Critical Reading

Locating the appropriate books and journals for your assignment is the easy part. For many, the effort comes in reading through all the information and comprehending its contents.

There are a number of different types of reading in which we can engage including reading for pleasure, reading to learn about a hobby, and reading to prepare for an assignment. Each type of reading requires different skills, focus, and time. Obviously, you will read at a much more leisurely pace when reading for pleasure than you will when reading material in preparation for an assignment. Correspondingly, just as your research was done in a specific way, with a specific purpose, so too reading for an assignment must be reading with a purpose – critical reading.

Critical Reading: The volume of reading during any academic study is substantial, as such you must learn to read critically – read with a purpose – because you will not have time to read every word. The following points can be used as a guideline to critical reading.

Reading with a purpose, or critical reading, involves searching the paper for:

• the main arguments and themes in the paper. With that in mind, at the end of each section and/or chapter ask yourself; ‘What does this mean?’ ‘What is the point that the author is trying to make?’ ‘What is the author actually saying?’ If you clearly understand what you have read, you will be able to answer those questions in your own words.

• Search for sections that will answer your questions. Ask yourself; ‘How am I going to use this information?’

• Search for sections that support and/or oppose your argument; and

• sections that demonstrate strengths and/or weaknesses associated with the topic.

As a result, before reading each section of the paper, or chapter of a book, get a clear answer to the following three questions:

1. Why am I reading this?

2. What, specifically, am I looking for?

3. What is my thesis, or position, that I am taking in my paper that I need to challenge and defend?

Speed Reading: Putting some basic speed reading techniques into action will help you get through your reading requirements in a more efficient and effective manner. The following speed reading techniques will also assist you in finding the information you are after as quickly as possible. The speed reading process is divided into two main sections. The first part is to familiarise yourself with the book or paper.

Initially, it is essential to get to know the book or paper on a friendly, but not yet intimate basis. Now I know that that might sound a little trivial or even silly.

Nevertheless, as a great deal of the speed reading process occurs on a non-conscious level, ‘getting to know’ your book or paper is a very important part of the speed reading process that assists your reading at that non-conscious level. To that end, the following steps should be followed.

1. Any time you go to read a brand new book that has never been read before you must

‘break the book in’. This is done by opening the front cover and running your finger, very gently but firmly, down the spine, between the cover and the first page.

Then go to the back cover and repeat the process. Then proceed a few pages at a time opening them up and running your finger gently down the spine, alternating, a few pages from the front and then a few more from the back of the book until you reach the centre of the book. This process is especially important with paperback books as, on a non-conscious level, it is very uninviting, to the point of almost being

a non-conscious struggle, to read the pages of a paperback book that are constantly trying to close on you because the book has not been well broken in.

2. Flick through the book/paper to gain familiarity with the format – have they used tables or diagrams; are there any pictures; is it broken up with headings and sub-headings or divided into sections; is the print large or small; and so on.

3. Always check the date of publication of the journal or book so you can put the information you read into a context related to the time in which it was written.

4. If the author is not known to you, read their background details to determine their credibility and possible perspective they may be presenting. How biased will a paper from this author be?

5. If the paper has a contents page, read through that to familiarise yourself with the information you are about to read.

6. Skim through the reference list to get a feel for the literature on which the paper/book is based.

7. Read the abstract, or if a book, the blurb on the dust cover, to find out what the paper/book is about.

All that should only take two to five minutes, depending on the size of the book or paper.

Now, having made friends with the book it is time to gain a more intimate knowledge of the contents by reading the pages in the following manner.

1. If possible, read with the book or paper at an upright angle so that you are not looking down at the paper but instead looking straight ahead. Reading with your book at an angle is less tiring, helps you to read more quickly, and also facilitates the retention of the information. To keep your book or paper at an angle rest it against some stacked books, or better still, purchase a reading easel. The University of Queensland Bookshop usually has Easy Reader book stands for sale designed for just this purpose.

2. Read the introduction and the conclusion or summation.

3. Skim through the paper until you find the relevant parts, as mentioned in the points on critical reading above.

4. As you find pieces of relevant information read a little more slowly and, if appropriate, put a pencil mark in the margin so you can come back to it. If the book is not yours, do not write on it, instead note down the page number. However, if you are overwhelmed by the uncontrollable need to mark books such as library books, then only do so with a yellow highlighter pen. A yellow highlighter pen fades over time and doesn’t show up if the page has to be photocopied.

5. After skimming the paper go back to the pencil marks and read those sections very carefully and critically (as per the critical reading points above) taking down notes that can be used in your assignment.

6. Whenever you take down any notes from any sources at all – books, journals, reports, brochures, Internet – always take down full bibliographic details, including page numbers, so that you can find that source again at any time.

7. By the time you have finished your reading you should have a pile of notes that will then form the basis of your assignment.

NOTE:

It is recommended that if you start to fall asleep reading – take a break.

Often, you only need to break the trance-state that has been induced by your concentration on the page. So if you find it hard to stay awake, stop, because in that condition the work you are doing is totally unproductive. Get up and do some exercises for 5-10 minutes. Go for a walk. Play with the dog. Take a walk around the block.

Spend 5-10 minutes in the garden. Do some exercises. Brain Gym exercises are ideal See the Further Reading list in Appendix 10.5 for books on Brain Gym. Do some cooking. Anything is better than continuing in that sleepy trance-state. If you are the type of person who can take a catnap that only lasts 10-15 minutes, and not 2-3 hours, then give in to the sleepy state and have a catnap. However, when you awake spend a few minutes doing some physical activity. Any active change from the reading, that you choose, will break the trance-state. After that 10 minutes change in activity you

When you are at the stage of working through this book step-by-step, by now, you would have designed your assignment structure, done your research including the reading of the literature that you’ve gathered, and you have a pile of notes, and are now ready to begin writing. You will now find out how to write up your assignment from a presentation perspective, and in Chapter 6, how to write up a persuasive argument.