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Critical Reading
It is a thousand times
better to have common sense without education than to have education without
common sense.
Robert
Green Ingersoll:
Critical
Reading
The
SQ3R Reading Method
Reading
List
THE
FIVE PARTS OF SPEECH
GLOSSARIES:
TOOLS
Critical
Reading
Just
like there is critical thinking, listening and critical listening, there is reading and there is
critical reading. The
SQ3R reading method for example, is thought
to enhance understanding and retention of material. On the other
hand, critical reading is about evaluating assertions and assessments.
Thinking allows us to model the world and to represent it according
to our objectives and or acting forces of influence. Thoughts are a
function of passion and not only model the world, they model the world as we
are, not necessarily as it is - see for example picture below:
and the auto-correcting function.
The latter may indicate the existence of an auto-correcting function in our mind
that says that as long as we intellectually get the concept, that is good
enough. Or for example, if we listen to an exciting lecture that resonates
with our current situation, we may think that we understood the main
concepts. However, when we get home, as we try to recall what was said, we
are often unable to do so. To what extent the strength of the
auto-correcting function is due to the forces of influence, the Threshold
of BIC or our passion, that is the subject of additional analysis.
Critical
thinking is a never ending, purposeful reflective process concerning what to believe or what to
do. Operative point here is awareness, so as to avoid the Frog Soup
Syndrome: Frog
soup syndrome:
If a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is
placed in cold water that is slowly heated, the frog will not perceive the
danger and will be cooked to death. Something similar happened to the
nation on 9-11 or during the 2008 financial meltdown: While critical
indicators showed major problems ahead, as a nation we were just like the frog
in the frog soup.
Now,
reading
critically is as important as listening. What is the author trying to say?
Is it true? Is it an assertion, or is it an assessment? Is it
fact or opinion? Is the author trying
to persuade or to mislead?
Think
of writing as a special kind of conversation the author is
engaged in with the author. Likewise,
when reading, think of having a conversation with the author.
The author, on the other hand, is just one in a great number of other
domain experts. So, to make an informed decision, we need to get a
“high definition” view of what the author is trying to tell us –
that is, the broader the input, the better the quality of the information.
So,
when reading, it is a good idea to look at the author’s qualification and look
for assessments, assertions and
supporting evidence. Specific questions to ask may include
1.
What are the author’s major
assertions and or claims?
2.
Where is the evidence for the assertions.? Is the evidence sufficient to
convince you of the assertions? If not, what’s missing?
3.
What was the author’s premise or thesis?
4.
What is the author’s call to action? That
is, what does the author want you the reader to do, once you are done with the
text?
5.
What challenges or opportunities have opened up as a result of the text?
here
are two ways to go about life: question everything or question
nothing. In either case, we do not have to think. It
can be argued that only after we have listened to many experts in the field, or
become an expert in our own right, can we develop
a sound position or point of view (POV )
Lacking
the time to become an expert and or review a number of authors, we can however
determine whether the author’s assertions are credible. We can also
determine if the author’s assessments are grounded or ungrounded:
Assertions
are claims about what is observable in the world. They are capable of being
witnessed and the witnesses can classify them as true or false. Logical
propositions and statements of fact are common instances. Examples:
•
The cup is on the table.
•
Bob received an award for his work.
•
Alice stood at the doorway.
These
are all assertions because they can be either true or false and they can be
witnessed by observers
Assessments
Assessments
are evaluations, judgments, or opinions about the world. They are claims made by
the speaker, but unlike assertions they cannot be verified by witnesses. The
second set of three
statements listed above qualify
as assessments by this definition. Many people do not distinguish between
assertions and assessments, a confusion that leads to misunderstanding.
SQ3R
Reading Method - the SQ3R
acronym coined by F. P. Robinson in 1946 in a book titled Effective Study
stands for
- Survey
-
Question
-
Read
-
Recite
-
Review
The SQ3R reading method is thought to
enhance understanding and retention of material.
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Survey
This
step helps you gather the information necessary to focus on a given
chapter and formulate questions for self. It is not necessary to
have answers to your questions at this step of the process, as the
answers come later in the
process. The step should take no more than 5 - 10 minutes
Read
the title
This helps your brain begin to
focus on the topic of the chapter.
Read
the introduction and/or summary This
orients you to how this chapter fits the author's purposes. It
also provides you with an overview of the author's statement of the most
important points.
Read
each boldface heading and subheading This
helps you create a framework for the chapter in your mind before you
begin to read. This framework provides a structure for the
thoughts and details to come.
Review
any graphics Charts,
maps, diagrams, pictures, and other visual aids are there to make a
point. Publishers will not include these items in the book
unless they are deemed to significantly add to the text.
Review
any reading aids in the chapter This
includes italics, chapter objectives, definitions and study questions at
the end of the chapter. These aids are there to help you sort,
comprehend and remember. Use them to your advantage.
Question
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This
step and the next two, read and recite, are repeated over and over
as you read the chapter.
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Turn
boldface headings into one or more questions and write down your
question on the left third of a piece of paper.
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As
you read this section, you will be looking for the answer to your
questions. For example, if you are reading a book to help
you improve your study skills and the heading is "use a
regular study area," the questions you might ask are
"why should I have a regular study area" and "where
should my regular study area be located?"
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Why
do I need to take time to do this step?
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When
your mind is actively searching for answers to questions, it
becomes engaged in the learning process. This will help you
remember and understand the information.
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Read
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Reading
the section fills in the information around the mental structures
you have been building by surveying the chapter and developing
questions about the section.
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Read
one section as a time
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As
you read the section, look for the answers to your questions and
jot them down, in your own words, on the right two-thirds of your
piece of paper.
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Add
more questions, if necessary
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A
single question is probably adequate for a section that is only a
few paragraphs; however, for longer sections, you may find that
you need to add a question or two.
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Don't
get bogged down with the details
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Well-written
textbooks often provide examples to further explain the main
ideas. As you read the section, try to separate the details
from the main ideas. Use the details to help you understand
the main ideas but don't expect yourself to memorize every detail
provided in the cha
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Recite
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Reciting
material as you go retrains your mind to concentrate and learn as
it reads.
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When
do you recite?
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At
the end of each section of the chapter.
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How
do you recite?
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Look
at the question(s) you wrote down before you read the section.
Cover your answers with a piece of paper and see if you can answer
the questions from memory.
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What
if you can't recall the answers to your questons?
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Reread
the section or the part of the section that has to do with that
question.
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When
you can answer your question(s) about this section, go back to
step two, "question." Develop and write down your
question(s) for this section, read the section and then recite
again. Proceed through the chapter repeating these three
steps.
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Review
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The
review step helps you refine our mental organization of the
material in the chapter and begin to build memory. We learn
through repetition. This step provides another opportunity
for repetition of the material and therefore will enhance our
recall of the information.
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How
do you review?
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Once
you've finished reading the entire chapter using the survey,
question, read and recite steps, go back over all your questions.
Cover the answers to the questions you've developed and written
down and see if you can still recite them.
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What
if some of the answers have been forgotten?
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Reread
that section of the chapter to refresh your memory, recite the
answer after you've written it down and then continue your review
process.
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READING
SOURCES:
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