Article from CSU Writing Center
Critical reading means that a reader applies certain processes, patterns, questions, and theories that result in clarity and understanding of the text. In critical reading, there is more involvement in effort and understanding than in a simple “dissection” of the text. But what is the difference? If a reader “skips” through the text, the surface features and information are all that the reader reads. A critical reading gets to the “deep structure” (if there is such a thing besides the surface text), that is, logical coherence, tone, organization, and a number of other very important terms.
How can you become a critical reader? There are a variety of answers to this question, and below are some steps you can take:
1. Prepare to become part of the authors' audience.
Authors write for specific audiences, and becoming a member of that audience makes it easier to achieve the author's goal. Learn about the author, the author's background, and the text, read the introductions and notes.
2. Prepare to read with an open mind.
Critical readers seek knowledge; they do not “rewrite” a work to suit their own personality. Your job as an educated critical reader is to read what is on the page, giving the authors an opportunity to develop ideas and allowing yourself to reflect objectively on the text.
3. Consider the title.
This may seem obvious, but the title can provide clues about the author's attitude, goals, personal perspective, or approach.
4. Read slowly.
This is an important factor for “close reading.” By reading slowly, you will make more connections within the text.
5. Use the dictionary and other appropriate reference works.
If there is a word in the text that is not clear or difficult to define in context: look it up. Every word is important, and if a part of the text is difficult to understand, it is doubly important to understand how the author uses those words.
6. Keep notes.
Take side notes, underline, jot down ideas in a notebook, whatever works for your personal taste. Note the author's main ideas, thesis, key points to support the theory. Writing while reading helps with memory in many ways, especially by making connections that are otherwise unclear to specific text in your writing.
7. Keep a reading journal.
In addition to taking notes, it is often helpful to regularly jot down your answers and thoughts to help you later. By developing a habit of reading and writing together, both skills will improve.
Critical reading involves the use of logical and rhetorical skills. Identifying the author's thesis is a good place to start, but understanding how the author intends to support it is a difficult task. More often than not, an author will make a claim (most often in the form of a thesis) and support it in the text. Support for the author's claim is in the evidence provided to suggest that the author's intended argument is sound, or reasonably acceptable. What ties these two together is a series of logical connections that convince the reader of the coherence of the author's argument: this is the main one. If the author's premise is not supported, a critical reading will reveal gaps in the text that indicate that it is not credible.