A text is simply a piece of writing, or as defines it, “the main body of printed or written matter on a page.” In English classes, the term “text” is often used interchangeably with the words “reading” or “work.”
These rhetorical strategies are covered in the next chapter . If you disagree with a text, what is the point of contention? If you agree with it, how do you think you can expand or build upon the argument put forth?
Consider the example below. Which of the following tweets below are critical and which are uncritical?
Critical reading has many uses. If applied to a work of literature, for example, it can become the foundation for a detailed textual analysis. With scholarly articles, critical reading can help you evaluate their potential reliability as future sources.
Finding an error in someone else’s argument can be the point of destabilization you need to make a worthy argument of your own, illustrated in the final tweet from the previous image, for example. Critical reading can help you hone your own argumentation skills because it requires you to think carefully about which strategies are effective for making arguments, and in this age of social media and instant publication, thinking carefully about what we say is a necessity.
Reading does not come naturally. It is not an instinct that you were born with — rather, it is a cultural development that began 6,000 years ago when humans began to use symbols to represent ideas. The process of reading is learned through instruction and recruits brain mechanisms that evolved for other purposes.
In other words, you weren’t born to read. Reading is a learned skill that relies on interaction nature, nurture, and culture. It is a cognitive tool that is developed through learning and practice. So what reading strategies are already in your toolbox? What strategies can you add to your toolbox to become a more efficient and effective college reader?
Questions to ask a text.
Inquiry-based learning methods, or question-based investigations, are often the basis for writing and research at the college level. Specific questions generated about the text can guide your critical reading process and help you when writing a formal analysis.
When reading critically, you should begin with broad questions and then work towards more specific questions; after all, the ultimate purpose of engaging in critical reading is to turn you into an analyzer who asks questions that work to develop the purpose of the text
In order to develop good questions before reading a text, you will want to think about your purpose for reading. As a college student, you’ll want to think about why your professor assigned this particular text? How does this text connect to topics you have been discussing in class or to other assigned readings?
For example, if you have been assigned to read UMBC President, Freeman Hrabowski’s essay entitled, “Colleges Prepare People for Life,” ask yourself why your professor assigned that particular text. Perhaps your professor wants you to read a variety of perspectives on the purpose of college. In that case, you’ll want to ask a question such as, What is Hrabowski’s view on the purpose of college? Perhaps, your professor is preparing you to write an argument essay and would like students to see how other authors have crafted their arguments. In that case, a good question might be, How does Hrabowski introduce other people’s views on this topic and how can that help me in my own writing?
Another effective questioning strategy is to turn the title or a sub-heading into a question by adding what, how, or why to the title or heading. You can turn the title into a question by adding how. The question becomes “How do colleges prepare people for life?” Once you have finished reading the essay, return to that question to see how well you can answer it using the information you learned from the text.
In addition to asking questions of the text and author, you will want to use a text to develop additional questions about the topic. This is a crucial step in the process of entering into an academic conversation. To develop questions for further inquiry, you should focus on open-ended questions that cannot be easily answered by a quick Internet search.
For example, if you are reading a text about changing the name of Washington’s NFL team, a question for future inquiry could be “What are the effects of media stereotypes?” A closed-ended question such as “What other NFL teams use Native Americans as a mascot?” would close the door to inquiry. The answer to the second question can be easily found using a quick search that ends your line of inquiry. Conversely, the first question can lead to a much deeper level of critical thinking about the topic.
As you read and learn more about the topic, you may want to develop additional questions even if this line of inquiry goes in a completely different direction from where you started. To develop questions for inquiry consider asking these types of questions:
More on Starting with a Question
Your college professors will expect you to be able to read independently to understand all the information you are expected to process in your college texts. Some of your reading assignments will be fairly straightforward. Others will be longer and more complex, so you will need a plan for how to handle them.
For any expository writing—that is, nonfiction, informational writing—your first comprehension goal is to identify the main points and relate any details to those main points. Regardless of what type of expository text you are assigned to read, the primary comprehension goal is to identify the main point: the most important idea that the writer wants to communicate. This idea is often stated early on in the introduction and re-emphasized in the conclusion.
Finding the main point gives you a framework to organize the details presented in the reading and to relate the reading to concepts you learned in class or through other reading assignments. After identifying the main point, find the supporting points: the details, facts, and explanations that develop and clarify the main point.
Your instructor may use the term “main point” interchangeably with other terms, such as thesis, main argument, the main focus, or core concept. |
More on Identifying the Main Idea and Supporting Details
Understanding the vocabulary used in your college texts is a critical component of reading comprehension. Having strategies to use when you come across unfamiliar words will help you build and improve your vocabulary. You can sometimes determine the meaning of a word by looking within the word (at its root, prefix, or suffix) or around the word (at the clues given in the sentence or paragraph in which the word appears). If you are unable to determine the meaning of word in context, you may look up the definition.
Each academic discipline has its own terminology, and part of your success in all of your college courses will require you to move beyond simple memorization of word meanings to using these terms appropriately within the context of the situation. This means being aware that words have different meanings and connotations associated with them, and these meanings and connotations can change depending upon the situation in which they are being used.
Context Determines Meaning
Match the correct meaning of the word synthesis to the context in which it is being used:
Definition #1: the combination of ideas to form a theory or system.
Definition #2: the production of chemical compounds by reaction from simpler materials.
Context: Your English professor would like to see you use more synthesis within the body of your essay.
Answer: You may get a failing grade on your essay if you combine chemicals to form an explosion, so you better go with definition #1!
More on Decoding Vocabulary
Because college-level texts can be challenging, you will also need to monitor your reading comprehension. That is, you will need to stop periodically and assess how well you understand what you are reading. You can improve comprehension by taking time to determine which strategies work best for you and putting those strategies into practice.
Finding the main idea and paying attention to text features as you read helps you figure out what you should know. Just as important, however, is being able to figure out what you do not know and developing a strategy to deal with it.
