Comm 11 – Advanced College Writing

2nd Semester, AY 2021-2022

Module 2: Critical Reading Strategies (2 weeks)

“Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.”

-Annie Proulx

We have often been told that strong readers are more likely to be good writers. Good reading habits not only
allow you to effectively engage with various types of texts but provide some insight and instruction on
strategies writers take to be able to achieve various purposes. Good reading habits also enhance critical
thinking. These enable you to develop and improve your analytical, evaluative, interpretive, and problem
solving skills. Critical reading allows you to explore creative ways to formulate arguments, interrogate ideas,
and clearly express your own thoughts. It opens up the space for you to add your voice to existing
conversations through your own writings.

Objectives: After studying this unit, you should be able to:

1) develop the habit of critical reading to enhance critical thinking, as well as general and critical writing
skills;
2) analyze the various strategies writers deploy for effective writing of texts for various purposes;
3) apply effective writing strategies observed through the process of critical reading of various texts to your
own writing practice;
4) use critical reading as a launch pad to effective writing.

A. On Critical Reading

When you read, you may be sitting still but your eyes move. When you look at words, their meanings do not
magically reveal their meanings. Whether or not you are conscious of it, you respond to cues in the text to
be able to make sense of what you read.

Critical reading takes the activity to a higher level by making you more conscious of the reading process
itself, thus allowing you to engage more deeply with the text, and reflect more profoundly on what you
already know and the new idea that you acquire. It also helps you generate ideas for your own writing.

You can read more about Critical Reading Skills here:

https://opentextbc.ca/studentsuccess/chapter/critical-reading-skills/
Some Dos and Don'ts for critical reading:
“Free Teaching & Learning Resources for UK Higher Education.” Learnhigher.

Critical Reading requires that you remain active. It also involves continuous questioning before and while
you read and reread. Stephen Wilhoit (2016) provides a summary of things to do in a critical reading:

(Wilhoit 2016, 24)

 (From: Wilhoit 2016, 25-27)

Activity 2.1. Stop and Reflect:

Take time out to think about your reading habits. What difficulties do you encounter when you read? What
did you do to try to solve the difficulties you encountered? What strategies should you adopt to improve
your reading skills?
 B. Reading For Meaning

Introduction:
Every written text presents the opportunity for a conversation and to be able to join the conversation, one
has to know what the conversation is about. In this lesson you will be revisiting outlining, paraphrasing and
précis/summary writing. These are basic writing skills that will aid in the development of reading
comprehension and skills that will serve you well throughout your college life and future profession.

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1) construct a reading outline;
2) summarize a reading;
3) paraphrase a passage.

Writing outlines of your reading texts, summarizing, and paraphrasing are basic academic writing skills.
Constant practice in these will help improve reading comprehension.

Activity 2.2. Video Viewing. Visit these resources for a review of these basic academic writing skills and
do some practice on your own:

The Reading Outline:

https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/what-to-do-after-reading/analyzing/creating-an-outline/
[Video running time - 5:25]

Summarizing: https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/what-to-do-after-reading/summarizing/
[Video running time- 7:28]

Paraphrasing: https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/what-to-do-after-reading/paraphrasing/
[Video running time - 4:24]

Activity 2.3. Assignment (30 points)

1. Read and annotate “Clutter” by William Zinsser.
2. Write a 3-level outline (your choice of topic or sentence outline) of the reading. Note that even in either
case, the thesis statement is always a complete sentence.
3. Write a 1-paragraph summary of the reading.
4. Paraphrase paragraph 2.

Submit your outline, précis, and paraphrase in a single document.

C. Reading for Style (Or Reading like a Writer)

Style, in its finest sense, is the last acquirement of the educated mind; it is also the most useful. It pervades
the whole being. The administrator with a sense of style hates waste; the engineer with a sense of style
economizes his material; the artisan with a sense of style prefers good work. Style is the ultimate morality of
mind.”
-Alfred North Whitehead, Mathematician and Philosopher
“The real importance of reading is that it creates an ease and intimacy with the process of writing; one
comes to the country of the writer with one's papers and identification pretty much in order. Constant
reading will pull you into a place (a mind-set, if you like the phrase) where you can write eagerly and
without self-consciousness. It also offers you a constantly growing knowledge of what has been done and
what hasn't, what is trite and what is fresh, what works and what just lies there dying (or dead) on the page.
The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor. ...

‘[R]ead a lot, write a lot’ is the great commandment.” (From: Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir
of the Craft, 2000, 150-151))

Objectives: At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. analyze and evaluate the choices writers make to be able to create meaning;
2. write a rhetorical analysis of a text written and visual text.

In critical reading, you are not just reading the text but reading “around” it as well. Critical reading involves
not only reading the text for what it “says” but an examination, too, of how it means what it says. This is
what is referred to as a rhetorical reading of texts. A rhetorical reading is analysis of the choices which the
writer makes in terms of how language is used i.e. (diction [word choice], sentence structure, tone, voice,
use of figurative language, punctuations, etc.). These elements make up what we call “style.” The skillful
deployment of stylistic choices is what gives the writer a unique voice. Attention to these aspects of writing
is what it means to read like a writer.

Activity 2.4. Reading.

Read the following resources on how to analyze style and language and how to read rhetorically.

