You are on page 1of 7

Critical reading does not have to be all negative The aim of critical reading is not to find fault, but

to assess the strength of the evidence and the argument. It is just as useful to conclude that a study, or an article, presents very strong evidence and a well-reasoned argument, as it is to identify the studies or articles that are weak. To read critically is to make judgements about how a text is argued. This is a highly reflective skill requiring you to "stand back" and gain some distance from the text you are reading. Critical reading is really critical thinking . It is about bringing a healthy skepticism to any reading which is open to interpretation and evaluation. Thinking critically means asking questions. Instead of accepting at face value what you read or hear, critical thinkers look for evidence and for good reasons before believing something to be true. This is at the heart of what it means to be a scientist, researcher, scholar or professional in any field. Whatever you are studying, critical thinking is the key to learning and to making progress. Don't read looking only or primarily for information Do read looking for ways of thinking about the subject matter Avoid approaching a text by asking "What information can I get out of it?" Ask "How does this text work? How is it argued? How is the evidence (the facts, examples, etc.) used and interpreted? How does the text reach its conclusions?
In its most basic form an argument is a claim that is justified. What makes something an argument is that the claim (or conclusion) is supported by at least one reason. The supporting statements of an argument are called premises. An argument is NOT: a statement of fact (i.e. 26.7% of Australians prefer dark chocolate) an assertion or claim (i.e. Wearing a seatbelt reduces the risk of injury) a prescriptive statement (i.e. The Government should spend more money on healthcare) a conditional statement (i.e. If you drink too much, you will damage your brain) An argument IS: a group of statements of which one is a proposition or claim that is supported by at least one of the other statements (Drinking water daily is good for your health as it cleans out your liver and reduces the level of toxins in your blood).

The skill of critical reading lies in assessing the extent to which authors have

provided adequate justification for the claims they make. This assessment depends partly on what the authors have communicated and partly on other relevant knowledge, experience and inference that you are able to bring into the frame. The skill of critical writing lies in convincing your readers to accept your claims. You achieve this through the effective communication of adequate reasons and evidence for those claims. Critical reading requires you to: evaluate the arguments in the text; distinguish fact from opinion, look at arguments given for and against the various claims be aware of your opinions and assumptions (positive and negative) of the text you are reading and the ideas expressed in it; be aware of the writer's background, assumptions and purposes.

Five Critical Synopsis Questions (Wallace and Wray 2006) A B C D E What is my purpose in reading this? What are the authors trying to do in writing this? What are the authors saying that is relevant to what I want to find out? How convincing is what the authors are saying? What use can I make of this?

Answers to these questions will give you a general understanding of a text and its usefulness for a particular purpose. There are many other questions you need to ask of a text in order to analyse it in detail.

Consider the genre/text type and overall purpose

What kind of publication is this? What is the authors background in the subject? What audience is this text for? What is the writers intended purpose?

Assumptions and beliefs What kind of prior knowledge does the reader need? What assumptions does the author make? What beliefs or values does the writer hold? Are they explicit?

Analyse arguments and claims Is there a clear distinction between fact and opinion? What claims does the author make? Are those claims justified? Is there adequate support for the authors arguments? Is there any evidence of bias in constructing the argument? What conclusions does the author reach? Are conclusions justified based on the evidence and discussion in the text? Does the author pursue the logical implications of his argument?

Recognize intent, attitude, tone and language What attitude does the author adopt towards the material/audience? Is the tone matter of fact, respectful, sarcastic, dismissive, etc.? Does the author appeal to the readers emotions, prejudices or biases?

How does the author use language? Objectively, or in an emotionally charged manner? Look at the language that is used, e.g. active/passive verbs, complex noun phrases, pronouns, modal verbs, idioms and specific vocabulary, etc. Is it always possible to identify participants and processes? (e.g. the use of the active or passive voice)

Look for emphatic words such as it is obvious, definitely and of course. Look for hedges: it is possible, might, it appears that, it is likely. Look for emotional arguments, use of maximisers: completely, absolutely, entirely, or minimisers: only, just, hardly, simply, merely.

