“They misunderestimated me.”

- said George W. Bush in Bentonville, Ark., on Nov. 6, 2000.   ¶  Today’s lesson was on evaluating and determining the degree of bias in persuasive and informative writing. While my personal bias is evidenced by the title I chose for this post, here is the actual example used in my teaching materials for the section entitled, “What’s Left Out IS Significant”:  ¶   George W. Bush: graduated from Andover Prepatory School, attended and graduated from Yale, attended and graduated from Harvard Business School, was CEO of three companies, was the Governor of Texas, and is now a two-term President.  ¶   What was left out?  ¶   George W. Bush: was a “C” student at Andover, was admitted into Yale because his father was a Yale graduate, was admitted into Harvard with a “C+” average from Yale?, had all of his companies fail, and was elected to his gubernatorial seat by one of the smallest margins in history.  ¶

Anytime an author describes a person or position where opposing points of view are possible without mentioning – or just barely acknowledging – the opposition, your critical antennae should go up. The writer’s purpose may be informative, but you, the reader, are still not getting the whole story.

-Laraine Flemming, Reading for Thinking

…something to keep in mind the next time you read anything about George W. Bush.