Critical Reading
Background
Angela Davis, a Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz—who is also a central figure in the Revolutionary Nationalist phase of the Black Power Movement and a prison reform activist—makes the following observations in a recent commencement address delivered at Grinnell College: “I hope that you will treasure the approaches and ways of thinking that you have learned more than the facts you have accumulated. For you will never discover a scarcity of facts, and these facts will be presented in such a way as to veil the ways of thinking embedded in them. And so to reveal these hidden ways of thinking, to suggest alternate frameworks to imagine better ways of living in evolving worlds, to imagine new human relationships that are freed from persisting hierarchies, whether they be racial or sexual or geopolitical—yes, I think this is the work of educated beings. I might then ask you to think about education as the practice of freedom.” (New York Times, June 10, 2007, p. 20)
What do Professor Davis’ observations have to do with Critical Reading? Her observations indicate a core tension of critical reading and that is discovering the difference between facts and meaning. Dan Kurland makes a similar point when he writes “To the critical reader, any single text provides but one portrayal of the facts, one individual’s ‘take’ on the subject matter. Critical readers thus recognize not only what a text says, but also how that text portrays the subject matter. They recognize the various ways in which each and every text is the unique creation of a unique author. A non-critical reader might read a history book to learn the facts of the situation or to discover an accepted interpretation of those events. A critical reader might read the same work to appreciate how a particular perspective on the events and a particular selection of facts can lead to particular understanding.” (http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_reading.htm)
In the Flash Book attached to this page you will be introduced to a critical reading process. The major steps in the process concern how to construct an appropriate context for what you are reading in order to facilitate an external analysis of the same; how to use the thesis statement of what you are reading as a basis for internal analysis of the same; and it will acquaint you with some basic stylistic considerations, the implementation of which are a basis for analysis.