Reading like a Writer

In a text required for my English class, called Inquiry, there are many methods suggested that are designed to make the audience better readers, and in route, better writers. If you learn to read with a critical mind what others have written, you find what serves to better persuade you and what you find more boring that watching paint dry. Personally, this "becoming a critic" is very difficult for me. I can go by rules, and point out technical errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. But I am not normally one to critique another's work if that is their creative masterpeice, and those are their personal views. This reading, however, provided me with a way to critically read by giving specific questions to ask myself in the "conversation" with the author. The one I find most useful, and have consequentially adhered to for my research paper on the conflict the United States has with Iraq, is "You call this EVIDENCE??" Call me naive or what you will, but it just did nor occur to me that the opinions that people assert in their papers need more support sometimes. (I know, reflecting now, I think Why did I listen to BS?!) I have found that writers may make an assertions and back it up with a statistic, but then they jump to a conclusion that has no bridge to get your there! Who says that  people were devastated by the deployment of our soldiers? Which people? Yes, the soldiers were sent, and maybe it did not directly involve them, these are facts based on what was documented as happening. But this does not mean that the men and women did not willingly go, or that it was devastating! Before, I would have just accepted the author's assumptions in this partcular article I refer to as truth, or at least grounded on some solid foundation. But maybe I should questions more the things I read, or else, who knows what I will find myself believing next time? And God willing, maybe I will remember this while I write and think a little more like the critical reader.