Below are some techniques to help you develop critical reading skills.

 Keeping a reading journal

A reading journal is similar to keeping a diary, except you are writing
your feelings and ideas in reaction to your reading assignment. This
process allows you to develop your impressions of the text and
connect them to your personal experiences and to relate and
understand the author’s ideas.
 Annotating the text
Annotating the text simply means making notes on your copy of the
reading. This includes highlighting or underlining important passages
and writing notes, comments, questions, and reactions on the margins.
By doing this, you are entering into a dialogue with the author and not
just passively reading the text. Below are some techniques to help you
develop critical reading skills.
 Outlining the text
By locating the thesis statement, claims, and evidence, and then
plotting these into an outline, you can see how the writer structures,
sequences, and connects his or her ideas. This way you will be able to
better evaluate the quality of the writing.
 Summarizing the text
A summary consists of getting the main points of the essay and
important supporting details. It is a useful skill because you can better
understand the reading if you can recognize and differentiate major
and minor points in the text.
 Questioning the text
Questioning the text involves asking specific questions on points that
you are skeptical about. These may be the topics that do not meet your
expectations or agree with your personal views.
Below are some general questions that will guide you in reading critically.
 What is the writer’s perspective? Does he/she write from an outsider’s or insider’s
perspective?
 What relevant information is excluded from the text?
 Do you agree with the writer?
 Is the writer objective and accurate?
 How would you describe the tone of the writer?
 Does the text challenge your own values and beliefs?
 Does the text contain fallacies? What are those?
 Are the assumptions made by the writer?
 Does the writer oversimplify complex ideas?
 Does the writer use reasonable generalizations and inferences?