"Reading Critically"

The essay “Reading Critically” provides a great map for analyzing for school assignments.  While I knew that writing critically was important, it did not occur to me that reading critically was equally important.  I now understand that if I read critically, the critical writing will come much easier. 

           

            With respect to “the preliminaries” outlined in the essay, I already knew that it was important to understand the writer’s background, when the piece was written and for whom it was written, but I never gave much thought to analyzing the title of a piece to lead to a better understanding.  I admit that I am not always diligent in annotating what I read.  I know that I should use a pencil and highlighter more when I read.  The quote in the essay that “the more you write in an unstructured way, the more you’ll have to say when it’s time to write a structured essay” really is true.

            The first step to reading critically is to summarize the content of what you are reading.  This should be a two step procedure:  first, summarize each paragraph (or group of paragraphs if they are related); and two, summarize those sentences into two or three other that reflect the writing’s total meaning.  Next, you need to analyze which involves looking at the main idea of the writing, finding support for this idea, and identifying special writing strategies.  Third, you need to use inference to draw conclusions about the piece using your own knowledge and experience.  It is through inference that you are able to discern the writer’s assumptions that drive the piece.  Fourth, you need to synthesize the piece by taking “reconstituting” the original elements of the piece and relating them to the writer’s ultimate purpose. 

            The final stage in critical reading is to evaluate the quality of the piece.  This means that you will answer whether the writer has moved you as it was intended, whether the writer has proved a point or whether it was even worth the effort to make the argument in the first place.  In order to conduct an effective evaluation of a piece, you need to ask yourself, “What is the writer’s purpose?”  You can answer this question through the effective use of analysis, inference and synthesis.  An well written piece uses effective strategy in the writing such as narration and description. 

           

            The most crucial step in effective writing  is finding an appropriate structure.  Good writing has unity (everything relates to the main idea) and coherence (the relations between parts are clear).  Chronological sequence is common, but it is important to emphasis important events and minimize others.  Finally, the effective use of language is always found in a well written piece.  Language creates the tone of the piece.