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Critical reading guide

Vak

Critical Thinking (PSY2023)

19 Documenten
Studenten deelden 19 documenten in dit vak
Studiejaar: 2016/2017
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Maastricht University

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A Guide to Critical Reading1 What is critical reading? Critical reading is reading actively with the goals of identifying arguments, weighing evidence, evaluating sources, looking for conflicts of interest, and questioning underlying assumptions. As a reader, you are not a passive participant, but an active constructor of meaning. Exhibiting an inquisitive, "critical" attitude towards what you read will make anything you read richer and more useful to you in your classes and your life. This guide is designed to help you to understand and engage this active reading process more effectively so that you can become a better critical reader. Strategies for Reading More Critically Although you probably already read critically in some respects, here are some things you can do when you read a text to improve your critical reading skills. Most successful critical readers employ some combination of the following strategies: Previewing Annotating and Summarizing Analyzing Responding First Reading: Previewing The first time you read a text, skim it quickly for its main ideas. Pay attention to the introduction, the opening sentences of paragraphs, and section headings, if there are any. Previewing the text in this way gets you off to a good start when you have to read critically. Previewing a text means gathering as much information about the text as you can before you actually read it. You can ask yourself the following questions: What is my Purpose for Reading? If you are being asked to summarize a particular piece of writing, you will want to look for the thesis and main points. Are you being asked to respond to a piece? If so, you may want to be conscious of what you already know about the topic and how you arrived at that opinion. What can the Title Tell Me about the Text? Before you read, look at the title of the text. What clues does it give you about the piece of writing? It may reveal the author's stance, or make a claim the piece will try to support. Good writers usually try to make their titles do work to help readers make meaning of the text from the reader's first glance at it. 1 Adapted from the University of California at Berkeley “Teaching Resource Center” gsi.berkeley/teachingguide/reading/social-sciences.html, the Colorado State University “Writing@CSU Guide” writing.colostate/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=31 and the University of North Carolina Writing Center: writingcenter.unc/handouts/ 2 How is the Text Structured? Sometimes the structure of a piece can give you important clues to its meaning. Be sure to read all section headings carefully. Also, reading the opening sentences of paragraphs should give you a good idea of the main ideas contained in the piece. Second Reading: Annotating and Summarizing The second reading includes annotating and summarizing the evidence in support of the argument. It should be a slow, meditative read, and you should have your pencil in your hand so you can annotate the text. Taking time to annotate your text during the second reading may be the most important strategy to master if you want to become a critical reader. Annotating is an important skill to employ if you want to read critically. Successful critical readers read with a pencil in their hand, making notes in the text as they read. Instead of reading passively, they create an active relationship with what they are reading by "talking back" to the text in its margins. You may want to make the following annotations as you read: Mark the Thesis and Main Points of the Piece Mark Key Terms and Unfamiliar Words Underline Important Ideas and Memorable Images Write Your Questions and/or Comments in the Margins of the Piece Write any Personal Experience Related to the Piece Mark Confusing Parts of the Piece, or Sections that Warrant a Reread Underline the Sources, if any, the Author has Used Mark the thesis and main points of the piece. The thesis is the main idea or claim of the text, and relates to the author's purpose for writing. Sometimes the thesis is not explicitly stated, but is implied in the text, but you should still be able to paraphrase an overall idea the author is interested in exploring in the text. The thesis can be thought of as a promise the writer makes to the reader that the rest of the essay attempts to fulfill. The main points are the major subtopics, or sub-ideas the author wants to explore. Main points make up the body of the text, and are often signaled by major divisions in the structure of the text. Marking the thesis and main points will help you understand the overall idea of the text, and the way the author has chosen to develop her or his thesis through the main points s/he has chosen. Summarizing the text you've read is a valuable way to check your understanding of the text. When you summarize, you should be able to find and write down the thesis and main points of the text. Third Reading: Analyzing and Reviewing Analyzing a text means breaking it down into its parts to find out how these parts relate to one another. Being aware of the functions of various parts of a piece of writing and their relationship to one another and the overall piece can help you better understand a text's meaning. To analyze a text, you can look at the following things: 4 Once again, as you get used to reading critically, you will be able to discern between texts that make effective use of credible evidence in developing and supporting arguments, and those that do not. You can use this skill to improve your own ability to effectively select and employ evidence in your own academic writing. Assumptions Consider any assumptions the author is making. Assumptions may be unstated in the piece of writing you are assessing, but the writer may be basing her or his thesis on them. What does the author have to believe is true before the rest of her or his essay makes sense? Example: "[I]f a college recruiter argues that the school is superior to most others because its ratio of students to teachers is low, the unstated assumptions are (1) that students there will get more attention, and (2) that more attention results in a better education" (Crusius and Channell, The Aims of Argument, Mayfield Publishing Co., 1995). Sources If an author uses outside sources to back up what s/he is saying, analyzing those sources is an important critical reading activity. Not all sources are created equal. There are at least three criteria to keep in mind when you are evaluating a source: Is the Source Relevant? Is the Source Credible? Is the Source Current? Author Bias Taking a close look at the author's bias can tell you a lot about a text. Ask yourself what experiences in the author's background may have led him or her to hold the position s/he does. What does s/he hope to gain from taking this position? How does the author's position stand up in comparison to other positions on the issue? Knowing where the author is "coming from" can help you to more easily make meaning from a text. Fourth Step: Responding Responding to what you read is an important step in understanding what you read. You can respond in writing, or by talking about what you've read to others. One way to make sure you have understood a piece of writing is to write a response to it. It may be beneficial to first write a summary of the text, covering the thesis and main points in an unbiased way. Pretend you are reporting on the "facts" of the piece to a friend who has not read it, the point being to keep your own opinion out of the summary. Once you have summarized the author's ideas objectively, you can respond to them in your writer's notebook. You can agree or disagree with the text, interpret it, or analyze it. Working with your reading of the text by responding in writing is a good way to read critically.