Style and Language Analysis Guide:

https://fullcoll.instructure.com/courses/12487/pages/style-and-language-analysis-guide

Read more about how to read rhetorically here:

https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/csu-fyw-rhetoric/chapter/2-3-how-to-read-rhetorically/#:~:text=Whe
n%20we%20read%20rhetorically%2C%20we,itself%2C%20but%20also%20the%20context.

The Rhetorical Analysis:

In analyzing how a text “works,” you are essentially looking into how a writer uses language to influence an
audience through a text. When you understand the circumstances that surround the writing act, the
motivation of the writer for writing, the writer’s writing choices, and the writer's intended audience, you
have done a rhetorical analysis. SITUATION, PURPOSE, AUDIENCE, CLAIMS—these are the basic
elements of a rhetorical analysis (Hirschberg and Lidinsky 2012).

Read more about how to read rhetorically here:

https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/csu-fyw-rhetoric/chapter/2-3-how-to-read-rhetorically/#:~:text=Whe
n%20we%20read%20rhetorically%2C%20we,itself%2C%20but%20also%20the%20context.
Steps to Writing a Rhetorical Analysis: (From Hirschberg and Lidinsky 201238):

Visual texts can also be read critically and the rhetorical analysis is also applicable to these texts. You will
have more opportunities to try this out in the future, but meanwhile, you can read more about it here:
https://divingintorhetoric.pressbooks.com/chapter/rhetorical-analysis-of-visual-texts/.

Used together, the reading outline and rhetorical analysis provide the solid foundations for writing a proper
response or reflection essay, which is a type of writing usually required in many college subjects. These
critical reading tools can also help in generating ideas for writing and point you to possible critical
questions of focus to guide writing tasks. Gina Vallis writes:

The more you look at the world critically, the more you will notice, the more you will question
what you see; the more you question what you see, the better you will become at producing
answers about the world, and join in the conversation that furthers our knowledge of it (Vallis
2010, 34)

Critical reading allows you to measure and interrogate what you know alongside what the author is telling
you through the text. By identifying the writing situation, you may be able to see some similarities in the
situation which prompted the writing. Conversely, you might recognize how it is different, allowing you to
posit alternative insights on certain topics. By being conscious of the author’s purpose, you will be made
more aware of why you agree or disagree with some or all claims made. These are all fertile ground from
which to begin writing and enter the conversation.

Rhetorical analyses are usually fleshed out as full essays. For our purposes, however, we will be adopting
the following single-page format:
Activity 2.5. Assignment. (30 points)
1. Read and annotate “The Antidote to the Elements of Style” by Adam Lehner
2. Write a rhetorical analysis of the essay following the required format.
3. Choose one from among your critical questions/focuses and write a rough writing outline of a potential
essay. (A writing outline is simply one you write before developing the essay to show how you intend to
organize your ideas. Use your question as the thesis/ focus as the thesis)

Submit your work as a single document.

All Module 2 Outputs should be submitted on or before 23 March 2022

-Module 2 ends here-

You have now taken 2 steps towards the

successful completion of this course!
References:

Gagich,Melanie, Emily Zickel, Amanda Lloyd, Charlotte Morgan, John Lanning, Rashida Mustafa, Sarah M.
Lacy, William Breeze, Yvonne Bruce, and Melanie Gagich & Emilie Zickel. “2.3 How to Read
Rhetorically.” In A Guide to Rhetoric Genre and Success in FirstYear Writing. MSL Academic
Endeavors. E-book. Accessed February 5, 2021.
https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/csu-fyw-rhetoric/chapter/2-3-how-to-read-rhetorically/#:~:text
=When%20we%20read%20rhetorically%2C%20we,itself%2C%20but%20also%20the%20context. CC
BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Hirsch, Stuart and April Lidinsky.2012. From Inquiry to Academic Writing; A Text and Reader. 2nd Ed.
Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

King, Stephen. 2000. On Writing; A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Palmer, Dr. Karen. “Rhetorical Analysis of Visual Texts.” Diving into Rhetoric; A Rhetorical View of
History, Communication, and Composition. The Worry Free Writer, August 1, 2020.
https://divingintorhetoric.pressbooks.com/chapter/rhetorical-analysis-of-visual-texts/ .CC
BY-NC-SA 4.0

Rodriguez, Nan, Lori Aldrich, and Mark Openeer. “Online Reading Comprehension Lab.” Excelsior College
OWL. Exelsior College, May 17, 2019. https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/ . CC BY 4.0.

“Free Teaching & Learning Resources for UK Higher Education.”2010. Learnhigher Ac. Uk. Association for
Learning Development in Higher Education,. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Shier, Mary. 2020. “5.2 Critical Reading Skills.” Student Success. BCcampus, September 11, 2020.
https://opentextbc.ca/studentsuccess/chapter/critical-reading-skills/ . CC BY-SA 4.0.

Wiley, David and Kim Thanos. 2013. “Developing a Rhetorical Analysis” Engaging Texts: An Introduction
to College Reading and Writing. Lumen, 2013,
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/howardcc-devenglishandreading/chapter/developing-a-rhetorica
l-analysis/ . CC-BY.

Wilhoit, Stephen.2016.A Brief Guide For Writing from Readings. 7th Edition. BostonL Pearson Education,
Inc