Critically Analyzing Dijkstra's Go To Statement Considered Harmful Recognizing the argument, determining the types of reasoning used, and identifying logical fallacies are important aspects of critically analyzing information. The following paragraphs provide a critical analysis of Edsger Dijkstra's famous letter, “Go To Statement Considered Harmful.” Critical Analysis Topic Recognition In 1968, Edsger Dijkstra wrote a letter to the editor of the Journal of the ACM titled “Go To Statement Considered Harmful.” In his letter he insists that the future of programming will require a structural approach. Before this time, programmers' use of the go to statement was conventional. Dijkstra argued that using the go to statement was problematic because it allowed the program to control the progress of the process by arbitrarily jumping from one location to another within the process. The functionality of the go to statement obscures the programmer's ability to analyze and verify the accuracy of a program. IBM's information center describes: "The goto statement causes the program to unconditionally transfer control to the statement associated with the label specified in the goto statement" (IBM, 2004). The IBM information center has a parallel view of the actions of the go to statement presented by Dijkstra, IBM explains: "Because the goto statement can interfere with the normal processing sequence, it makes a program more difficult to read and maintain" (IBM, 2004). The main points of Dijkstra's letter were about the difficulties that arise for a programmer with excessive use of the go to statement. Urges colleagues that the uncontrolled use of the go to statement is harmful to the profession...... middle of paper... statement considered harmful. Communications of the ACM, 11(3), 147-148. Retrieved from http://www.u.arizona.edu/~rubinson/copyright_violations/Go_To_Considered_Harmful.htmlHerms, D. (1984). Retrieved from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~bio125/logic.Giere.pdfIBM. (2004). go to the statement. Retrieved from http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/comphelp/v7v91/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.vacpp7a.doc/lingual/ref/clrc08gsals.htmMaimon, E., Peritz, J. and Yancey, K. (2010). A resource for the writer, a manual for writing and research. (Third ed.). McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. Owl Purdue Online Writing Workshop. (2011, 6 28). Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/659/03/Tribble, D. R. (2005, February). Go to the statement considered malicious: a retrospective [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.david.tribble.com/text/goto.html