There are three vital functions for any professional text description, analysis and evaluation. These are the things you need to do: Describe ... e.g. define clearly what you are talking about, say exactly what is involved, where it takes place, or under what circumstances. Fulfilling this function helps you to introduce a topic. More complex description will become analysis. Analyse ... e.g. examine and explain how parts fit into a whole; give reasons; compare and contrast different elements; show your understanding of relationships. In this way analysis forms the main part of any in-depth study. Evaluate ... e.g. judge the success or failure of something, its implications and/ or value. Evaluations lead us to conclusions or recommendations and are usually found at the end of a piece of academic work, a paper, chapter or other text.

Descriptive writing States what happened States what something is like Gives the story so far States the order in which things happened Says how to do something Explains what a theory says Explains how something works Notes the method used Says when something occurred States the different components

Analytical and evaluative writing Identifies the significance Judge strengths and weaknesses Weighs one piece of information against another Makes reasoned judgments Argues a case according to evidence Shows why something is relevant or suitable Indicates why something will work better than other options Indicates whether something is appropriate or suitable Identifies why the timing is important Weighs up the importance of component parts

States options Lists details Lists in any order States links between items Gives information

Gives reasons for selecting each option Evaluates the relative significance of details Structures information in order of importance Shows relevance of links between pieces of information Draws conclusions (Adapted from Cottrell, 2005)

CRITICAL READING STRATEGIES 1. Previewing: Learning about a text before really reading it. Previewing enables readers to get a sense of what the text is about and how it is organized before reading it closely. This simple strategy includes seeing what you can learn from the headnotes or other introductory material, skimming to get an overview of the content and organization, and identifying the rhetorical situation. 2. Contextualizing: Placing a text in its historical, biographical, and cultural contexts. When you read a text, you read it through the lens of your own experience. Your understanding of the words on the page and their significance is informed by what you have come to know and value from living in a particular time and place. But the texts you read were all written in the past, sometimes in a radically different time and place. To read critically, you need to contextualize, to recognize the differences between your contemporary values and attitudes and those represented in the text.

3. Reflecting on challenges to your beliefs and values: Examining your personal responses. Some of the texts you read might challenge your attitudes, your unconsciously held beliefs, or your positions on current issues. As you

read a text for the first time, mark an X in the margin at each point where you feel a personal challenge to your attitudes, beliefs, or status. Make a brief note in the margin about what you feel or about what in the text created the challenge. Now look again at the places you marked in the text where you felt personally challenged. What patterns do you see?

4. Outlining and summarizing: Identifying the main ideas and restating them in your own words. Outlining and summarizing are especially helpful strategies for understanding the content and structure of a reading selection. Whereas outlining reveals the basic structure of the text, summarizing synopsizes a selection's main argument in brief. Outlining may be part of the annotating process, or it may be done separately (as it is in this class). The key to both outlining and summarizing is being able to distinguish between the main ideas and the supporting ideas and examples. The main ideas form the backbone, the strand that holds the various parts and pieces of the text together. Outlining the main ideas helps you to discover this structure. When you make an outline, don't use the text's exact words. Summarizing begins with outlining, but instead of merely listing the main ideas, a summary recomposes them to form a new text. Whereas outlining depends on a close analysis of each paragraph, summarizing also requires creative synthesis. Putting ideas together again -- in your own words and in a condensed form -- shows how reading critically can lead to deeper understanding of any text.

5. Evaluating an argument: Testing the logic of a text as well as its credibility and emotional impact.

All writers make assertions that they want you to accept as true. As a critical reader, you should not accept anything on face value but to recognize every assertion as an argument that must be carefully evaluated. An argument has two essential parts: a claim and support. The claim asserts an idea, an opinion, a judgment, or a point of view that the writer wants you to accept. The support includes reasons (shared beliefs, assumptions, and values) and evidence (facts, examples, statistics, and authorities) that give readers the basis for accepting the conclusion. When you assess an argument, you are concerned with the process of reasoning as well as its truthfulness (these are not the same thing). At the most basic level, in order for an argument to be acceptable, the support must be appropriate to the claim and the statements must be consistent with one another.

6. Comparing and contrasting related readings: Exploring likenesses and differences between texts to understand them better. Many of the authors we read are concerned with the same issues or questions, but approach how to discuss them in different ways. Fitting a text into an ongoing dialectic helps increase understanding of why an author approached a particular issue or question in the way he or she did.

You might also like