12.1: Becoming a Critical Reader

Many students come into their college English classes dreading the amount of reading they require; this sense of dread is only exacerbated when academic research, often requiring interaction with long, complex scholarly articles, enters the equation. One possible reason for this is that reading, even when paired with research, has often been misunderstood as mere busywork. The act of reading, though, is absolutely essential to writing in most college courses. Good researchers and writers examine their sources critically and actively. They do not just compile and summarize source details in their writing, but use them to create their own ideas, theories, and, ultimately, their own, new understanding of the topic they are writing about. Such an approach means not taking the information and opinions that the sources contain at face value, and to examine how the texts you read in class speak to each other and to your life experience.

This chapter is about the importance of critical and active reading. It is also about the connection between critical reading and active, strong writing. Much of the discussion you will find in this chapter in fundamental to research and writing, no matter what writing genre, medium, or academic discipline you read and write in. Every other approach to research writing, every other research method and assignment offered elsewhere in this book is, in some way, based upon the principles discussed in this chapter.

Reading is at the heart of the heart of writing about texts or sources. No matter what kinds of methods you use when writing about a text, you are always reading and interpreting the text. Most of us are used to hearing the word “reading” in relation to secondary sources, such as books, journals, magazines, websites, and so on. But even if you are using other sources, such as interviewing someone or surveying a group of people, you are reading. You are reading their subjects’ ideas and views on the topic you are investigating. Even if you are studying photographs, cultural artifacts, and other non-verbal research sources, you are reading them, too, by trying to connect them to their cultural and social contexts and to understand their meaning. Principles of critical reading in this chapter apply to these research situations as well.

Reading and writing are not two separate activities; they are two tightly connected parts of the same whole. That whole is the process of learning and making of new meaning. It may seem that reading and writing are complete opposite of one another.

According to the popular view, when we read, we “consume” texts, and when we write, we “produce” texts. But this view of reading and writing is true only if you see reading as a passive process of taking in information from the text and not as an active and energetic process of making new meaning and new knowledge. Similarly, good writing does not come from nowhere but is usually based upon, or at least influenced by ideas, theories, and stories that come from reading. So, if, as a college student, you have ever wondered why your writing teachers have asked you to read books and articles and write responses to them, it is because writers who do not read and do not actively engage with their reading, have little to say to others.

See this video for more on active reading strategies.

What Kind of Reader are You?

You read a lot, probably more than you think. You read school textbooks, lecture notes, your classmates’ papers, and class websites. When school ends, you probably read some fiction, magazines. But you also read other texts. These may include online product reviews, grocery lists, driving directions, road signs, and the list can go on and on. And 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. This type of examination is sometimes described as “metacognition,” an academic term which loosely translates to “thinking about your thinking”. In this spirit, you are invited to complete the following exploration activity.

Key Features of Critical Reading

Critical readers interact with the texts they read through carefully listening, writing, conversation, and questioning. They do not sit back and wait for the meaning of a text to come to them, but 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 current reading philosophy and 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. Last but not least, you will enjoy reading and writing a whole lot more because you will become actively engaged in both.

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 and make you smarter. 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.

The following are key features of the critical approach to reading:

• No text, however well written and authoritative, contains its own, pre-determined meaning.
• Readers must work hard to create meaning from every text.
• Critical readers interact with the texts they read by questioning them, responding to them, and expanding them, usually in writing.
• Critical readers engage with a text multiple times, reading over and over until they feel that they fully understand, summarize, and interact with its main and supporting points.
• To create meaning, critical readers use a variety of approaches, strategies, and techniques which include applying their personal experiences and existing knowledge to the reading process.
• Critical readers seek actively out other texts, related to the topic of their investigation.

One way to engage in critical reading at every step of the research process is to follow what’s known as “the Reading Cycle.” The Reading Cycle centers on three components: before reading, during reading, and after reading—all of which will be covered here in relation to active reading of source material.

See this PDF for more tactics for employing the reading cycle from Think Literacy: A basic guide to pre, during, and post-reading strategies for both students and instructors.