Textbooks often include comprehension questions in the margins or at the end of a section or chapter. As you read, stop occasionally to answer these questions on paper or in your head. Use them to identify sections you may need to reread, read more carefully, or ask your instructor about later. Even when a text does not have built-in comprehension features, you can actively monitor your own comprehension.
Try these strategies, adapting them as needed to suit different kinds of texts:
More on Metacognitive Strategies
Reading is a recursive, rather than linear, activity. It is rare that you will read a text in college once, straight through from beginning to end. You may need to read a sentence or paragraph several times to understand it. Your reading will slow down or speed up as you encounter novel or familiar information. You may get “lost” in an example and need to double back or skip ahead to understand the point the author is trying to make.
You should plan on reading a text more than once: first for general understanding, and then to analyze and synthesize the material. Reading actively and recursively is the secret to becoming an effective reader.
More on Reading Recursively
How many times have you read a page in a book, or even just a paragraph, and by the end of it thought to yourself, “I have no idea what I just read; I can’t remember any of it?” Almost everyone has done it, and it’s particularly easy to do when you don’t care about the material, are not interested in the material, or if the material is full of difficult or new concepts. If you don’t feel engaged with a text, then you will passively read it, failing to pay attention to substance and structure. Passive reading results in zero gains; you will get nothing from what you have just read.
On the other hand, critical reading is based on active reading because you actively engage with the text, which means thinking about the text before you begin to read it, asking yourself questions as you read it as well as after you have read it, taking notes or annotating the text, summarizing what you have read, and, finally, evaluating the text.
Completing these steps will help you to engage with a text, even if you don’t find it particularly interesting, which may be the case when it comes to assigned readings for some of your classes. In fact, active reading may even help you to develop an interest in the text even when you thought that you initially had none.
By taking an actively critical approach to reading, you will be able to do the following:
Establishing why you read something helps you decide how to read it, which saves time and improves comprehension. Before you start to read, remind yourself what questions you want to keep in mind. (Review Start with a Question section in this chapter). Then establish your purpose for reading.
In college and in your profession, you will read a variety of texts to gain and use information (e.g., scholarly articles, textbooks, reviews). Some purposes for reading might include the following:
Strategies differ from reader to reader. The same reader may use different strategies for different contexts because her purpose for reading changes. Ask yourself “why am I reading?” and “what am I reading?” when deciding which strategies work best.
Once you have established your purpose for reading, the next step is to preview the text. Previewing a text involves skimming over it and noticing what stands out so that you not only get an overall sense of the text, but you also learn the author’s main ideas before reading for details. Thus, because previewing a text helps you better understand it, you will have better success analyzing it.
Questions to ask when previewing may include the following:
Once you have formed a general idea about the text by previewing it, the next preparatory step for critical reading is to speculate about the author’s purpose for writing.
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All of us have a library of life experiences and previous reading knowledge stored in our brains, but this stored knowledge will sit unused unless we consciously take steps to connect to it or “activate” this knowledge.
After previewing a text, ask yourself, “What do I already know about this topic?” If you realize that you know very little about the topic or have some gaps, you may want to pause and do some quick Internet searches to fill in those gaps.
Although Wikipedia is usually not considered a credible source for an academic essay, it can be a helpful tool to discover what other people are saying about the topic, author, or publisher of a text. Internet searches, online encyclopedias, news websites may all be used to help you quickly learn some of the key issues related to the topic.
As you read, you should consider what new information you have learned and how it connects to what you already know. Making connections between prior knowledge and new information is a critical step in reading, thinking, and learning.
Annotating a text means that you actively engage with it by taking notes as you read, usually by marking the text in some way (underlining, highlighting, using symbols such as asterisks) as well as by writing down brief summaries, thoughts, or questions in the margins of the page. If you are working with a textbook and prefer not to write in it, annotations can be made on sticky notes or on a separate sheet of paper.
Regardless of what method you choose, annotating not only directs your focus, but it also helps you retain that information. Furthermore, annotating helps you to recall where important points are in the text if you must return to it for a writing assignment or class discussion.
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More on Active Reading Strategies
The way you approach a text should vary based on the type of text you encounter. Reading a poem is very different from reading a chapter in a textbook. There are unique structures, elements, and purposes to the various texts you will encounter in college.
Below are some examples of active reading strategies employed with a variety of “texts” you might encounter in college including textbooks, scientific research, online media, artwork, and more. Notice how the readers approach the text differently based on the length, format, subject matter, and the reader’s own purpose for reading.
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Once you’ve finished reading, take time to review your initial reactions from your first preview of the text. Were any of your earlier questions answered within the text? Was the author’s purpose similar to what you had speculated it would be?
The following steps will help you process what you have read so that you can move onto the next step of analyzing the text.
Once you understand the text, the next steps will be to analyze and synthesize the information with other sources and with your own knowledge. You will be ready to add your perspective, especially if you can provide evidence to support your viewpoint.
Just like with any new skill, developing your ability to read critically will require focus and dedication. With practice, you will gain confidence and fluency in your ability to read critically. You will be ready to join the academic conversations that surround you at HCC and beyond.
More on After-Reading Strategies
After you have taken the time to read a text critically, the next step, which is covered in the next chapter , is to analyze the text rhetorically to establish a clear idea of what the author wrote and how the author wrote it, as well as how effectively the author communicated the overall message of the text.
Students are often reluctant to seek help. The truth is, every learner occasionally struggles. If you are sincerely trying to keep up with the course reading but feel like you are in over your head, seek out help. Speak up in class, schedule a meeting with your instructor, or visit your university learning center for assistance. Deal with the problem as early in the semester as you can. Instructors respect students who are proactive about their own learning. Most instructors will work hard to help students who make the effort to help themselves. |
Additional Instructional Overviews
CC Licensed Content, Shared Previously
English Composition I , Lumen Learning, CC-BY 4.0.
