Reading Labs and Exemplars
Below I've described two different approaches (one simpler, one more involved) to critically analyzing texts. Each description is followed by an exemplar so you can see what the approach looks like in action.
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Approach #1: Have a conversation with your text by making connections and comments
You analyze a text while you are reading, not after the fact. As you read, make connections and comments and jot them down either on sticky notes (if you are reading paper text) or using the comments feature (if you are reading digital text). What kinds of connections and comments can you make?
1. Text-to-Self
Here you relate your personal experiences, thoughts and feelings to what you are reading.
2. Text-to-Text
Here you note similarities and differences between the text you are reading and other texts you have read, watched or heard.
3. Text-to-World
Here you relate the text to global issues, events and people.
4. General Comments
You may make other comments that don't necessarily fit into the above categories.
These notes can then be used in several ways. They can become material for discussion with a partner or a group. You can look them over and expand on the points that seem most interesting to you. You can do research on any connections you want to explore further.
Exemplar using Approach #1 :
Essay: The history white people need to learn: Anyone who wants "white history month" should learn instead about how whiteness has been used to discriminate
Exemplar: Reading Lab #1
reading_lab_exemplar_1.pdf | |
File Size: | 180 kb |
File Type: |
Approach #2: Reading with the Author and Reading the Author Critically
It is helpful to think of critical reading as involving two modes of reading: reading with the author, or trying to completely understand the author's views and reading the author critically, or questioning the author's views. The first mode is necessary for the second to be possible.
READING WITH THE AUTHOR
Make sure you truly understand the author's views and ideas. Accept the author's ideas temporarily (even if you disagree).
Some techniques to help you do this:
READING THE AUTHOR CRITICALLY
Question and challenge the author.
Some techniques to help you do this:
To figure out your perspective you can ask yourself:
(The above material has been adapted from the following website: http://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/resources/critical-reading-writing/general-reading/two-modes-of-reading/ I recommend checking it out!)
Exemplar using Approach #2 :
Essay:
It is helpful to think of critical reading as involving two modes of reading: reading with the author, or trying to completely understand the author's views and reading the author critically, or questioning the author's views. The first mode is necessary for the second to be possible.
READING WITH THE AUTHOR
Make sure you truly understand the author's views and ideas. Accept the author's ideas temporarily (even if you disagree).
Some techniques to help you do this:
- Predict the thesis of the piece based only on the title.
- Ask yourself what you already know about the topic.
- As you read, highlight any words you don't know and try to guess their meaning from context.
- Highlight the main idea of each paragraph.
- Summarize the main idea of each paragraph in point form in the margin of the text or on a separate piece of paper.
- Put a question mark next to any ideas that are unclear to you. Go back and reread those parts aloud to try to clarify them.
- Use graphic organizers to help you visualize the structure of the piece. For example, if the piece is a comparison of two things you can summarize using a Venn diagram.
READING THE AUTHOR CRITICALLY
Question and challenge the author.
Some techniques to help you do this:
- Evaluate the author's credibility. What is the author's education? job? life experience? Does her area of expertise relate to the topic of the piece?
- Consider the logic of the author's arguments. Make a chart describing what the author wants you to believe and the reasons/supporting evidence the author provides. Evaluate whether the author's arguments and evidence seem credible. Are any of the arguments fallacious? Are any important points left out? Does the author raise objections to her thesis and effectively rebut them?
- Examine how the author uses emotion as a means of persuasion. Does the author try to get you to identify with him? How? Does the author try to evoke respect for her authority? How? Does the author try to get you to care about the topic through anecdotes? Detailed descriptions? Does the author seem to assume you have particular interests and/or values and use them as the basis for argument? How?
- Evaluate how the author's choices about language and style aid her argument. Consider tone, register, connotation and rhetorical devices.
- Try to figure out the ideology that underlies the text. That is, what system of beliefs, values and ideas about the world does the author (perhaps unknowingly) rest on? For example, is the author right wing or left wing? A feminist? An environmentalist? A libertarian?
To figure out your perspective you can ask yourself:
- What does the author want me to believe or agree with?
- What were my beliefs about the subject before I read this?
- What are my beliefs about it now?
- What has the text convinced me of specifically?
- What do I still have doubts about?
- What questions does this text raise for me?
- What insights do I have now that I didn't have before?
(The above material has been adapted from the following website: http://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/resources/critical-reading-writing/general-reading/two-modes-of-reading/ I recommend checking it out!)
Exemplar using Approach #2 :
Essay: