Critical Reading

Jaybie Love S. De Vera

Veronica Ocampo
Mary Joan Aquino
Argentina Lopez
 Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lecture, students will:

• Understand critical reading strategies

• Define critical reading
• Identify and describe different
creative reading strategies
• Recognizes the importance of creative
reading in academic
 Good Reader vs. Poor Reader
• Read with purpose • Read aimlessly
• Read and assimilate thought • Get loss in the muddle of
• Read critically and ask word
questions to evaluate the • Swallow everything
author arguments
• Read a variety of books • One tracker reading
• Enjoy reading • Hate to read, reading is
boring
 What is “critical reading?”
• Preface – “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.
 Critical Reading

The critical reader acknowledges that writers make

choice; the critical reader makes judgments about
the text.

• Content: e.g., evidence, examples, details

• Language: e.g., “politicians” or “senators”
• Structure:e.g., comparison/contrast, analogy
 A critical reader…
• attempts to understand and analyse the
reasoning in the text
• evaluates the evidence offered
• recognises assumptions
• takes a challenging and questioning attitude
towards the text
 A critical reader doesn’t

• accept the authority of the text without question

• take a passive and purely receptive role towards the
text
• ‘write off’ the text immediately if the writer’s
meaning is not immediately clear
• quickly dismiss the text because the views do not
match his/her own
So all texts, to a certain extent,
require critical reading. It is not
about criticising everything
you read - it’s about asking
questions about the text: its
purpose, the claims made and
the evidence presented.
Goals of Critical
Reading
 Goals of Critical Reading

1. to recognize an author’s purpose           

2. to understand tone and persuasive elements
3. to recognize bias
 
 More specifically;
1. recognizing purpose involves inferring a basis
for choices of content and language
2. recognizing tone and persuasive elements
involves classifying the nature of language
choices
3. recognizing bias involves classifying the
nature of patterns of choice of content and
language
 On Recognizing
Author’s Purpose
• Understanding the way a passage is organized may help you
determine the author’s purpose.

• Consider the italicized introduction, the main idea, and the tone;
by examining them together, you may discover what the author’s
purpose is.

• Think about what point the writer is making, how he or she

organizes ideas, and the words used, which will reveal tone
(attitude/possible feelings).
On Recognizing Attitude, Mood,
and Tone
1. The terms attitude, mood, and tone often refer to
the author’s slant on a subject, or the author’s
emotions or feelings.
2. Attitude and tone are related in that the tone of a
selection often reflects his or her attitude.
3. Think about how “tone of voice” reflects
feelings and attitude.
 Tone

• Tone is often described as the way an author feels

about both the topic and the reader.
• The tone in a selection can be formal, casual,
playful, serious, sarcastic, or any other attitude one
can imagine.
• Connotative and denotative language is a very
useful tool for expressing attitude and tone.
• Writers use words on purpose to create a desired
effect.
 Helpful Hints
Pay attention to the author’s choice of details. The author has
a purpose, and the reader must determine what that purpose is.
The author’s purpose can be found in the choice of details
which reveal attitude or tone.
In order to fully understand author’s purpose, it is important
for the reader to recognizing the details provided by the choice
of words the author uses.
As stated before, purpose and tone are closely related, so if
you immediately recognize the author’s purpose, you may
easily identify his/her tone.
 One Last Thing…

• Always annotate the text:

• Circle tone words
• Underline important details
• Note transitional phrases/words
• Circle definitions provided
• Write summary phrases after each paragraph
 Denotative and Connotative Language
 
When you look a word up in the dictionary,
you are determining its exact meaning
without the suggestions or implications
that it may have taken on.
 
This is called the denotative meaning of a word.

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 The connotative meaning of a word
refers to the ideas or feelings suggested by the word.
 
Words that have the same denotative meaning
can have much different connotative meanings.
 
The connotation of a word can tell you a lot about
what the speaker of the word means by it.
 
Not all words have connotative meanings.

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Words that are heavily connotative
are often referred to as
“loaded” or “emotionally charged.”
 
Writers who have a particular point of view
and want to persuade you to accept that view
often make use of loaded words or phrases.
 
Thus subjective material is more likely
to rely on connotative,
rather than denotative, language,
and it is more likely to display a strong bias.

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 Euphemism
 

The word euphemism

is derived from the Greek word euphemos,
meaning “to use a good word
for an evil or unfavorable word.”
 
The Greek prefix
eu means “good,”
and
phemi means “speak.”
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When someone substitutes an inoffensive word
or phrase
for one that could be offensive to someone,
they are using a euphemism.
 