Rhetoric and Composition , John Barrett, et al., CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Writing for Success , CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Rhetoric and Composition , Bay College , CC-BY 4.0
Image Credits
Figure 1.1 “High School versus College Assignments,” Cate Bombick, Howard Community College, CC -0, derivative image from “High School Versus College Assignments,” Writing for Success , CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Figure 1.2 “Lean In Tweets,” Kalyca Schultz, Virginia Western Community College, CC-0.
Figure 1.3 “Example Questions to Ask a Text,” Kalyca Schultz, Virginia Western Community College, CC-0 .
Figure 1.4 “Sample Says/Does Annotation,” Karen Kyger, Howard Community College, CC-0.
Originally Composed by Elizabeth Browning; revised by Karen Kyger and Cate Bombick, Howard Community College Faculty
Critical Reading Copyright © 2021 by Elizabeth Browning; Karen Kyger; and Cate Bombick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
Last Updated: April 8, 2023 Fact Checked
This article was co-authored by Megan Morgan, PhD . Megan Morgan is a Graduate Program Academic Advisor in the School of Public & International Affairs at the University of Georgia. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Georgia in 2015. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,165,382 times.
The goal of a critical essay is to analyze a book, film, article, painting, or event and support your argument with relevant details. When writing a paper like this, you will have to come up with an interpretation of your own and then use facts or evidence from the work or other sources to prove that your interpretation is acceptable. A critical essay on a book, for example, might focus on the tone and how that influences the meaning of the book overall and would use quotations from the book to support the thesis. This type of paper requires careful planning and writing, but is often a creative way to engage with a subject that you are interested in and can be very rewarding!
To write a critical essay, develop a thesis that expresses your essay's main focus and states an arguable claim. Next, write an introduction that gives a basic overview of your paper and introduces your thesis. Then, create paragraphs that discuss your specific ideas, focusing on one main idea per paragraph. Be sure to start each paragraph with a claim and use examples from primary and secondary sources to support that claim. Finally, create a conclusion that summarizes your main points. For tips on outlining and revising your paper, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No
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Wolfson college academic skills: critical reading and evaluation.
Everyone is different and reads at different paces for different reasons and contexts. Ultimately it is more important to do deep reading than simply get it done. But you may find some tools and techniques on this page to help you identify areas to spend your time on so you don't waste time on material you already know or sections that are irrelevant.
1. Your reading should be just as structured as your essay. Before beginning, you need to plan. Create a list or mind map to analyse your question and help identify what you do and don’t know. Draw out themes you are comfortable with and those which will need more research. This is where to focus your reading
2. Then ask yourself: Why I am reading this? What questions do I want it to answer? This will depend on whether you are looking for information, to improve your understanding or to analyse a text. You may ony want an additional citation to strengthen your argument.
3. Once you know what you want from a reading session, your strategic approach to reading should ideally include the following steps:
4. Do not accept what you read at face value, always question the information, ideas and arguments you come across. Use evidence to help you form your own opinions, arguments, theories and ideas.
5. Critical reading is only effective if you take critical notes. Your notes to need to interpret the overall meaning of what you have read within the wider context of what you know from other sources and your argument. If you write your notes in a critical way, you should be able to drop them into your essay without much editing.
This video introduces the idea of critical reading but it also helpful to look at in conjunction with our notemaking resources.
Ask yourself: what do you want to achieve by reading this?
Reading academically mean reading with real purpose. That way, you won't waste time reading things you already know or that are irrelevant.
Know | Want to know | Learned |
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What do you know about this before reading? | What is left unanswered? This is the motivation to start reading
| Fill this in as you go and record your progress |
How has your thinking moved on? | What is left unanswered? This is the motivation to read in more depth |
You don’t have time to read everything, nor do you need to. Take a structured approach to target your reading:
Then, and only then, should you decide if you need to read further and take in-depth notes. If not, move on the next text.
Once you have established what an individual thinks, you’ll need to link it to the bigger picture. Develop a checklist to evaluate what you read: Authority
Speaking as we read is something associated with childhood. Whilst reading silently can speed up the rate at which we digest text, it sometimes hinders clarity of thought. If passage is difficult or you are finding it hard to concentrate, reading aloud can focus your mind and improve comprehension. Speak into the digital recorder on your phone to listen to it again if you are struggling to understand passages or need to revise them.
Note down words or concepts you are struggling with and then follow them up on another occasion. Don't get distracted whilst reading the passage.
Finger-tracking
Again, this is something we do when learning to read as a child but has huge value for advanced readers too. It is best employed when you don’t need to read every word. Run your finger across the text or, as you get more experienced, in a zigzag fashion down the centre of the page. You will still be able to take in the gist of argument despite not reading every word. It will help identify repeated keywords and arguments.
It is good practice to take a moment after reading to see if you can do the following by way of a summary:
If you are struggling to do this, you may need to re-read sections before moving on to another text.
If you make effective notes in this way, you can then lift chunks directly into your essay or assignment. It is therefore important not to simply describe what you have read but to analyse it too. That way you will writing critically; comparing, contrasting and synthesising information while clarifying the importance of some authors, arguments and sources overs others.
Unless otherwise stated, this work is licenced under a CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence by Wolfson College Cambridge.
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Whether you specialize in literature or just write an essay for a class, knowing how to write a critical essay will give you an advantage throughout your studies at a university and in your professional career. Writing critical essays allows you to develop critical thinking skills, including attentive reading, technical analysis, academic writing skills, searching for reference books, and editing. Mastering these skills will help you conduct a scientific conversation and allow you to communicate and think more productively.
A critical essay is an analysis of any piece of text. It can be a book, a movie, an article or even a painting. The main point of this type of an essay is to interpret text or position it in a wider context. For instance, if you write a critical analysis of a book, you may analyze the tone of its text and find out how it influences the overall meaning of the book. If you analyze a movie, you might concentrate on a symbol that you see over and over again. Nevertheless, you have to include an argumentative thesis about the text and have a lot of evidence sources, obviously textual, to support your statements.
Identify two or three main sections of the body of your essay. These sections should consist of your most important arguments. Use your notes and research to fill these sections with details. You can copy and paste the most important details or arguments into your plan.
