Critical thinking is all about deeply analyzing and considering every aspect of any given information. Applying critical thinking to reading can go a long way in helping you study effectively, as well as allowing you to truly grasp more aspects of what has been read: aspects that may have ordinarily been lost without critical thinking.
Employing critical reading strategies sounds like it would be tough, but it’s a lot simpler than many people realize. Today, we’re going to talk about different types of critical reading strategies, as well as how those strategies can be applied effectively.
Previewing the Material
Most people don’t think of using an outline when it comes to reading. That’s usually reserved for writing your own pieces. However, having an outline for what you are going to read helps with critical reading. It’s recommended that you give any material you need to read in-depth a quick scan first. That’s right, you get to skim at first.
This precursory scan helps in a few ways. First of all, it’s easier to digest new information if you already have some basic info at hand. If you already know the basic ideas in the reading, the different topics and subjects it will be discussing, you’ll be able to pick up on more subtle, less obvious ideas and aspects in the writing.
Previewing the material also gets you in the right state of mind to focus on it, more so than trying to dive right in and analyze everything critically without any preparation. It might sound odd, but if you are going to be reading complex, deep material that’s not necessarily ‘fun’ to read, getting yourself in the right state of mind before beginning is important.
Knowing what to expect before you really start focusing on the material and analyzing it can go a long way in helping you comprehend everything better the first time. That’s why it is so important to do this.
Formulate Questions Regarding the Material
Repetition is a very tedious way to try and reinforce information. Instead, a better way is to take the information you have learned and find ways to rephrase it into questions. It’s very similar to how you would formulate multiple question-and-answer sets for an upcoming exam, except this time, you form such sets for every major section of what you are reading.
Not only that, but forming such question-and-answer sets increases reading comprehension, as you force yourself to deeply consider the material before you, rather than just skimming over it, even subconsciously. Take the major points of your reading and consider how they can be rephrased into questions, as well as what answers they may have.
The main thing you’ll want to look at is the various arguments presented throughout the reading. The different statements that the author makes are not only the most important part of most academic reading, but they are the easiest to transform into questions with answers as well. It’s also the material that you most need to comprehend.
To make the process easier, try rephrasing arguments in a document or on a notepad as you come across them. Once you are done reading that section, you can answer the questions you have created in order to test your comprehension of the material. If you can’t answer the rephrased questions, that’s a problem!
Properly Summarize the Information
Unless you are reading for recreation, the times when you need critical thinking strategies are often when you are reading college-level material. And with such material, the main point is usually to ensure that you know all of the critical information that was in the reading. This is why an important critical reading strategy is summarization.
How do you know that you really got all the information you needed out of the reading material? Did you truly absorb it all, or did you just get bits and pieces? To see if you truly understand the main points of the reading material and any arguments it may make, you should summarize the entirety of the reading in your own words.
You should be able to more or less translate the reading material to someone who has never read it before, and they should be able to get the gist of what the material is about. To ensure that you truly comprehend the required information, do not refer back to the text when trying to write your own summary.
That’s because, if you find yourself lacking the required information for the summary, then you didn’t comprehend the material adequately, and you probably need to go back and read it again. If you do re-read the material, take the time to look up the definitions of any words you don’t understand, as this can greatly impact your overall comprehension.
Assess the Argument
If you are reading a piece that actually has an argument, an important part of comprehension is properly assessing it once you have finished reading. After all, the point of most reading is for someone to prove their point. First, you need to make sure you actually understand what the arguments of the piece are.
Secondly, you need to break that argument down into its many parts. Each aspect of the argument needs to have its own valid support, including appropriate facts, statistics, and logic. For example, perhaps the argument is “exercise is good for you.” You should understand the sub-arguments that the writer made for this statement.
Any argument or sub-argument should be supported with evidence. You, as the reader trying to comprehend everything, should be able to lay out the main argument, all of its sub-topics, and the various evidence that supports all of the statements. This is very similar to summarization, as you can no doubt see.
If you cannot properly summarize the argument, or you are confused about some aspect of it, you likely need to go back and read the material again, employing the aforementioned strategies to ensure that you get a much better grasp on it.
References
https://education.seattlepi.com/strategies-critical-reading-college-students-6076.html
http://academic.shu.edu/english/1201/Reading/critical-reading-strategies.htm