Most of the time euphemisms are used to be
polite
or to avoid controversy.
 
Euphemisms can also be used
to purposely mislead and obscure the truth.
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On Analyzing
Reading Text
Critically
 Three types of reading and analysis:

• Non-critical reading is satisfied with recognizing what a

text says and restating the key remarks.

What a text says     – restatement

What a text does    – description
What a text means – inference
 Read the following story.
A man and his son are driving in a car. The
car crashes into a tree, killing the father
and seriously injuring his son. At the
hospital, the boy needs to have surgery.
Upon looking at the boy, the doctor says
(telling the truth), "I cannot operate on
him. He is my son.“

How can this be?

 Analysis and Inference: The Tools of
Critical Reading
• A critical reader know what to look for ( analysis )
and how to think about what to find ( inference ) .
• The first part —what to look for— involves
recognizing those aspects of a discussion that
control the meaning.
• The second part —how to think about what
you find— involves the processes of inference,
the interpretation of data from within the text.
 Critical Reading Process:
Four steps to read efficiently and proficiently

A. Place material to be read into context.

• Determine why material is being read -What is the purpose of the material
within the class or subject being approached?
• Use other parts of reading material to determine context (table of contents,
chapter headings, definitions for unknown words)
B. Skim material
C. Actively read material, taking notes, looking up words and
concepts for basic understanding
D. Complete post-reading exercise to confirm understanding
 Classroom Strategies
Teaching students to read efficiently and proficiently

A. Pre-reading Techniques: Context

1. Discuss the reason that the material exists, the source
and who created it
2. Discuss different ways information could have
been presented or is available to reader
3. Understand where reading materials fits with
course or subject matter objectives
4. Gather information to prepare for active reading
 Classroom Strategies
Teaching students to read efficiently and proficiently

B. Reading Techniques: Skimming

1. Students skim material to get overview/overall sense of material
2. Encourage multiple reviews of material at different depths

C. Reading Techniques: Active Reading

1. Students read and annotate material
2. Focus on content and language of text
3. Students clarify unknown meanings with resources
4. Students annotate by underlining, questioning and outlining material,
including briefing
 Classroom Strategies
Teaching students to read efficiently and proficiently

D. Post Reading Techniques

Reinforce understanding through objective examination and
subjective written exercises

a. Summarize
b. Evaluate
c. Synthesize
d. Hypothesize
 Goal of critical reading is to make material

CLEAR
• Claims: • What are the claims and issues?

• Logic: • Is presentation/organization
logical?
• Evidence: • Do facts support the argument?

• Analysis: • Is analysis sound and based on

legal reasoning?
• Rebuttal: • Are there counter-arguments and
counter-evidence?
 Techniques of Critical Reading

1. Previewing
2. Writing / Annotating
3. Summarizing
4. Analyzing
5. Re- Reading
6. Forming a Critical Response
 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
 Writing / Annotating

1. Writing While Reading

a. Margin
b. Divided Page Method
c. Landmark/Footnote Method
d. Reading Journal
e. Online Documents
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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!
 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.
 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.
 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.
 Analysis (continued)

• To judge the reliability of evidence, look at the

following areas:
• Accuracy
• Relevance
• Representativeness
• Adequacy
 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.
• Learn to identify logical fallacies by visiting:
http://www1.ca.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/index.html
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.
 3 Responses to Texts

 Restatement- Restating what a text says; talking

about the original topic.
 Description- Describing what a text a does;
identifies aspects of text.
 Interpretation- Analyze what a text means;
asserts an overall meaning.
 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?
• See Critical Reading Checklist Handout
 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?
 ACTIVITY 1:
• Tell the students to bring newspapers/magazine.
• Cut out news, editorial texts ,or articles from the
newspapers/magazines.
• Ask the students to apply the following critical
reading strategies: previewing, annotating,
summarizing, analyzing, re-reading, and
responding.
Materials: Bondpapers, Glue, Pen,
 ACTIVITY 2:

• Using a personalized graphic

organizer, show other activities where
critical reading can be a useful skill
aside from reading in school.
• Materials: BP, Drawing materials,
Crayons
 ACTIVITY 3:

•Essay Writing
•In a whole sheet of paper, answer the
question clearly.

- In your opinion, what are the benefits of

critical reading?
 ACTIVITY 4:

• FILM VIEWING
• Students will watch a film
entitled “Freedom Writers”,
and be able to list down
morals from it.
THE END.