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Writing a good critical essay requires a deep analysis of a given topic, and the ability to form clear arguments in order to draw meaningful conclusions. It is important to be aware of the various elements that must be taken into consideration when ordering an essay in order to produce a well-structured, balanced and compelling piece of work. Doing so will help you understand the material better, think more critically, and come up with a more insightful analysis of the topic. Additionally, it will also help you to identify any gaps in the existing literature that can be addressed in your own research.
As with any other essay, the critical analysis consists of the introduction, body, and conclusion. The outline that you will see below is just a sample for you to understand what it can look like. Once you are comfortable, you are free to change it, add more details or arrange it differently to make it more effective. If you are really unsure what your essay is supposed to look like, you can also contact your teacher.
The introduction has three main functions. First of all, you have to introduce the reader to the topic of your paper, what are you going to analyze here but briefly? Then, describe how are you going to address the topic of your paper. And finally, grab the reader’s attention, make them want to stay here, and read the rest of your paper.
This is going to be the largest part of your essay. Here you have to write about something you said you are going to write about in the intro. In other words, support your thesis statement. You have to make a General Statement, then add some quotes to expand it or prove it. After that you have to explain how the quote relates to the thesis, here you have to ask yourself “so how does it relate to my thesis”. And do not forget about Transitions which are connecting paragraphs.
To write a paper in a relevant way, students need to add new information to their research and assess the significance of each argument. Critical essays are meant to be insightful and thought-provoking, so they should provide enough evidence and analysis to support the argument and connect it to the thesis statement. Moreover, students should pay attention to the structure of the essay and make sure they write a paper that is logically organized and easy to understand.
In other words, the conclusion is restating of your thesis. If you have written a strong and clear introduction, the conclusion will not be a problem at all.
So, you have to Restate your Thesis. But do not just repeat what you said before, put it differently. Basically, you said that you are about to prove to us something and now you have to show us that you did. And make a good ending. Make it memorable. Your reader has to have a feeling that the point has been proven.
Good critical essay topics.
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Rogier van der Weyden, 1399 -1464. Altarpiece fragment, Mary Magdalene reading. National Gallery (Great Britain). Available through A rt STOR
Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden. St. Ivo reading, ca.1450. National Gallery (Great Britain). Available through ArtSTOR
Max Beckmann (1884-1950). Reclining Woman Reading, with Irises (192 3). Oil on canvas. Private collection. Image available in HOLLIS
H onore Daumier (1808-1879). Reader (1863). Oil on wood. University of California, San Diego. Image available in ARTStor
Young Man Reading a Book (c.1570-1574). Attributed to Mirza 'Ali (c.1510-1576). Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Image available in HOLLIS
Ms. Richardson 5, fol. 66v Book of Hours, England, ca. 1420. Houghton Library. Image linked from HOLLIS
Pencil drawing of reader in Farnsworth Room [originally in Widener Library] / E. E. Johnson, March 20, 1917 [Farnsworth Room Scrapbooks, v.1]. image available in HOLLIS
Critical reading--active engagement and interaction with texts--is essential to your academic success at Harvard, and to your intellectual growth. Research has shown that students who read deliberately retain more information and retain it longer.
Your college reading assignments will probably be more substantial and more sophisticated than those you are used to from high school. The amount of reading will almost certainly be greater. College students rarely have the luxury of successive re-readings of material, however, given the pace of life in and out of the classroom.
So how should you approach reading in this new environment?
While the strategies described below are (for the sake of clarity) listed sequentially, you typically do most of them simultaneously. If you're used to doing little more than moving your eyes across the page, they may feel awkward at first, and you may have to deploy them consciously. But
But as they become habits, you'll notice the differences -- both in what you “see” in a course reading, and in the confidence with which you approach your texts.
Previewing enables you to develop a set of expectations about the scope and aim of the text. These very preliminary impressions offer you a way to focus your reading.
You’ve probably engaged in one version of previewing in the past, when you’ve tried to determine how long an assigned reading is (and how much time and energy, as a result, it will demand from you). But you can learn a great deal more about the organization and purpose of a text by taking note of features other than its length. For instance:
If an author is unfamiliar or unknown in an essay collection, does an editor introduce them (by supplying brief biographical information, an assessment of the author’s work, concerns, and importance)?
Texts demand different things of you as you read, so whenever you can, register the type of information you’re presented with.
Annotating puts you actively and immediately in a "dialogue” with an author and the issues and ideas you encounter in a written text. .
It's also a way to have an ongoing conversation with yourself as you move through the text and to record what that encounter was like for you. Here's how to make your reading thinking-intensive from start to finish:
Write the questions down (in your margins, at the beginning or end of the reading, in a notebook, or elsewhere. They are reminders of the unfinished business you still have with a text: something to ask during class discussion, or to come to terms with on your own, once you’ve had a chance to digest the material further or have done other course reading.
The best way to determine that you’ve really gotten the point is to be able to state it in your own words. take the information apart, look at its parts, and then, put it back together again in language that is meaningful to you. three ways to proceed: .
Outlining the argument of a text is a version of annotating, and can be done quite informally in the margins of the text, unless you prefer the more formal Roman numeral model you may have learned in high school. Outlining enables you to see the skeleton of an argument: the thesis, the first point and evidence (and so on), through the conclusion. With weighty or difficult readings, that skeleton may not be obvious until you go looking for it.
Summarizing accomplishes something similar, but in sentence and paragraph form, and with the connections between ideas made explicit.
Analyzing adds an evaluative component to the summarizing process—it requires you not just to restate main ideas, but also to test the logic, credibility, and emotional impact of an argument. In analyzing a text, you reflect upon and decide how effectively (or poorly) its argument has been made. Questions to ask:
The way language is chosen, used, and positioned in a text can be an important indication of what an author considers crucial and what they expect you to glean from their argument. .
Language choices can also alert you to ideological positions, hidden agendas or biases. Be watching for:
Once you’ve finished reading actively and annotating it, consider the text from the multiple perspectives..
