What Questions Can Help One Decide?

Students sometimes wonder what questions they should be asking about a text.  Tell them about Five W’s and H questions. Invite students to adapt questions to the text, but be sure to ask at least one for each of the six words.

Who wrote this text?  Who seems to be the audience?

What are the author’s credentials, experience, and education?  What does author seem to believe about the audience? What seems to be the message of this text?  What kinds of arguments, evidence and or appeals does the author use to get his/her point across? What bias seems present in this text?

When was text published?  Has something on this topic been published more recently or by a more credible writer?  When in the reading did the author draw me in or turn me off?

Where was this text published?  Is the publisher/source reputable?

Why should this text be believed? Why would this text be worth reading or sharing
with others?

How does the author use language, organization, sources to develop the topic, create the characters, make this text engaging, entertaining, believable?

How can I use similar strategies to make my own writing better?