Session 10 5 Critical Reading

Critical Reading
Senior High School

"Never accept things as
they're portrayed.”
-Anthony
Shadid, Journalist
Critical Reading
• To non-critical • To the critical reader,
readers, many texts any single text
offer the truth, the provides but
whole truth, and one portrayal of the
nothing but the truth. facts, one
individual's "take"
on the subject.
Critical Reading
Critical reading is an analytic activity. The
reader rereads a text to identify patterns of elements
-- information, values, assumptions, and language
usage-- throughout the discussion. These elements
are tied together in an interpretation, an assertion of
an underlying meaning of the text as a whole.
Critical Reading
What book or article are you reading?
• What is the title? In other words, what does the author claim it is about?
• What kind of information or discussion do you anticipate?
• What do you know about the topic? What might you want to know?
• What background reading might you do first?
• You can often get a good idea of these matters by scanning the preface
or table of contents of a book, or the subheadings of a chapter or
article. Remember that most discussions involve a number of
interrelated issues
Critical Reading
Who is involved?
• Who controls the outcome of the issue?
• Who is affected by the issue?
• The more you know about the
issue before reading, the better prepared you will
be to recognize bias.
Critical Reading
Who wrote the text?

• What do you know of the author's goal or purpose?
• The text in question may not be consistent with concerns or
biases of an author's earlier works or mirror the author's public
statements-- but it might. When was it published? Where? By
whom?
• Information such as this may help you follow references and
associations and possibly suggest a bias. The date of
publication can also indicates how up-to-date the information
and claims may be.
Critical Reading: Step 1
• The initial step of critical reading involves recognizing
a text as a presentation in its own right. This step is
concerned with identifying such elements
• The existence of a beginning, middle, and end, the use
of illustrations to explicate remarks, the use of
evidence to support remarks, the use of stylish
language to portray topics and organization, or a
method of sequencing remarks – such as whether
chronological or a logical sequence.
• The next step involves describing the nature of these
aspects of the text, of classifying the nature of the
material within the text
• The nature of the examples – what the examples are
examples of
• The nature of the evidence – what kinds of authorities
are invoked, what types of evidence are provided
• The nature of the choice or terms– what types of terms
are applied to what topics
• The final step involves inferring the underlying
assumptions and perspectives of the discussion, taking
into account all of the elements of the text. This step
is concerned less with sequential development and
more with recognizing patterns of elements
interwoven throughout the presentation as a whole.
• What is achieved by describing topics a certain way?
• What is assumed by selecting certain types of
evidence?
Critical Reading
• Throughout, critical reading relies on abstracting, on classifying the
nature of things,
• The nature of the structure of the text
• The nature of the language employed
• The nature of the examples invoked
• The nature of the illustrations brought to bear
• And the nature of the thinking that would explain all aspects of the text
being as they are.
• In the end, readers must take control of the text, not just repeat its
assertions. At its core, critical reading involves becoming the author of
one's own understanding.
Critical Reading
• In the end, readers must take control of the text, not
just repeat its assertions. At its core, critical reading
involves becoming the author of one's own
understanding.
Critical Reading Strategies
• 1. ANNOTATING- is underlining or highlighting the
the important ideas or points in a text like thesis
statement.
• 2. CONTEXTUAL READING-a reader studies the
author of the text,the time or period when the author
wrote it and the important events that occurred during
the time the text was written.
• 3.OUTLINING- an overview of a document in which
information and ideas are arranged according to
hierarchy-the main idea being at the top followed by
the rest of the supporting ideas or subtopics.
• 4. SUMMARIZING- the condensing or
writing of a material in the reader’s own
words.It is shorter than the original text,but
contains the important ideas.
• 5. PARAPHRASING- one way of
understanding a text better is to paraphrase.
It is putting or writing a text in your own
words but maintaining the original
information as given by the author.
• 6. COMPARING and CONTRASTING-
Comparing is naming the similarities of two
or more ideas or information. Contrasting is
naming their differences.
• 7. EVALUATING an ARGUMENT- a
criticl reader must not accept anything on
face value;instead,he or she must evaluate
whether the claim or the argument that the
author is presenting is true and can be
supported by evidence.
• 8. REFLECTING ON CHALLENGES to
your BELIEFS and VALUES- there are
reading materials that will affect your
emotions.They may disturb,challenge or
confuse you.
• 9. LOOKING for PATTERNS of
OPPOSITION- Some writers present
opposing issues or hints and these are what
a critical reader or thinker may use in
his/her analysis of the text.
• 10. JUDGING the WRITER’s
CREDIBILITY- there are 3 questions to check
the credibility: if he/she is knowledgeable about
his or her subject in the way he/she has
presented his/her facts and statistics;if s/he is
building a common ground with the readers,or if
s/he is basing his/her reasoning on shared
beliefs;if the writer assumes that everyone
believes or agrees in his/her ideas and rejects or
ignores objections:if that is the case,then s/he is
not fair in presenting the issues.
• 11. EXPLORING the FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE- is a language that uses words or
expressions with a meaning different from the
literal interpretation.
• 12. RECOGNIZING EMOTIONAL
MANIPULATION- as a reader, you have to be
suspicious and be cautious when the writer uses
emotionally loaded words,writes very harsh and
abusive things about or against someone or
something maligns or insults another.

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Critical Reading

Senior High School

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