When you contextualize, you essentially "re-view" a text you've encountered, acknowledging how it is framed by its historical, cultural, material, or intellectual circumstances. Do these factors change, complicate, explain, deepen or otherwise influence how you view a piece?
Also view the reading through the lens of your own experience. Your understanding of the words on the page and their significance is always shaped by what you have come to know and value from living in a particular time and place.
Set course readings against each other to determine their relationships (hidden or explicit)..
Susan Gilroy , Librarian for Undergraduate Writing Programs, Lamont Library
Interrogating texts [2 page printable]
Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy
Critical reading is reading with the purpose of critical examination of the text and its implicit and explicit themes and ideas.
by Terry Heick
Critical reading is reading with the purpose of critical examination of the text and its ideas.
To add a bit more to that definition, we might say, “Critical reading is reading with the purpose of critical examination of the text and its implicit and explicit themes and ideas.”
What is Critical Reading? To expand on the simple definition above, critical reading is the close, careful reading of a text that is undertaken in order to understand it fully and assess its merits. It is not simply a matter of skimming a text or reading for plot points; rather, critical reading requires that you read attentively and thoughtfully, taking into account the text’s structure, purpose, and audience, among other characteristics (e.g., tone, mood, diction, etc.)
Critical reading is the process of reading texts with the purpose to understand them fully. It involves asking questions about the author’s intention, the text’s structure and purpose, and the meanings of individual words and phrases. Critical readers also consider the context in which a text was written and how it might be interpreted by different audiences.
What is a critical reading strategy? A critical reading strategy is anything the reader does that helps them critically evaluate a text.
See also Creating A Culture Of Reading In Your Classroom
What are some examples of critical reading strategies?
Inferring ( ‘Reading between the lines’ is the act of identifying and examining implicit messages and biases.)
Claim/Counter-Claim (itemizing each and how they work/don’t work together in a specific text; concept mapping can be useful here)
Journaling (while or after reading to reflect both on the text and the process of evaluating that text)
Marking The Text
Adjusting Reading Rate
Monitoring Understanding
SPQ: Stop, Paraphrase, and Question
The Contrarian (viewing the text from a specific perspective other than your own–often the opposite of your beliefs, opinion, or perspective)
Critical Lenses (reading a text while ‘seeing’ that text through a specific concept or category–including socioeconomic, historical, gender, race, sexuality, and other ‘concepts’ or realities; this can help uncover bias, create new meaning previously inaccessible to the reader and, perhaps most importantly, help the reader understand the subjectivity of reading and how much of an impact our own biases have on our understanding of both texts we read and the world around us).
See also How To Help Your Students See Quality
Why is Critical Reading Important?
Critical reading is important because it allows you to read and analyze a text critically, breaking it down into its component parts and assessing its strengths and weaknesses. It also helps you understand the author’s purpose in writing the text and how it relates to your own life.
As the process of reading texts with a focus on understanding and evaluating the arguments and evidence presented, critical reading involves asking questions about the text, making connections to other texts, and thinking critically about the author’s argument. Critical reading is necessary for success in school and in life because it allows you to assess information critically and make informed decisions.
To read critically, you only need to read with the purpose of identifying and evaluating the ‘quality’ of a text.
Quality can mean different things depending on the purpose and context of a text. Note, the quality here is different than the ‘quality’ of literature or film, or other fiction. In these cases, specific hallmarks of quality certainly exist but they relate to the ability to convey a compelling fiction (e.g., tell a ‘good story’). The use of dialogue to establish characters, the use of setting to ground conflicts, and the weaving of a unifying narrative through the course of dozens of small events, each done with the purpose of helping the reader slowly uncover some truth about themselves or the world around them–these are the kinds of practices that help determine the quality of fiction.
In non-fiction form–essays, for example–quality is concerned more with the clarity and relevance of a specific claim and the author’s ability to demonstrate the importance and truth of that claim.
Wikipedia offers up a strong example of the need for critical reading: “The psychologist Cyril Burt is known for his studies on the effect of heredity on intelligence. Shortly after he died, his studies of inheritance and intelligence came into disrepute after evidence emerged indicating he had falsified research data. A 1994 paper by William H. Tucker is illuminative on both how “critical reading” was performed in the discovery of the falsified data as well as in many famous psychologists’ “non-critical reading” of Burt’s papers. Tucker shows that the recognized experts within the field of intelligence research blindly accepted Cyril Burt’s research even though it was without scientific value and probably directly faked: They wanted to believe that IQ is hereditary and considered uncritically empirical claims supporting this view. This paper thus demonstrates how critical reading (and the opposite) may be related to beliefs as well as to interests and power structures.”
Critical reading is the process of analyzing a text to understand its meaning and to assess its argument. When you critically read a text, you ask yourself questions about the author’s purpose, the evidence they provide, and the logic of their argument.
Who is saying what to whom? That is, who is the author, what is their message, and who is that message for?
Is this true? By what standard?
Does the thesis pass the ‘So what?’ challenge. Put another way, are the claims being made compelling and significant? Worth understanding?
What is explicitly stated? What is implied? What is the relationship between the two?
What are the underlying assumptions of both the text and the claims within it?
Does the knowledge (facts, truths, information, data, etc.) in the text represent our current best understanding of things as they are today? If not, what has changed and why? And how does that change impact the strength and meaning of the text itself?
What here is fact and what is opinion?
What is the significance of this text?
What are the claims made by this text? Are these claims clear? Relevant? Compelling? New? That is, has this been said before?
What reasons are given to support those claims? Are these reasons aligned with the claims? That is, is the claim-evidence reasoning precise?
That is, is the claim-evidence reasoning accurate?
By formulating questions like these, you can not only guide your own comprehension of the text, you can also begin to learn how arguments (and the texts that contain them) are constructed. This can help students form rational, strong arguments of their own while also providing practice analyzing and evaluating the merit of arguments put forth by others (these can be formal academic arguments or informal ‘arguments’/claims made in real conversations on a day to day basis in their lives).
