ENG 2206

CRITICAL THINKING
• In everyday life we are faced with choices to make. Do I go for a
movie or do I stay in my room and finish my assignment?
• Which toothpaste should I buy?
• As a college student, one of the reasons why we are in college is to
sharpen our critical thinking skills.
• After college, we may be faced with tough decisions to make at work.
We will not have to go back to college to be taught what decision to
take on a given issue because we will have developed critical thinking
skills that will serve us for the rest of our lives.
• In college, an important element of critical thinking involves
learning to read critically, because most of what you write in
college will be in response to textbooks, articles, research
reports or other readings.
 HOW DO YOU READ TO UNDERSTAND
COMPLEX MATERIAL
• College reading assignments pose some special challenges.
• In high school, teachers may have covered a text book chapter in a
week, in college instructors assign several chapters in the same
amount of time together with supplementary readings from scholarly
journals, literary texts or other sources.
• College assignments may also address more abstract ideas or use
more complicated language
• Whereas you maybe accomplished at reading sources that summarise
and analyse issues for you, like high school text books, or popular
magazines do, in college many times you’ll have to weigh several
conflicting approaches to an issue or interpret research findings and
data on your own
• But the classroom isn’t the only place you’ll encounter difficult
material.
• You’ll also come across competing viewpoints and complex
terminology when you research current issues as a voter, or when you
use the internet to become an expert on a certain topic, when you
draft a report at work or critique local news coverage
• These extra challenges mean that you can’t read the kinds of material
instructors assign and those that informed citizens value in the same
way you would read a novel or a high school text book.
• You’ll have to develop some specialized skills that help you
become an active engaged reader.
WHAT ARE THESE SKILLS?
 PREVIEW THE TEXT
• You’ll find it easier to read an unfamiliar text if you first preview its
important features.
What is the:
Genre?
Title?
Organisation?
And what are the sources?
Genre
• What kind of document is it? Is it an introductory text-book that
explains basic concepts? An opinion piece? A literary work?
• Different genres have different purposes which you should keep in
mind as you read.
Title
• What does the title tell you about the piece’s content and purpose?
Organisation
• Are there headings or sub-headings?
• What do these suggest about what the text will cover?
Sources
• Inspect the bibliography and index.
• What do the listed sources tell you about the kinds of information and
evidence the writer will rely on?
Goals
• Before reading a piece, determine your goals.
• Are you skimming the piece to see if it’s relevant to a paper you’re
writing|?
• Are you mainly interested in basic concepts and arguments or do you
also need to know small details?
These goals should influence how much time you spend reading and
the strategies you decide to use
Look up unfamiliar terms and concepts
• It’s always easier to understand difficult material if you have the
necessary background knowledge.
• When you preview a text, circle any major terms, concepts or topics
that sound unfamiliar.
• For example, if you’re reading a text about the African diaspora, you’ll
not be able to follow the content if you don’t know the meaning of
the word ‘diaspora’.
• Even if you have some general knowledge about the topic, it’s not a
bad idea to keep a dictionary close by while you read so that you can
clarify confusing passages that you may come across.
Slow down
• The best readers are not usually the fastest. Especially when you’re reading
about new ideas, expect to read slowly and to read and to reread two or
even three times before you fully grasp an argument or explanation.
• Some experts advise that you should make it a habit to read everything
twice:
• The first time just to understand what the writer is saying, and the second
time to focus on your own reactions and opinions.
• But, whatever, your strategy, do not rush.
• Speed-reading does not produce the thorough understanding of a text that
you need as a critical thinker.
Annotate the text to clarify content and
organisation
• Critical readers understand that reading involves more than passively
absorbing words on a page.
• It is an active process of creating a new understanding
Taking notes
• Content notes
• Context notes
• Response notes
Content notes
• Most college students highlight key passages in their texts.
• But if you want to get the most from your reading, don’t stop there.
• When you arrive at an important point or you find yourself trying to
make sense of a difficult passage, translate it into your own words.
• Expressing a concept or an argument in your own language helps you
clarify its meaning.
Context notes
• Notes can also help you follow a text’s structure.
• At important transitions, jot down a key word or two that explains
where the argument is going or how a new point fits in.
• For example, ‘opposing argument’, ‘previous theories’, Example 3’ etc.
Response notes
• When you’re reading something difficult, don’t just accept what it
says, talk back.
• Does a proposal excite or anger you? If it excites you write “yes”, If it
angers you write, “no, poor argument”.
• If the text raises questions, write them down, “Does this argument
follow?”
• In other words you’ll be carrying on some kind of dialogue with your
reading and this helps you develop your own perspective on the
issues being raised.
Write a summary to synthesize what you’ve
read
• The best way to be sure you’ve understood what you’ve read from a
text is to write a summary.
• A summary is a condensed restatement, in your own words, of the
contents of a page.
• Depending on how you intend to use it, a summary can be 25 words
which simply nutshells the thesis of a chapter or article.
• It could also be a longer account of major argumentsand important
examples.
• Occasionally, your instructor may ask you to summarise a reading
assignment for a grade.
• But even if you’re not being graded for it, summaries also offer a
quick way of reviewing readings before an exam or when you’re
searching for sources on a particular issue.
• You’ll also make frequent use of summaries in your writing anytime
you need to quickly explain the gist of an argument.
Writing a summary
• It can be difficult to condense into a few sentences what another
writer has taken pages to write, but there are certain strategies that
can help you get started.
Restate the thesis
• Restate the thesis of the piece in a sentence or two. This will be the
core of your summary.
Divide the text into its major sections
• If the text has headings and sub-headings, then you don’t need to
subdivide your text. The author will have done it for you.
• Compose a sentence that sums up the content of each major section.
Put the pieces together
• Begin with the author and the title of the piece, followed by the
restatement of the thesis. Then add your summaries of each major
section in order.
Revise and polish
• As you revise you can add transitional expressions as needed and
eliminate any unnecessary material including repetitions, minor
details and your own opinions about the piece.
Tip
• When you write a summary, be sure to place in quotation marks any
material you take word for word from the text