Critical Reading Assignment: Reading, Quoting, Paraphrasing

This assignment focuses on the critical reading of an article, emphasizing the identification of the target audience and purpose. It requires students to quote and cite the main points using signal phrases and APA in-text citations, as well as paraphrase the main points in their own words, properly citing the source. The assignment further involves identifying and paraphrasing supporting points from the article. Finally, the task includes creating an APA reference list entry for the article, ensuring accurate publication information is presented according to APA guidelines. The article explores the emergence of emoji as a new form of language on social media, highlighting its role in conveying emotional nuance in online communication.

Critical Reading Assignment:
Reading, Quoting, and Paraphrasing (10%)
Your Task: Re-read the article assigned by your professor for the Diagnostic
Assignment and respond to the following 7 questions:
1. Identify Audience: Who is the target audience for this article? What evidence can
you find in the article to support your answer?
The target audience of the article is the people who are more online and active
on social media such as Facebook and Instagram. The author talks about the
skull emoji on the social media and his analysis suggests that 92 % of all
people use the online emoji and 1/3rd of them use it daily.
2. Identify Purpose: What is the purpose of this article? What evidence can you find
in the article to support your answer?
The purpose of the article is to examine the emergence of emoji on social
media as a distinct modern language. The author states that people use emoji
more to express their emotions rather than writing a sentence that can hardly
express what he thinks. The article is aimed at drawing the focus on the rising
importance in the lives of people. The author suggests that they are trying to
solve big problems of writing online and without writing anything, the emoji
express the emotions with more accuracy.

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3. Quote and Cite Main Point: Using the table below, respond to 3a), b), and c).
Write each component of the sentence in the appropriate cell.
a. Identify Main Point: Using the author’s original wording, write down the
main point of the article. Remember to use quotations around this
passage.
b. Create a Signal Phrase: Add a phrase to the above passage that
introduces the idea and indicates who the author is.
c. Cite: Add the in-text citation to the passage above.
TYLER SCHNOEBELEN HAS
discovered something
curious
“In essence, we’re watching the birth of
a new type of language. Emoji assist in
a peculiarly modern task: conveying
emotional nuance in short, online
utterances”
(Thompson, 2016).
[signal phrase] [main point] [citation]
Sample:
Studies on comics
show that
“this challenge to combine words and
pictures is fundamentally about
creating an effective design that can
attract readers through multiple
communication models”
(Yu, 2015, p.74).
[signal phrase] [main point] [citation]

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4. Paraphrase and Cite Main Point: Using your own words and sentence structure,
restate the main point of the article.
In a nutshell, we are experiencing the emergence of a new kind of language.
Emoji serves the purpose of carrying out the emotional outflow in a shorter
form without writing anything online (Thompson, 2016).
5. Cite Paraphrased Main Point: Add the in-text citation to the passage above.
6. Identify Support: What support does the author provide for their main point?
Paraphrase and cite these points below:
a. Point 1:
After analyzing millions social media posts, the author found that when
people talk about their phones, it is more likely that they use skull emoji
11 times more.
b. Point 2:
People more use smileys and other emojis than writing LOL and OMG
because emoji prevents miscommunication having added an emotional
tenor to the od copy.
c. Point 3:
In some types of ambience, words are not that appropriate and emoji
pose as a nonverbal denouement. They are not words but more

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meaningful than words.
7. APA Reference: Write down the publication information for the article exactly as it
would appear in a reference list (following APA@Conestoga documentation
style).
Thompson, C. (2016). The emoji is the birth of a new type of language (no joke). Wired, 24, 16.