Critical Reading
In ESL003, we learned about and practiced distinguishing fact from opinion and making inferences about what you're reading to prepare you reach a conclusion about the about the text you're reading. This unit in ESL004 will show you how to further interact with content in academic texts by identifying its purpose as well as questioning and testing the author's arguments.
Reading Strategies
You read a lot, probably more than you think. You read for your academic studies. You may read fiction, magazines, and newspapers. But you also read other texts. These may include food labels, instructions, product reviews, grocery lists, maps, driving directions, road signs, and more.
You don't read all these texts in the same way; you read them with different purposes and using different reading strategies and techniques. Some texts can be read quickly if you're reading to get a general overview. But most of the time you'll need to read carefully, skimming to get the basic ideas, and then reading again to absorb the details.
In previous ESL course series, you learned to be an active reader. You learned to activate your prior knowledge by asking what you already know about the topic – and what you want to learn about it. It always helps to approach new information in the context of what we already know. So, before you begin reading, brainstorm what you already know about the topic. List any terms or phrases that come to mind and group them into categories.
Then, after reading a few paragraphs, list any questions that you expect, want, or hope to be answered as you read, and number them according to their importance to you. Finally, after you read the whole text, list what you learned from it. Compare your second and third lists to see what you still want or need to know – and what you learned that you didn't expect. Preview the text. Start by skimming to get the basic ideas; read the title and subtitle, any headings, the first and last paragraphs, and the first sentences of all the other paragraphs. Study any visuals.
Reading with a Critical Eye
Critical readers can interact with the texts they read by carefully listening, writing, conversing, and questioning. They do not sit back and wait for the meaning of a text to come to them; rather, they work hard to create such meaning. Critical readers are not made overnight. Becoming a critical reader will take a lot of practice and patience. Depending on your experiences with reading, becoming a critical reader may require a significant change in your whole understanding of the reading process. The trade-off is worth it, however. By becoming a more critical and active reader, you will also become a better researcher and a better writer.
The meaning of every text is made, not received. Readers need to "push and shove" to create their own unique content for every text they read. It is up to you as a reader to make the pages in front of you "speak" by talking with and against the text, by questioning and expanding it.
Critical reading, then, is a two-way process. As a reader, you are not a consumer of words, waiting patiently for ideas from the printed page or a website to fill your head. Instead, as a critical reader, you need to interact with what you read, asking questions of the author, testing every assertion, fact, or idea, and extending the text by adding your own understanding of the subject and your own personal experiences to your reading.
When reading critically, you should think of yourself as interpreting the text in two different ways: looking through and looking at.
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Looking Through a Text |
Looking At a text |
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Most of the time, you are looking through a text, reading the words, and viewing the images to figure out what the author is saying. You are primarily paying attention to what it says, not how it says it – to the content of each text, not its organization, style, or medium. Your goal is to understand the text's main points while gathering the information it provides. |
Other times, you are looking at a text, exploring why the author or authors made particular choices: genre, organization, style, design, medium, diction, and persuasive appeals. |
Reading critically is a process of toggling back and forth between "looking through" and "looking at" to understand both what a text says and why it says it that way. This back-and-forth process will help you analyze the author's underlying motives and values. You can then better understand the cultural, ethical, and political influences that shaped the writing of the text.
This brief video reviews the main goal of critical reading for college students.
Here are some key points to remember when reading critically:
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No text, however well-written and authoritative, contains its own pre-determined meaning.
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Readers must work hard to create meaning from every text.
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Critical readers interact with the texts they read by questioning them, responding to them, and expanding upon them, usually in writing.
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To create meaning, critical readers use various approaches, strategies, and techniques, which include applying their personal experiences and existing knowledge to the reading process.
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Critical readers actively seek out other texts related to the topic of their investigation.
Now that we recall active reading strategies when approaching academic texts, let's look more closely at previewing and annotating a reading passage.
Sources: Susan Oaks, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-esc-educationalplanning/chapter/critical-reading/
This work is published free of restrictions under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Missy Watson, https://engl110ccny1.commons.gc.cuny.edu/reading-strategies/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.
Pamela Bond, https://pressbooks.pub/powerofthepen/chapter/__unknown__-6/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.
Academic Skills - Newcastle University, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebvYKglPJCo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.