We bring ourselves to a reading and the ‘self’ we were is forever changed if only ever so slightly. Knowledge acquisition changes us and reading is a process of knowledge acquisition. The same text read five years ago has new meaning now because the meaning is not in the text but in your mind which has changed over that period of time. This kind of realization illustrates the necessity for critical reading (and critical thinking while reading).
See also Critical Thinking Is A Mindset
As human beings, we misunderstand too much and lack too much information and perspective. This leads to humility being one of the most important reading strategies of critical reading. By bringing that mindset to a text, we stand a better chance of evaluating the claim-reasoning strength of a text and, in doing so, stand a better chance of improving our own knowledge and critical reasoning skills.
In Why Students Should Read , I said, “When we read–really, really read–for a while, a normally very loud part of us grows quiet and limp while our mind begins unraveling new ideas. Then, pushing further, we look inward, turning our skin inside out to expose our pulsing, naked nerves to the text. We erect a sense of self to withstand the sheer momentum of the text, then rummage through the debris when it’s all over to see what’s left behind.”
Reading is interested in what was said, comprehending is interested in what was meant, and critical reading is interested in what is actually true .
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A critical essay is a form of academic writing that analyzes, interprets, and/or evaluates a text. In a critical essay, an author makes a claim about how particular ideas or themes are conveyed in a text, then supports that claim with evidence from primary and/or secondary sources.
In casual conversation, we often associate the word "critical" with a negative perspective. However, in the context of a critical essay, the word "critical" simply means discerning and analytical. Critical essays analyze and evaluate the meaning and significance of a text, rather than making a judgment about its content or quality.
Imagine you've just watched the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." If you were chatting with friends in the movie theater lobby, you might say something like, "Charlie was so lucky to find a Golden Ticket. That ticket changed his life." A friend might reply, "Yeah, but Willy Wonka shouldn't have let those raucous kids into his chocolate factory in the first place. They caused a big mess."
These comments make for an enjoyable conversation, but they do not belong in a critical essay. Why? Because they respond to (and pass judgment on) the raw content of the movie, rather than analyzing its themes or how the director conveyed those themes.
On the other hand, a critical essay about "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" might take the following topic as its thesis: "In 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,' director Mel Stuart intertwines money and morality through his depiction of children: the angelic appearance of Charlie Bucket, a good-hearted boy of modest means, is sharply contrasted against the physically grotesque portrayal of the wealthy, and thus immoral, children."
This thesis includes a claim about the themes of the film, what the director seems to be saying about those themes, and what techniques the director employs in order to communicate his message. In addition, this thesis is both supportable and disputable using evidence from the film itself, which means it's a strong central argument for a critical essay .
Critical essays are written across many academic disciplines and can have wide-ranging textual subjects: films, novels, poetry, video games, visual art, and more. However, despite their diverse subject matter, all critical essays share the following characteristics.
Writing a critical essay requires rigorous analysis and a meticulous argument-building process. If you're struggling with a critical essay assignment, these tips will help you get started.
Critical reading, what kind of reader are you.
You read a lot, probably more that you think. You read for your academic studies. You may read fiction, magazines, newspapers. But you also read other texts. These may include food labels, instructions, product reviews, grocery lists, maps, driving directions, road signs, and more. You don’t read all these texts in the same way; you read them with different purposes and using different reading strategies and techniques. The first step towards becoming a critical and active reader is examining your reading process and your reading preferences.
Your reading analysis likely highlighted that reading strategies differ depending on the reading task and what you plan to do with the results of the reading. If, for example, you read a textbook in order to write an essay, chances are you “read for information,” trying to remember as much material as possible so that you could formulate ideas for the essay. If you read a good novel, you probably just focused on following the story. If you read something that you hoped would help you answer some personal question or solve some personal problem, you may have compared and contrasted the information that you read with your own life experiences. Life presents us with a variety of reading situations which demand different reading strategies and techniques.
Reading for academic purposes requires reading for information and main ideas and, more importantly, reading to respond to and evaluate the ideas in a text, as you actively consider what you’re reading. This process is most often called critical reading.
Critical readers are able to interact with the texts they read by carefully listening, writing, conversing, and questioning. They do not sit back and wait for the meaning of a text to come to them; rather, they work hard in order to create such meaning. Critical readers are not made overnight. Becoming a critical reader will take a lot of practice and patience. Depending on your experiences with reading, becoming a critical reader may require a significant change in your whole understanding of the reading process. The trade-off is worth it, however. By becoming a more critical and active reader, you will also become a better researcher and a better writer. A compelling passage describing the substance of critical and active reading comes from the introduction to the book Ways of Reading by David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky:
Reading involves a fair measure of push and shove. You make your mark on the book and it makes its mark on you. Reading is not simply a matter of hanging back and waiting for a piece, or its author, to tell you what the writing has to say. In fact, one of the difficult things about reading is that the pages before you will begin to speak only when the authors are silent and you begin to speak in their place, sometimes for them—doing their work, continuing their projects—and sometimes for yourself, following your own agenda.
Notice that Bartholomae and Petrosky describe reading process in proactive terms. Meaning of every text is “made,” not received. Readers need to “push and shove” in order to create their own, unique content of every text they read. It is up to you as a reader to make the pages in front of you “speak” by talking with and against the text, by questioning and expanding it.
Critical reading, then, is a two-way process. As reader, you are not a consumer of words, waiting patiently for ideas from the printed page or a website to fill your head. Instead, as a critical reader, you need to interact with what you read, asking questions of the author, testing every assertion, fact, or idea, and extending the text by adding your own understanding of the subject and your own personal experiences to your reading.
Here are some key points to remember when reading critically:
The following strategies can help you read critically. You may want to apply them in the form of annotations in the margins of a printed text, or reading journal notes as you read an electronic text. Note that you often need to read the text more than once in order to engage in a conversation with the text. In this conversation with the text, you can:
The next video is actually the first of a series titled “Reading Strategies for Research Students.” The playlist includes 14 videos, 2-3 minutes each, including discussions of how to read with purpose, how to read journal articles, and reading to improve your writing.
