to illustrate her basic argument. In one worrying case, she
describes
Review
(Once the text has been introduced, the main task is to SUMMARISE
its contents. The first thing you need to do is have a go at outlining the
author’s main ARGUMENT; that is, what is the main point they are seeking to
make in the text.)
the experience of a woman who goes to interview someone she is
interested in employing as a nanny. When the woman arrives at the apartment,
she meets the person’s flatmate who at the time is texting on her BlackBerry.
The woman asks to see the would-be nanny. Rather than get up to knock on this
person’s door – which is only 15 feet away – the flatmate sends her a text to
tell of the woman’s arrival. The woman is shocked– as is Turkle – that the
flatmate would not simply call out to her. The flatmate objects: “Oh no”, she
says. “I would never do that. That would be too intrusive” (p. 5). Part of the
problem, according to Turkle, is that with the various devices we now use to
communicate, we are able to control the contact we have with others, and in
effect to diminish the intimacy of our relationships. We have many ‘friends’,
but fewer genuine friendships, she argues.
Review
(Along with outlining the author’s ARGUMENT, you should also
indicate what type of EVIDENCE is presented in the text to support this
ARGUMENT)
Another major concern of the author is the way that
communications technology has come to overwhelm our lives. Turkle points out
that it used to be the case that we kept computers busy; now the relationships
is reversed, and it is they that keep us busy. This is seen in the growing
phenomenon of multitasking. Turkle quotes a number of examples of this – of a
granddaughter who feels guilty for distractedly doing her emails while skyping
with her sick grandmother; of participants at a conference being focused more
on finessing their own upcoming presentations than paying attention to the
speaker whose session they are in. All this relentless communication, Turkle
suggests, has lead to a perverse dependence on the technology: “whether or not
our devices are in use, without them we feel disconnected, adrift” (p. 16).
(This is a text mainly about ‘concerns’ that the author has
about digital technology. The SUMMARY section of the review has been organised
around this theme of “major concerns”. When you are writing your own summary of
a text you will need to pay attention to how you will STRUCTURE your
understanding of the text.)
Turkle’s argument is an interesting and challenging one, and she
manages to draw on numerous real life stories to vividly illustrate her points.
Many of these stories are familiar ones, and capture well the frustrations and
annoyances many of us can feel when confronted with some of the less impressive
uses of digital communications. Another example she quotes is that of a brother
who received the important, personal news of his sisters’ engagement (to be
married) via an email to a list of friends. The brother explained in interview
that this was surely news that should have been conveyed intimately in a
face-to-face situation, or at least in a phone call. It is cases like these
that drive home Turkle’s main point – that technology increasingly is reducing
our relationships to mere connections: “We would rather text than talk”, she
explains (p 17).
(It is always helpful to bring in some DIRECT QUOTE S from the text
to support your summary. Note that you do not need to provide an (author, date)
reference in a review, only the page no.)
There are some problems however, with Turkle’s argument. One of
these concerns the evidence she uses to support her case. As noted, the main
data used in her study are interviews with people from various walks of life
about their experiences of digital technology. We note however, that virtually
all the stories recounted in the chapter are ones that illustrate some
personally dissatisfying experience. One has the impression that Turkle is only
interested in the negatives of the virtual world, and in this sense the study
seems a biased one. Contrary to Turkle’s view on things, there is an emerging
body of research that suggests that many people are not necessarily using the
online world to supplant their face-to-face relationships, but instead using it
to enhance and supplement these relationships (Pollet 2010).
This sentence signifies the shift from SUMMARISING the text, to
providing some EVALUATION of it. You will notice that this initial EVALUATIVE
comment is a positive one – “Turkle’s argument is interesting and challenging”.
Related to this problem of bias in her study are the limits of
its scope. Turkle is a psychoanalyst, and so in her investigations she chooses
to focus on the personal functions – and dysfunctions – of digital
communications. This is an understandable emphasis. Her background however,
prevents her from considering some of the more interesting social and political
dimensions of the new technologies. The recent experiences in a number of
countries, where social media have played a major role in challenging – if not
overthrowing – repressive governments, suggest that far from bringing about
disconnection between people, these technologies have the capacity to connect
and unite people in ways not previously seen (Shirky 2008)
This sentence clearly indicates a shift to the NEGATIVE side of the
students’ EVALUATION. Note that the first criticism concerns Turkle’s use of
EVIDENCE. You will see that the rest of the review is organised around the
various problems the student has identified in Turkle’s text.
A final shortcoming of the chapter is that it is hard to know
where to go with Turkle’s argument. In expressing her concerns about the
effects these technologies are having on our relationships, Turkle seems to
wish that all these developments had never occurred. This is an unrealistic
position. The new technologies are not going to go away – in fact, one assumes
they will become more and more a part of our lives – and so it seems a slightly
pointless exercise to outline all sorts of reason why life would be better
without them.
When EVALUATING a text, it can be a good move to bring in the
ideas of OTHER WRITERS to support the point you are making. This is often not a
strict requirement, but does serve as evidence of your own wider reading on the
topic. To refer to other works will always go down well with your lecturers.
Another example of this use of OTHER SOURCES is seen at the end of the next
paragraph.
In summary, while Turkle’s book – at least the extract I read –
is an interesting and lively account of life in the digital age, it does offer
a fairly one-sided view of her subject, and fails to recognise the many benefits
that digital culture has brought. One thought I had in writing this review, is
that without these technologies, I would not have had such easy access to
Turkle’s book to read in the first place.
In the CONCLUSION of your review, you need to summarise your overall
response to the text. In this case, the response is overall a NEGATIVE one,
although there is some acknowledgment of the text’s POSITIVE features. You will
notice that more PERSONAL LANGUAGE is present here, with the use of “I” (first
person pronoun). It is usually OK to use more PERSONAL LANGUAGE in review
writing. This is because the chief purpose of a review is to express your own
personal view of the text you have read. The conclusion is often a good place
for some of these more personal reflections.
References
Pollet, TV, Roberts, SGB, Dunbar, R 2011, ‘Use
of Social Network Sites and Instant Messaging Does Not Lead to Increased
Offline Social Network Size, or to Emotionally Close Relationships with Offline
Network Members’, Cyberpsychology, Behaviour, and Social Networking, vol. 00,
pp. 1- 6, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 March 2011 Shirky, C 2008, Here Comes Everybody:
The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Penguin Press, New York.
The REFERENCE section should include any additional sources you
have referred to in the review. Note that you don’t need to include an entry
for the text you are reviewing – this is shown at the beginning of the review.
Note that the overall paragraph structure of this particular review is as
follows:
1. Introduction 2.
Summary – main idea 1 3. Summary – main idea 2 4. Evaluation – positive feature
1 5. Evaluation – negative feature 1 6. Evaluation – negative feature 2 7.
Evaluation – negative feature 3 8. Conclusion
Question:
Do critical review of an article titled ‘Critics of Islam’
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