Reading (and Re-reading) Critically

1. Preread for Orientation - Before immersing yourself in a text, map the terrain.

Look at the title, source, and publisher.

With books, skim the table of contents and cover blurbs.

With web documents, analyze the address.

Then try to broadly determine:

what kind of source you have located (personal, scholarly, journalistic, promotional);

the general purpose (expressive, informative, persuasive);

and the implied audience (peers, fans, critics, customers, specialists, etc.).

2. Active Reading - Know what you are looking for and read with a pencil in hand.

Mark passages as your read (see 8d)

Bracket difficult or seemingly important passages in the margin

Underline key ideas and special terms

Circle potentially useful facts or quotable claims

Talk back to the text:

??Write questions in the margins??

!!Record your own comments and reactions!!

{{Restate crucial ideas in your own words}}

3. Absorbing - Reread select and marked passages for comprehension (see 8e)

On a separate piece of paper, a note-card, or a word file, formulate your sense of:

Central and supporting claims

Kinds of evidence and information provided (opinions, history, statistics, etc.)

New ideas relevant to your research question (i.e. anything important you learn)

Challenging ideas (confusing or contrary to your current thinking)

(Adapted from Palmquist, The Bedford Researcher)