MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION CANDELARIA INC.

QUEZON, PHILIPPINES 1

Critical Reading

Critical Reading, not because it's from the word critic, you will criticize or judge the work

or the writer's idea, it is called critical reading because we are imposing to understand

the text, identify the elements, patterns and structures to make interpretations and

meaning behind the material and formulated textual evidences. You are identified as a

critical reader when you begin to question, what does the author mean by this

statement?, you are beginning to ask questions related to the story or text because you

are curious, and you fully understand the flow of the text , a good reader will try to

determine the author's purpose.

There are steps that are made for us, that we have to remember about critical reading

1. Restating what a text says

restate the text in your own language or choice of words for you to enable to

understand the text.

2. Describing the text

Imagine the scene and describe it, Is it scary or funny ?, what is the color of the sky?

Blue? Or Black? Describing or imagining the scene will help readers to feel and have

connection to the story.

3. Interpreting the text

Find the meaning, the theme and the purpose, interpret it the way you understand it.

for example, the story “The Safe house” by Sandra Nicole Roldan, you’ll never knew

that it is about the martial law, if you wouldn’t try to understand the story and give

meaning to every symbols and details that is stated.

Author’s Purpose

Lesson #1: Searching for Textual Evidences to Formulate Evaluative Sentences

ZYRINE JANE D. ADA
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION CANDELARIA INC.
QUEZON, PHILIPPINES 2

Author’s three general purposes:

1.To Inform

2.To Entertain

3. To persuade

There are many times when the author has more than one purpose. An author may start

writing about the global warming in the Philippines , but may continue convincing people

or readers to help the environment, and take actions to lessen the effects of global

warming, don’t use plastics or choose to recycle. There are times that the authors

purpose is hidden or you won’t really read it but you’ll realize it suddenly. For example:

Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, that started the Philippines Revolution.

A text may really start with the facts of the ‘XXXX Case’ but ends up persuading the

readers to take particular sides. For Instance, when Rizal wrote his literature, many

Filipinos became awake, and Andres Bonifacio lead the revolutionary. That is why you

have to be a critical reader to sense instances like this, because sometimes, this literary

piece will change not just our world, but also our future.

Author’s Viewpoint /Tone

Critical Reading gives us the ability to know the author’s viewpoint and tone in writing.

The truthfulness of ideas presented in the text is best assessed after you are able to do

these steps.

View point is how the author looks at the topic, while tone is the author’s attitude, which

may be positive or negative, to the given topic. An author’s attitude is very much related

to the author’s view point.

For Example : John and Marcus got into a senseless fight.

The author seemed annoyed the way he/she described the event ,

” why would they fight for nothing? like duh”, that attitude

Lesson #1: Searching for Textual Evidences to Formulate Evaluative Sentences

ZYRINE JANE D. ADA
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION CANDELARIA INC.
QUEZON, PHILIPPINES 3

It shows the negative tone of the author.

Below are some guide questions on how you can infer the author’s view point and tone:

 What is the main idea that the author aims to convey?

What is the author’s aim or he/she clearly point out?, what is her/him objectives?

 How do the words of the author influence how you should think about the topic?

For example from the sentence, John and marcus got into a senseless fight ,it

gives us the idea that, that fight is childish and isn’t important matter, It’s

senseless.

 What impressions would you have if different words have been used?

For example it says that: John and marcus got into a serious fight, it made us

think. Will it end their friendship?, why did they fight? It make us curious, and

made us guess many possibilities.

 How do the examples and details given by the author influence how you should

think about the topic?

Why do you think that he/she might be the killer? That she’s in love ?, that he is the

criminal? Because of the words used and how the author expressed it, we

understand.

For example: Behind the walls our sight met and, I could feel the butterflies on

my stomach.

Details, as it said ,butterflies in my stomach, the word use signifies love because

it influence us to think that it is about romance.

 Are there any detail or information which you think is missing in the text?

Do you feel that there is something lacking? Or a riddle that haven’t solve?

 Do you know anything about the author’s background that may help you identify

his viewpoint/tone/attitude on the topic?

What is the job of the author?, Why do she have these Ideas? Where didi she

learned it from? based on experience? Or just a fiction.

Lesson #1: Searching for Textual Evidences to Formulate Evaluative Sentences

ZYRINE JANE D. ADA
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION CANDELARIA INC.
QUEZON, PHILIPPINES 4

 What impressions do you have about the author after reading?

After reading the story, what do you think about the author? Is she great? Do she

have a creative mind? How did she/he influence you ?