Read three short articles on multitasking:
Apply critical reading strategies as you read and re-read. Remember that critical reading is essentially creating a dialogue with the text, so jot down your reactions, ideas, questions, comparisons of texts, and personal examples.
After you have read each article critically, summarize each article.
Finally, write a short reaction to the articles’ concepts (2-3 pages), offering your opinions on multitasking based on your own experience.
Then view the following video on critical thinking and reading.
Write a short essay (5-7 pages) analyzing the information in each article. Include the following points in your analysis:
Submit your essay, which—in addition to addressing the points of analysis—should incorporate your three summaries.
The learning activities on this page use articles published in general publications and written for audiences without a lot of background in psychology or brain studies.
If you were researching this topic for an academic purpose, you would use articles from scholarly journals or peer-reviewed sources, articles that may present original research as opposed to reporting someone else’s research. For comparison, you can access the following scholarly article, “ Deficit in switching between functional brain networks underlies the impact of multitasking on working memory in older adults ,” from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The article is available full text in the ESC library.
Even if your studies are not focused in this field, try to read this article in order to assess your critical reading skills on a more advanced level (or else find and read an article in a professional journal in your field).
Critically reading a scholarly article should provide more insight into your critical reading skills at college and professional levels.
You may be interested in the following courses:
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Evaluate, analyze, synthesize and critique key concepts and experiences, and apply diverse perspectives to find creative solutions to problems concerning human behavior, society and the natural world.
Information and Digital Media Literacy: Critically access, evaluate, understand, create and share information using a range of collaborative technologies to advance learning, as well as personal and professional development.
For more information, see the College Learning Goals Policy .
Have you ever had to read a book or watch a movie for school and then write an essay about it? Well, a critical analysis essay is a type of essay where you do just that! So, when wondering what is a critical analysis essay, know that it's a fancy way of saying that you're going to take a closer look at something and analyze it.
So, let's say you're assigned to read a novel for your literature class. A critical analysis essay would require you to examine the characters, plot, themes, and writing style of the book. You would need to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses and provide your own thoughts and opinions on the text.
Similarly, if you're tasked with writing a critical analysis essay on a scientific article, you would need to analyze the methodology, results, and conclusions presented in the article and evaluate its significance and potential impact on the field.
The key to a successful critical analysis essay is to approach the subject matter with an open mind and a willingness to engage with it on a deeper level. By doing so, you can gain a greater appreciation and understanding of the subject matter and develop your own informed opinions and perspectives. Considering this, we bet you want to learn how to write critical analysis essay easily and efficiently, so keep on reading to find out more!
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If you're looking for an interesting and thought-provoking topic for your critical analysis essay, you've come to the right place! Critical analysis essays can cover many subjects and topics, with endless possibilities. To help you get started, we've compiled a list of critical analysis essay topics by category. We've got you covered whether you're interested in literature, science, social issues, or something else. So, grab a notebook and pen, and get ready to dive deep into your chosen topic. In the following sections, we will provide you with various good critical analysis paper topics to choose from, each with its unique angle and approach.
From television and radio to social media and advertising, mass media is everywhere, shaping our perceptions of the world around us. As a result, it's no surprise that critical analysis essays on mass media are a popular choice for students and scholars alike. To help you get started, here are ten critical essay example topics on mass media:
Sports are a ubiquitous aspect of our culture, and they have the power to unite and inspire people from all walks of life. Whether you're an athlete, a fan, or just someone who appreciates the beauty of competition, there's no denying the significance of sports in our society. If you're looking for an engaging and thought-provoking topic for your critical analysis essay, sports offer a wealth of possibilities:
Literature and arts can inspire, challenge, and transform our perceptions of the world around us. From classic novels to contemporary art, the realm of literature and arts offers many possibilities for critical analysis essays. Here are ten original critic essay example topics on literature and arts:
Culture is a dynamic and multifaceted aspect of our society, encompassing everything from language and religion to art and music. As a result, there are countless possibilities for critical analysis essays on culture. Whether you're interested in exploring the complexities of globalization or delving into the nuances of cultural identity, there's a wealth of topics to choose from:
When wondering how to write a critical analysis essay, remember that it can be a challenging but rewarding process. Crafting a critical analysis example requires a careful and thoughtful examination of a text or artwork to assess its strengths and weaknesses and broader implications. The key to success is to approach the task in a systematic and organized manner, breaking it down into two distinct steps: critical reading and critical writing. Here are some tips for each step of the process to help you write a critical essay.
Here are some tips for critical reading that can help you with your critical analysis paper:
Here are some tips for critical analysis writing, with examples:
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Creating a detailed outline is essential when writing a critical analysis essay. It helps you organize your thoughts and arguments, ensuring your essay flows logically and coherently. Here is a detailed critical analysis outline from our dissertation writers :
I. Introduction
A. Background information about the text and its author
B. Brief summary of the text
C. Thesis statement that clearly states your argument
II. Analysis of the Text
A. Overview of the text's main themes and ideas
B. Examination of the author's writing style and techniques
C. Analysis of the text's structure and organization
III. Evaluation of the Text
A. Evaluation of the author's argument and evidence
B. Analysis of the author's use of language and rhetorical strategies
C. Assessment of the text's effectiveness and relevance to the topic
IV. Discussion of the Context
A. Exploration of the historical, cultural, and social context of the text
B. Examination of the text's influence on its audience and society
C. Analysis of the text's significance and relevance to the present day
V. Counter Arguments and Responses
A. Identification of potential counterarguments to your argument
B. Refutation of counterarguments and defense of your position
C. Acknowledgement of the limitations and weaknesses of your argument
VI. Conclusion
A. Recap of your argument and main points
B. Evaluation of the text's significance and relevance
C. Final thoughts and recommendations for further research or analysis.
This outline can be adjusted to fit the specific requirements of your essay. Still, it should give you a solid foundation for creating a detailed and well-organized critical analysis essay.
