Critical Reading
When we read critically we are mainly trying to answer a few major question: Does the author do what they say they are going to do? and Do they do it fairly or correctly? We would like to think that every person who writes an article, or argument, does so with an open mind and not with a predisposed bias. However, think about your own point of view when you write—it’s hard sometimes not to be biased just a bit because of numerous factors such as age, gender, culture, religion, environment…etc.
So why should authors of articles that you review and possibly use in your own writing be any different? After all, you want your own writing to reflect information from sources that are trust worthy and reliable—right? Well this is the first step to making sure that is in fact the case. Remember…just because someone is an expert doesn’t mean that everything they say should be taken as the gospel. Being an expert is good-but not if they are also biased on an issue and may be slanting their information a bit to further that bias.
How do we do it?
Reading critically is a way of dissecting another persons writing. It involves several stages. Before reading the article, learn what you can about it by previewing—looking at other than the writing and see what you can learn. Next you might want to do a fast skim for your first read. The next reading starts getting into details and specifics. Then rereading to capture meaning and substance followed by or in conjunction with writing about what you have read. Each of these will be discussed further to help guide you in critical reading principles.
Previewing a work
Begin by looking at who wrote it? What do we know about the author? Is there anything in their background that might indicate a bias or that they can be trusted. Educational and professional work background as well as teaching or relevant experience?
Where was it published? The type of publication can tell us much about the writer’s position. Questions such as: Conservative or liberal medium? Journal or popular magazine? What is the audience of the publication? It is a specific or general audience? Male/female audience?
What is the title?
There are times when titles can also give away information that tells us about the writer’s stance on a topic. A simple connotation or denotation by word choice or inference can easily set the stage for what is to come.
Context
The conditions by which it was written. This covers a broad bit in terms of perspective dealing with the time period, location, political climate, cultural situation…etc. When there is an issue or topic is our society, often times these factor into a writers work and can influence the direction or tone of the article.
First Reading
Do a fast read, or skimming. Look for the thesis. But do not get hung up in the details and specifics at this point. See what you can pick up without trying too hard. This is the kind of “trying it on for size” review where you can get a feeling if the article is going to work for you or not depending on the type of research you are doing.
Second or Active Reading
It’s time to get involved with the work. With this level we will start to interact with the text. We begin to underline/highlight passages as well as marking up or making annotations. Focus on important things such as key points and make brief notes or questions. Your purpose in reading will drive the things you look for. You might be examining an argument or just reviewing the forms of evidence used in the writing. Either way, the marking up or use of annotations will really help the next stage where you will write about what you have read. By the time you complete this read and marking, you should have the thesis and major article points established.
Writing about what we have read
Generally there are two techniques used in critical reading and they are summarizing and paraphrasing. Summarizing is simply the act of reducing what you have read into a small manageable amount that conveys the general meaning of what has been read in much less quantity. A paraphrase is simply a restatement in your own words what the authors have said in just about the same amount of words. These two concepts help with reading comprehension as well as using information in your own writing.
In summarizing you can add strength to your own argument by adding evidence, give authority or credibility to your voice as well as help build new ideas or new directions for a particular issue.
In paraphrasing the main idea is to help yourself to understand by restating in your own words. It makes it easier to understand what the writer is doing or trying to accomplish. It can also help other readers understand the why something might be of value if restated in your own words.
Don’t forget that BOTH of these methods required citing and in text citations! They are just like a direct quote in that the material still belongs to the originator of the information. Regardless if you are summarizing it or rewording it—the idea or concept still belongs to them.
Critical Summary
A critical summary is when you summarize a work but also include your own ideas. This is often accomplished when writing your own argument and using a source within that argument. You also may discuss the strong and weak points of the authors work as a way to show that you understand both the strengths as well as the weaknesses. There are some preliminary ideas or strategies in writing a critical summary which may include the following steps.
- Basic background information: author-place of publication…etc. Look at these areas and see if there is anything that needs to be addressed as a potential conflict.
- Discuss the major point(s) author makes. As part of the summary, you will be addressing each point that the author makes. Here would be a good time to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each major point based upon the evidence used.
- Show an example of the evidence being drawn upon. Examine the quality of the evidence. Is it credible? Relevant? Timely? Does it do what the author suggests it is suppose to do?
- Assessment comments, analysis or questions you have about the information. This will be your overall view of the article and its effectiveness based upon your findings.
- Connect your argument to the summary of this work and then return to your own work.
Checklist for Critical Reading:
- Perform the preview stage keeping in mind not to get bogged down with specifics at this point. You are going for that general overview look.
- On readings, keep reviewing until you understand what the thesis is and the major points of the article.
- Draft a summary. Keep it short-start with a paragraph or two of the thesis and major points.
- Review summary for completeness—ensure all major points stated.
- Check for areas that lead to questions due to incompleteness whether on your part or the authors. Did you get all of the article or did the author miss some important parts related to the issue?
- Can you use your summary for your own work?
- Who is the intended audience the author is looking to? Understanding who the work is directed at may help with your review—take the time to look at the intended audience and whether or not they would be receptive to this work.
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- CRITICAL READING AND THINKING Heather Hopkins Bowers