Critique of reading task #3

The authors talk about the welfare benefits and the safety net programs of marriage and cohabitation and the differences between them. The authors state a clear topic sentence in each paragraph and they provide graphs and surveys to support their ideas. They also use other professors’ statement to support their thoughts such as professors Bumpass and Lu have found that “cohabitation increased dramatically between 1987 and 1995 using nationally representative data” (Booth and Crouter, 2002, p.194). The authors’ facts are believable because they state the results from the surveys. The text is well- organized, clear and easy to read. For example, one of the section the authors use the listing method to organize their texts. The text of the book can help me understand the subject. For example I can easily recognize the benefit levels and the program rules for marriage and cohabitation. In conclusion, I agree what the authors say about the difference between marriage and cohabitation of the welfare benefits that “welfare benefits provide a disincentive to marry” (Booth and Crouter, 2002, p.194). Welfare provides more benefits to single mothers than married parents.