There are several techniques used in literary criticism to analyze and evaluate a work of literature. Here are some of the most common techniques:
By using these and other techniques, literary critics can offer insightful and nuanced analyses of works of literature, helping readers to understand and appreciate the complexity and richness of the texts.
Now that you know how to write a critical analysis, take a look at the critical analysis essay sample provided by our research paper writers and better understand this kind of paper!
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How to write a critical analysis essay, what is a critical analysis essay.
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Writing Center & Communications Lab. one A. Fried, TF Spring 2021Critical Reading to Build an Argument After analyzing an assign. ent prompt, you'll have a good idea of your professor's expectations. The te. ts on your syllabus are the best place to start building an argument. But keeping track of all your reading.
While the best way to develop your skills as a writer is to actually practice by writing, practicing critical reading skills is crucial to becoming a better writer. Careful and skilled readers develop a stronger understanding of topics, learn to better anticipate the needs of the audience, and pick up writing "maneuvers" and strategies from ...
Your task as an enlightened critical reader is to read what is on the page, giving the writer a fair chance to develop ideas and allowing yourself to reflect thoughtfully, objectively, on the text. 3. Consider the title. This may seem obvious, but the title may provide clues to the writer's attitude, goals, personal viewpoint, or approach.
Critical Thinking is an Extension of Critical Reading. Thinking critically, in the academic sense, involves being open-minded - using judgement and discipline to process what you are learning about without letting your personal bias or opinion detract from the arguments. Critical thinking involves being rational and aware of your own feelings ...
Critical reading involves making observations and insights—track them! My process involves underlining, especially as I see recurring terms, images, or themes. ... which helps me complicate my own conclusions—a great start to a potential essay! Critical reading is an important prerequisite for the academic writing that Princeton professors ...
Reading Critically and Actively. Critical reading is a vital part of the writing process. In fact, reading and writing processes are alike. In both, you make meaning by actively engaging a text. As a reader, you are not a passive participant, but an active constructor of meaning. Exhibiting an inquisitive, "critical" attitude towards what you ...
Being critical: Critical reading. The way we read depends on what we're reading and why we're reading it. The way we read a novel is different to the way we read a menu. Perhaps we are reading to understand a subject, to increase our knowledge, to analyse data, to retrieve information, or maybe even to have fun!
Critical reading may involve evaluation. Your reading of a text is already critical if it accounts for and makes a series of judgments about how a text is argued. However, some essays may also require you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an argument. If the argument is strong, why? Could it be better or differently supported?
5. Critical reading may involve evaluation. Your reading of a text is already critical if it accounts for and makes a series of judgments about how a text is argued. However, some essays may also require you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an argument. If the argument is strong, why? Could it be better or differently supported?
Reading critically does not simply mean being moved, affected, informed, influenced, and persuaded by a piece of writing. It refers to analyzing and understanding the overall composition of the writing as well as how the writing has achieved its effect on the audience. This level of understanding begins with thinking critically about the texts ...
Critical reading does not have to be all negative. The aim of critical reading is not to find fault but to assess the strength of the evidence and the argument. It is just as useful to conclude that a study, or an article, presents very strong evidence and a well-reasoned argument, as it is to identify the studies or articles that are weak.
Here are the ENGL-121 objectives that are relevant to the reading process: 4) Maintain a controlling purpose for research and writing that emerges from a clearly-defined research question. 5) Locate, evaluate, and integrate appropriate sources accurately and fairly through paraphrase and direct quotation.
Critical thinking might be described as the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. In essence, critical thinking requires you to use your ability to reason. It is about being an active learner rather than a passive recipient of information. Critical thinkers rigorously question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them ...
Perform a critical reading of your source(s). A critical essay assignment asks you to evaluate a book, an article, a movie, a painting, or some other type of text. In order to perform a critical analysis of any text, you need to become very familiar with the primary text. Get to know the text inside and out by reading and rereading it.
5. Critical reading is only effective if you take critical notes. Your notes to need to interpret the overall meaning of what you have read within the wider context of what you know from other sources and your argument. If you write your notes in a critical way, you should be able to drop them into your essay without much editing.
A critical essay is an analysis of any piece of text. It can be a book, a movie, an article or even a painting. The main point of this type of an essay is to interpret text or position it in a wider context. For instance, if you write a critical analysis of a book, you may analyze the tone of its text and find out how it influences the overall ...
Critical reading--active engagement and interaction with texts--is essential to your academic success at Harvard, and to your intellectual growth. Research has shown that students who read deliberately retain more information and retain it longer. Your college reading assignments will probably be more substantial and more sophisticated than ...
Critical reading is the process of reading texts with the purpose to understand them fully. It involves asking questions about the author's intention, the text's structure and purpose, and the meanings of individual words and phrases. Critical readers also consider the context in which a text was written and how it might be interpreted by ...
A critical essay is a form of academic writing that analyzes, interprets, and/or evaluates a text. In a critical essay, an author makes a claim about how particular ideas or themes are conveyed in a text, then supports that claim with evidence from primary and/or secondary sources. In casual conversation, we often associate the word "critical ...
The critical analysis process has two key components, each of which is equally important. The first is the reading process. The purpose of a critical analysis assignment is to demonstrate an understanding of your subject matter. This means you carefully read, watch, or otherwise study your source text. The second part is the writing process itself.
By taking an actively critical approach to reading, you will be able to do the following: Stay focused while you read the text. Understand the main idea of the text. Understand the overall structure or organization of the text. Retain what you have read. Pose informed and thoughtful questions about the text.
Key Features of Critical Reading. Critical readers are able to interact with the texts they read by carefully listening, writing, conversing, and questioning. They do not sit back and wait for the meaning of a text to come to them; rather, they work hard in order to create such meaning. Critical readers are not made overnight.
Step 2: Critical Analysis Writing. Here are some tips for critical analysis writing, with examples: Start with a strong thesis statement: A strong critical analysis thesis is the foundation of any critical analysis essay. It should clearly state your argument or interpretation of the text.