This assignment requires that students identify and evaluate biases. As an exercise in critical thinking, they must identify the arguments and preinterpretations that inform the presentation of information in their textbooks. On an earlier assignment we discussed interpretation and how interpretation is as important as the facts themselves. You examined your own answers and distinguished between facts and interpretations and identified some interpretations as pre-interpretations , that is, interpretations you already formulated before you read the text.
Biases operate in several ways.
First, biases determine what the author feels needs to be explained and what the author doesn't feel needs to be explained. So the author of your text feels that Greek democracy needs to be explained, but doesn't feel that Greek oligarchy needs to be explained. Second, biases determine what information will be included and what information will be excluded. Third, biases determine the hierarchy of knowledge, that is, what facts the author tells you is important and what facts the author tells you are less important. Fourth, biases arise from the world view of the author, that is, you can explain biases by identifying aspects of the author's culture.