Reading critically What is Critical Reading? Critical reading does not mean criticizing or finding mistakes in a text or an article. Critical readingmeans noticingtechniques that writersuseto convince readers toacceptideasorinformation.Readerswhorecognizethesetechniquescan evaluate a reading selection more easily. Critical reading is a skill used in everyday lite. For example, in college, choosing an answer on a multiple choice test requires critical reading skills. Purchasing a product online is another example of a task that requires critical reading skills. Critical readersCritical readers do not automatically believe that everything they read is true. They ask themselves questions about the text. For example, they might ask if the author is well-known. They might ask if the author is an expert on the subject. They also ask what the author's purpose is for writing. Is it to present facts or statistics, or is it to persuadeorconvincethereadertobelievesomething?Inaddition,criticalreaders areawareoftheauthor'sapproach.Istheinformation presentedinanobjectiveor neutralway?Doesthewriterrevealasubjective(positiveornegative)attitude toward the subject? Itisalsoimportanttobeawareofthewriter'sbackground,assumptionsand purposes.Allwritershaveareasonforwritingandwillemphasisedetailswhich support their reason for writing and ignore details that do not. Identifying and evaluating the main ideaCriticalreadingmeansanalyzingideasandthendecidingwhethertoacceptthem, reject them, or think about them further. In order to analyze ideas, good idea is key to understanding the writer's argument. Good readers skim the reading and find the main idea before reading the entire article. This results in faster and more effective reading. Critical readers also evaluate the main idea. They do this by asking questions. Does themainideaseemimportant?Doesitseemlogical?Doesitallowforother viewpoints?Doestheauthorinsistthatthisviewpoint istheonlyvalidone?If the mainideadoesn'tseemimportantorlogical,criticalreaderspaycloseattentionto the details the author uses to support it. Examining support for the main idea Paying close attention to the details means examining the evidence the author uses tosupportthemainidea.Evidencemayincludefacts,statistics,examples, experience, and opinions. The critical reader asks two key questions. The first is, "Is theevidenceadequate?"Thereaderdecideswhethertheauthorhasprovided enoughsupportfor themainidea.Oneortwoexamplesareusuallynotenough to support a viewpoint. If the support is inadequate, the critical reader will not accept the author's opinion as true. Thesecondkeyquestionis,"Doestheevidenceseemaccurate?"Thereader considers the source of the information. The reader also considers the methods that were used to collect the facts. If the source is questionable, the support may also be questionable. If the method is unreliable, the facts may be unreliable as well. Analyzing the presentation of evidence Critical reading also requires the reader to recognize errors in the author's thinking' Errors weakentheauthor'ssupportand,thus,theauthor's ideas.Forexample,the authormayusecircular reasoning.Thisissimplyrepeatingthemainidea in differentwordswithoutaddinganyreasonsor evidencetosupporttheidea.The authormayalso trytodistractthereaderwitharedherring.Ared herring isan idea or statement that distracts or leads the reader away from the issue. Finally, theauthor may make a hasty generalization. This means the author bases a conclusion on very little evidence or support. Putting it all together Critical readers undersl'and both whata texl says andhotu itsays it. Critical reading, then,meansthree things.Itmeansrecognizingthetechniquesauthors useto convince the reader to acceptthe ideas as presented. It means evaluating the text in light of these techniques. It also means deciding whether to accept or reiect the text, or to gather more information before making a decision. The following questions may be usefully asked about any text you are reading: A Purpose and background1.Why are you reading this text? What is your purpose? 2.What type of text is it: research report, essay, textbook, book review? 3.What do you know about the subject of the text? 4.What else has been written on the subject of the text? 5.What controversies exist in this area? How does this text fit in? B The author and the text 1.Who is the author? What do you know about the author? What authority does the author have? 2.Who is the intended audience? 3.What is the author's purpose? Why has the text been written? 4.Whatisthesourceofthetext?Isitreputable?Whoisthepublisher?What reputation do they have? 5.What is the date of publication? Is it appropriate to the argument? 6.What is the writer's attitude towards the topic? 7.What conclusions are drawn? C Evidence used 1.Is there a clear distinction between fact and opinion? 2.Is evidence used to support arguments? How good is the evidence? Are all the points supported? 3.In an experimental study, was the sample size adequate and are the statistics reliable? 4.Are there any unsupported points? Are they well-known facts or generally accepted opinions? 5.How does the writer use other texts and other people's ideas? 6.Are the writer's conclusions reasonable in the light of the evidence presented? 7.How do the conclusions relate to other similar research? D Assumptions made 1.What assumptions has the writer made? Are they valid? 2.What beliefs or values does the writer hold? Are they explicit?3.Look at the language that is used, e.g. active/passive verbs,nominalisations, pronouns,negativeverbs,articles,etc.Isitalwayspossibletoidentify participantsandprocesses?e.g.compare:thegovernmentincreasedtaxes; theyincreasedthetaxes,taxeswereincreased;taxesincreased;thetaxes increased, there was an increase in taxes 4.Look for emphatic words such as it is obvious, definitely and of course. 5.Look for hedges: possible, might, perhaps. 6.Lookforemotionalarguments,useofmaximisers:completely,absolutely, entirely, or minimisers: only, just, hardly, simply, merely. 7.How else could the text have been written?