Evaluating an author’s argument

• What is the author’s central claim or thesis?
• How does the author support this claim—with relevant and sufficient evidence or with just a few anecdotes or emotional examples?
• Are statistics consistent with those you encounter in other sources? Have they been used fairly? Does the author explain where the statistics come from? (It is possible to “lie” with statistics by using them selectively or by omitting mathematical details.)
• Are any of the author’s assumptions questionable?
• Does the author consider opposing arguments and refute them persuasively?
• Does the author fall prey to any logical fallacies ?