How To Read Critically

Critical reading is a means by which a reader attempts to grow closer to the writer, engaging deeply with their words, so that a greater level of understanding can be achieved. The reader questions the author, uses various theories and processes to decode the text and form their own conclusions which is backed by evidence. It allows them to evaluate concepts and come up with solutions on their own by comparing and connecting ideas, and then articulate them. Critical reading is a necessary tool, especially in today’s age of social media where media literacy is scare.

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5 Steps to Reading Critically:

1. Preview- Get an overall understanding

Before you dive in, familiarize yourself with the text to get a feeling of the structure. Take a few minutes to go through the introduction, table of contents, headings and subheadings. It is important to understand the author and the background, and get an overall understanding of the key points the author is trying to convey. Observe any visuals there may be like graphs, charts and pictures. This allows you to form an overall picture in your mind and sets up the room to dig for details later on.

2. Ask questions

Don’t forget to ask questions as you read. What does the title mean? What is the writer’s main message? What is the setting of the story? Who are the characters? What influenced the character to act a certain way? Why did the writer make that argument? Read to understand the how, why and what.

3. Active reading/ Gather Evidence

Actively engage with the text with all the questions, and theories in your mind. Highlight, color code or note down any important points you come across. You can also write key ideas or your thoughts on the margins. Examine important ideas and theories. This will allow to shape an argument and gather evidence to back it up. Annotating and keeping track of the outline, plot or characters mentioned will simplify the process. Not only that, but gaining information on the genre of the book will also help as you can observe how the text plays into them.

4. Answer your questions and form an opinion

Draw your own conclusions based on the evidence you have gathered beforehand. You can now answer all the questions that were initially in your mind and use them in your argument.

5. Put it together

Once you’ve read the book, you can write down what you thought about it or summarize it in your own words. Recording is a very important part as it allows you to retain information and make connections more effectively.

Literary analysis is the evaluation and examination of a written work such as novels, poems and plays. It enables reader to read more critically.

5 Methods of Literary Analysis

1. Analyzing Language and Structure

Every writer has their own style of writing which shapes the way they deliver an idea or a message. This method focuses on the technical aspects of writing and the choice of words used by the author. It puts an emphasis on how certain words or phrases are used to make an impact on the reader. Additionally, you can also identify the personality of a character by the words used for example, a character reserved and shy may use less words or give short responses while an outgoing and energetic character may use a lot of words to express their emotions. Same way you can observe how different words are used in various scenarios or with different characters.

2. Connecting Texts to Personal Experience

As the title suggests, this method allows the reader to connect the text with their own personal experience which makes it highly subjective. You can highlight the parts you resonate with and learn more about yourself. It involves drawing examples from your life to back up the points that you’ve read.

3. Comparative Approach

In this method, multiple texts are compared against each other. You can group texts that share similar themes, genre or writing styles; or you can pinpoint the differences between the texts.

4. Historical Approach

Writers are influenced by the environments they grow up in and what is happening at the time which shapes their work. This can be observed in classics that uses themes and language which may no longer be used.

5. Theoretical Approach

Lastly, you can derive your own theories from the text and back it up by evidence.