| Characteristics of Critical Reading |
| Annotating |
| Annotations record your
reactions to, interpretations of, and questions about a text as you read it.
It especially includes highlighting significant
passages. This is the physical evidence that shows that you have engaged the
author in a conversation and have practiced "participatory reading." Useful
as a study aid when you need to review a large amount of text. As Professor Harvey Kemelman says, "Don't think and write it down. Think on paper."
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| Outlining |
| Outlines are lists of the main
ideas of a text in your own words. This may be a formal outline or an
informal and unnumbered outline. This work helps organize your reflections
on the text. Can you see the purpose and direction of the
essay? What are the main
points? Answers to these questions may be found by examining your
finished outline. This exercise is mostly used when writing an assignment, but can be helpful for your reading. When the text is difficult to read and understand, sometimes an outline helps you discover an essay's intent.
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| Paraphrasing |
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Paraphrases put what you have
read into your own words. Sometimes passages are difficult--paraphrasing
Shakespeare can be really challenging,
for example--and sometimes passages are simply chock full of
information. Paraphrasing allows you to unpack them. Paraphrasing isn't
the "dumbing
down" of texts; it is a demonstration of your understanding of the texts. |
| Summarizing |
| Summaries distill the main
ideas of a text (sometimes from essay to paragraph and sometimes
from paragraph to sentence). It reduces but does
not change the original, and is a restatement in
your own words of a text's main ideas. Summaries occur everywhere in research. A summary can also be known as a precis or an abstract, and you will find them in EBSCO (called "abstracts" and found on the first page of every search result), and in other scholarly collections. Using them is one thing; writing them as a way to understand a text is another and worth mastering.
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| Synthesizing |
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Synthesizing may be described as primarily a writing strategy--and it
is--but to relate or connect various sources that you have read as part of
reflection is a key component of critical reading. I'd go so far as to say
that true synthesis as part of the reading process is how we gain wisdom,
which I would define as the ability to see and make
connections and patterns in the world. The larger you weave this web of
connections, the broader your
wisdom will be. |
Contextualizing |
| Placing what you have read in
its historical, biographical, and/or cultural contexts.
Ask yourself these questions: What do we know about the author? Why did he/she write this piece? When was it written and when was it published? What else was happening at the time? Where was this published and what kind of audience does this publication address? How long is the piece and what sorts of resources were used for support? All of these questions examine the world outside the text but can help give you insight into the text itself. Consider this example from a rather famous text.
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| Reflecting on challenges to your beliefs and values |
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You
should always critically examine the grounds for
your personal responses to a text. If something you read disturbs you, can
you identify why? If something surprises you, is it because you find it
grossly inaccurate, or perhaps contrary to the way you see the world? If
it's
new or different, what can you learn from this?
Have you been wrong all along and can you be mature enough to change your
mind? Or, can you refute what is said and offer convincing counterarguments?
Each of these questions gets at why this step is an important one at this stage in your college career. You are going to be frequently challenged and how you respond to these challenges will go a long way toward shaping your intellectual character. Being challenged may actually turn out to help you articulate more clearly and concretely why you believe what you believe. In other words, critical reading should produce critical thinking.
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| Recognizing figurative language |
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Figurative
language is language that connotes more than denotes. That means reading
figurative language requires one to wonder at implied meanings or multiple
intentions with words, phrases, and images.
Examples of figurative language include metaphors, similes, and symbols. In literature, writers make us of symbolic language to enrich stories and allow readers to see and feel deeper ideas at play in the story. No fiction is mere reporting. This difference can be seen in the way words use denotation or connotation. Assume that good fiction always implies more than it states (connotes), and figurative language is a primary mechanism for understanding and discussing the several layers readers may see. (As Emily Dickinson wrote, "Tell all the truth, but tell it slant--")
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