Critical Reading

Prof. Dr. Khalid Mahmood

Department of Library & Information Science
University of the Punjab

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 What is “critical reading?”

 “Critical” is not intended to have a negative

meaning in the context of “critical reading.”
 Definition: An active approach to reading that
involves an in depth examination of the text.
Memorization and understanding of the text is
achieved. Additionally, the text is broken down into
its components and examined critically in order to
achieve a meaningful understanding of the material.

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 Passive vs. Active Reading

 Passive Reading: - (4 traits)

 1. Largely inactive process.
 2. Low motivation to examine the text critically or
at an in-depth level.
 3. Important pieces of data and assumptions may be
missed.
 4. Data and assumptions that are perceived by the
passive reader are accepted at face value or are
examined superficially, with little thought.

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 Passive vs. Active Reading
• Active Reading: - Active reading involves
interacting with the text and therefore requires
significantly more energy than passive reading.
• Critical reading ALWAYS involves active reading.
The active reader invests sufficient effort to
understand the text and commit important details to
memory.
• The active reader identifies important pieces of
data, the assumptions underlying arguments, and
examines them critically. They rely on their
personal experiences and knowledge of theory to
analyze the text. 4
 Techniques of Critical Reading

1. Previewing
2. Writing
3. Critical Reading (at least two times)
4. Summarizing
5. Forming a Critical Response
6. Finding a Focus for Your Paper

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 Previewing

 Form meaningful expectations about the reading.

 Pace yourself – decide how much time you will
dedicate to the reading.
 Skimming.
 Look for Title, Section Headings, Date
 Expectations about the Author (previous works)
 Define the important vocabulary words
 Brief summaries of chapters
 The goal is to obtain a general grasp of the text

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 Writing

1. Writing While Reading

a. Margin
b. Divided Page Method
c. Landmark/Footnote Method
d. Reading Journal
e. Online Documents

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 Writing - Margin

 Mark, highlight, or underline parts of the text

that you think are very important.
Option 1 - Write a few words in the margin that
capture the essence of your reaction.
Option 2 – Write a few words that will help
you to remember the passage. This is useful
for learning definitions or parts of a theory.

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 Divided Page Method

 On a separate piece of paper, divide your

page into two columns.
 Label one column “text” (meaning from your
reading) and the other “response” (meaning
your response).
 Write down a part of the text you think is
important in the “text” column and then write
a reaction to it in the other column.

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 Landmark/Footnote Method

 On a separate piece(s) of paper or in your reading

journal, dedicate an adequate amount of space to an
article, book, chapter, etc, you are reading.
 Highlight, mark, or underline a critical part in your
reading. In the margin, indicate that you are going
to write a footnote. For example, write a 1 or a (or
whatever you want).
 In your reading journal, write a ‘1’ or ‘a’ (or
whatever symbol you chose) and then write your
critical response.
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 Reading Journal
 In addition to the other uses described above, use the reading
journal to track what you are reading and to form critical
responses to articles, chapters, etc you have read in their
entirety.
 Try to summarize the entire article, describe the main
points, define key terms, and express your reactions.
 Remember, do NOT refer back to the text until you
absolutely have to! Give your memory a workout! Force
yourself to learn the material as you read and be able to write
it down clearly afterwards.
 Also, put concepts into your own words.
 A general rule is 3-5 pages of notes per 100 pages of text.
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 Online Documents

 Two ways to write while reading online

documents…
1) Reading Journal
2) Cut and Paste in Word Processor, then
insert comments

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 First Reading

 Read in an environment where you will be free

from distractions.
 Read steadily and smoothly. Try to enjoy the
work.
 Write notes, but do so sparingly.
 What works best for you?
 We suggest avoiding your cell phone, television,
computer, and music.

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 Second Reading

 Re-read the material more slowly than

during your first read.
 The two most important objectives are:
1. Understand the content of the material
2. Understand the material’s structure

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 3 Responses to Texts

 Restatement- Restating what a text says;

talking about the original topic.
 Description- Describing what a text does;
identifies aspects of text.
 Interpretation- Analyze what a text means;
asserts an overall meaning.

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 Summarization

 Summarization: Pull out the main points of

the text and write them down.
 The summary’s complexity and length will
vary according to the complexity and length
of the text you have read!

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 Forming Your Critical
Response
 Analysis
 Interpretation
 Synthesis
 In forming your critical response, you will
now go beyond what the author has explicitly
written to form your impressions of the text.

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 Analysis

 Analysis is the separation of something into

its parts or elements, which helps to
examine them more closely.
 To analyze reading, you can take at least
these two approaches:
1) Choose a question to guide analysis.
2) Look at the author’s argument structure.

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 Analysis (continued)

 Examine the argument structure.

 Claims: Statements that require support by
evidence.
 Assumptions: The writer’s underlying
beliefs, opinions, principles, or inferences
that connect evidence to the claims.

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 Analysis (continued)

 Types of evidence
 Facts: Verifiable evidence.
 Opinion: Judgments based upon facts.
 Expert Opinion: Judgments formed by authorities on a
given subject.
 Appeal to Beliefs or Needs: Readers are asked to accept
a claim in part because they already accept it as true
WITHOUT factual evidence or because it coincides with
their needs.
 Appeal to Emotion: A claim that is persuasive because it
evokes an emotion within the reader, but may or may not
rely on factual evidence.
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 Analysis (continued)

 To judge the reliability of evidence, look at

the following areas:
 Accuracy
 Relevance
 Representativeness
 Adequacy

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 Analysis (continued)

 Logical Fallacies: Errors in reasoning.

 Examples:
 Red herring- introduction of an irrelevant issue in an
argument.
 Non sequitur- linking two or more ideas that have no
logical connection.
 Making broad generalizations without proven empirical
evidence.

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 Interpretation

 After breaking down the text into its components

and examining them, ask yourself about the
conclusions you can draw from this evidence.
 What claims does the author make?
 What evidence supports these claims?
 Can you infer anything beyond what the author
has explicitly written that either strengthens or
weakens the claims made by the author?

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 Synthesis

 Now that you have broken down the text into its
parts, analyzed them, and interpreted it all, you
should make new connections with what you know.
 Ask yourself again:
 What are the main points of this text?
 Were my expectations for this article met?
 If I “read in between the lines” do I learn anything else
about what the author is saying?
 Overall, what can I conclude from this text?

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