Critical Reading Strategies in Literature

4.
Critical Reading Strategies in Literature

Being a critical reader means that you do not aim to simply memorize facts and information in the text that you
are reading.
To help you in your critical reading, here are the steps or modes of analysis that are reflected in three types of reading
and discussion as presented by Daniel J. Kurland (2000):
• What a text says is the restatement. At first, you simply talk about the same topic as what is written in the
original text.
• What a text dies is the description. Next, you discuss content of the text.
• What a text means is the interpretation. As you read critically, you should analyze the text and assert a meaning
for the text as a whole.
Here are the three main goals of critical reading that require inference from reading within the text (Kurtland 2000):
• First is to recognize the author’s purpose, which involves inferring a basis for choices of content and language.
• Second is to understand the tone and persuasive elements of the text, which involves classifying the nature of
language choices used by the author.
• Third is to recognize bias, which involves classifying the nature of patterns of choice and language used in the
text.
The following critical reading strategies will help you cope with different reading texts:
• Previewing.
- Preview it by gathering important information about it.
- It helps you in preparing your mind for the barrage of information that is to come when you do the actual
reading.
- Skim it to get the big picture or an overview of the entire text.
- Consider the following:
▪ Who wrote the text? What are the author’s other works?
▪ Where and when was the text published? What were the major events around the time the text was
written or published?
▪ What can you infer about the text based on the title?
▪ What seems to be the general progression or organization of ideas based in the chapter titles or
section headings and subheadings?
▪ What is your purpose for reading the text?
• Annotating.
- Involves highlighting or making notes of important ideas in the text. This can be done by doing the
following:
▪ Underline important ideas such as the thesis, topic sentences, and key concepts. Also highlight
unfamiliar words so you can look them up later.
▪ Make notes such as questions and comments or responses on the margins as you read.
▪ Develop a symbol system. You may draw symbols to mark important words or sentences so that
the text will not appear cluttered.
• Outlining and summarizing
- Outlining and summarizing the text help you identify the main ideas in the text and express them again
in your own words.
- In outlining, you identify the basic structure of the text (i.e., the main ideas and the supporting ideas)
and make connections between those ideas presented.)
- After outlining, you can now summarize the text. It allows you to present your understanding of the text
by reviewing and synthesizing important ideas. And then restate them in your own words.
• Analyzing
- It deals with examining the information presented to support the author’s argument(s). look at the
evidence, sources, and author’s bias(es). Consider the following questions:
▪ Is there enough evidence to support the author’s argument? Does the evidence relate and
support the thesis or the main point the author is trying to convey?
▪ Are the sources of information credible?
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▪ Why did the author take that particular position? What is the author’s background that may
have led to or influenced his or her position?
• Reread.
- Requires a repeated examination of the text to enable you to improve your comprehension of the text
and to identify ideas that you may not have noticed in initial reading.
- Critical readers read the text more than once to fully grasp the meaning of the text and what the author
is conveying.
• Responding
- After developing a clear understanding of the text, you are now ready to respond to the text.
- Drawing meaning from what you have read and presenting in writing or talking about it to others.
- You express your thoughts, feelings, and questions about the text.
- You can write why you agree or disagree with the text or the author’s arguments, or you can interpret
the text.
- Sharing the information that you gained from the text with others who have read the same text is a
good way to check your understanding.
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Critical Reading Strategies in Literature

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