Author’s Bias and Use of Logical Fallacies

A person’s prejudice or influence against or favoritism for something are called,

Bias. For example when you really liked a character of a story or movie you are

beginning to be biased, or you have favoritism.

Especially in academic writing, you are expected to be very objective or

expressive when you write. You should not flout fairness and truthfulness by

highlighting your personal feelings and opinion when they should not be

mentioned in your writing; rather you aim to present ideas based

on verified sources and you interpret those as accurately as possible.

Like a research paper when you write something, especially if it’s informative ,it

should be factual and shouldn’t be from anyone’s opinion or perception. At all

times, fallacies should be avoided.

Fallacies are beliefs not based on logic. There are several types of logical

fallacies. Learn to identify those in reading and avoid those in writing.

1. Hasty generalization - making a conclusion based on limited cases.

Example: Paul likes cheeseburger. Mark likes cheeseburger. Therefore men like

cheeseburger.

They generalized men just because he/she knows two guys who like

cheeseburger.

2. Dicto Simplifier - treating a general rule to be a universal truth.

Example: Milk is good for the bones. Everyone should drink milk

Lesson #1: Searching for Textual Evidences to Formulate Evaluative Sentences

ZYRINE JANE D. ADA
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION CANDELARIA INC.
QUEZON, PHILIPPINES 5

Even though they mustn’t because there are people who are lactose-intolerant,

people who were allergic at milk.

3. Post hoc - pointing to something as the effect or cause of something

For Example: His parents did not increase her allowance, so she did not go to school for

three days.

It shows that,the cause of her abscence were because of a silly reason when her

parents didn't increase her allowance, where infact there could be an acceptable reason

for her absence.

4. Appeal to pity - making people feel sorry instead of presenting a logical reason

Example: The Man should get the job, for he has five children and a wife to feed.

The man must have the job to feed his family, there is not specific logical reason

why he must have job, not because he is qualified, graduate or intellectual it’s

just because he doesn’t have any money to feed his family and It’s such a pity.

5. Poisoning the well - intending to discredit or ridicule a person or an idea by

presenting an unanticipated information

Example: Don't listen to her. she is a daughter of two traditional politicians.

It is insulting or making a person look bad, without even knowing the truth.

6. Bandwagon - making people believe that popular ideas are necessarily right

Example: Seventy percent of housewives in manila use Brand XXX, so you

should use too

Make people believe that it is important because it’s popular, you should also

have it or join with them.

Did the movies, stories, advertisements, and essays you have encountered in the past

contain any fallacy ? How did affect the general message of the material? Is it easy to

detect fallacies? Why or why not?

Fallacy means misconceptions or misbelief.

Critical Reading requires the use of reading strategies before during and after reading.

Lesson #1: Searching for Textual Evidences to Formulate Evaluative Sentences

ZYRINE JANE D. ADA
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION CANDELARIA INC.
QUEZON, PHILIPPINES 6

One effective strategy that you may use is SQ3R, It stands for Survey Question Read

Recite Review.

Survey – Preview the material, Read the title and infer what the text will be about. Know

the author, know his/her background and previous work/s. Skim the material to get an

idea on the general structure of the text.

Question – Guide your reading by asking yourself important points that you hope the

text will answer or clarify. Sometimes your teacher will be the one to do this for you, but

you should have your own questions as well before you start reading.

Read - As you read, remember the questions you intend to answer. Doing this will

make your reading active and focused. However, be aware that you may not be able to

answer the questions in the order that you have listed them. Also pay attention to

headings and graphic aids ( pictures, charts, diagrams, etc.) that can give you additional

information. This is also the time to identify the author’s purpose, viewpoint , possible

biases, and logical fallacies.

Recall- After reading a few paragraphs or segments of the material, pause and

summarize what you have read . This allows you to remember the main points.

Pausing also allows you to think whether the part that you have just read can answer a

question you have just read can answer a question you have previously posed.

Review – After reading, go back to your questions to see if you were able to answer all

of them. If not, this is the time to reread the text to check if it really does not have the

answer or if you just missed it the first time you read. Check if you can summarize the

entire text, which means that you have comprehended the material well. Review also

means thinking if there are new questions you can pose after reading.

You can use these reading strategies to develop your critical reading.

Lesson #1: Searching for Textual Evidences to Formulate Evaluative Sentences

ZYRINE JANE D. ADA
 MANUEL S. ENVERGA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION CANDELARIA INC.
QUEZON, PHILIPPINES 7

Lesson #1: Searching for Textual Evidences to Formulate Evaluative Sentences

ZYRINE JANE D. ADA