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Critical reading guide

Vak: Critical Thinking (PSY2023)

19 Documenten
Studenten deelden 19 documenten in dit vak

Universiteit: Maastricht University

Was dit document nuttig?
A Guide to Critical Reading1
What is critical reading?
Critical reading is reading actively with the goals of identifying arguments, weighing evidence, evaluating
sources, looking for conflicts of interest, and questioning underlying assumptions. As a reader, you are not a
passive participant, but an active constructor of meaning. Exhibiting an inquisitive, "critical" attitude towards
what you read will make anything you read richer and more useful to you in your classes and your life. This
guide is designed to help you to understand and engage this active reading process more effectively so that
you can become a better critical reader.
Strategies for Reading More Critically
Although you probably already read critically in some respects, here are some things you can do when you
read a text to improve your critical reading skills.
Most successful critical readers employ some combination of the following strategies:
x Previewing
x Annotating and Summarizing
x Analyzing
x Responding
First Reading: Previewing
The first time you read a text, skim it quickly for its main ideas. Pay attention to the introduction, the open-
ing sentences of paragraphs, and section headings, if there are any. Previewing the text in this way gets you
off to a good start when you have to read critically.
Previewing a text means gathering as much information about the text as you can before you actually read
it. You can ask yourself the following questions:
What is my Purpose for Reading?
If you are being asked to summarize a particular piece of writing, you will want to look for the thesis and
main points. Are you being asked to respond to a piece? If so, you may want to be conscious of what you
already know about the topic and how you arrived at that opinion.
What can the Title Tell Me about the Text?
Before you read, look at the title of the text. What clues does it give you about the piece of writing? It may
reveal the author's stance, or make a claim the piece will try to support. Good writers usually try to make
their titles do work to help readers make meaning of the text from the reader's first glance at it.
1 Adapted from the University of California at Berkeley “Teaching Resource Center”
http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/reading/social-sciences.html, the Colorado State University “Writing@CSU Guide”
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=31 and the University of North Carolina Writing Center:
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/

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