Reading and writing skills are closely related. College writing assignments often require you to demonstrate your deep understanding of subject matter, which you get through active and critical reading.
Active reading is engaged and attentive reading in which you
ask yourself questions,
underline key terms and ideas,
jot notes in the margins, and
think about what you read by making predictions and connections.
Critical reading means
understanding the main point and the support,
thinking about how effective the support is, and
considering your own response to the reading and how it relates to your own experiences.
The units in this section address specific skills such as finding topics and main ideas, recognizing structure, and reading arguments. The units also explain what to do before you read, while you read, and after reading so that you really understand what the text means.
Good readers want something from the texts they read. They want to learn, to be entertained, to solve a mystery, or even to ask a new question. Finding your purpose for reading—one more motivating than because it was assigned—may be the first challenge you face.
Sometimes motivation comes while you are doing the work, not before you get started. Apply the activities discussed in these units to your reading assignments; while doing that work, you might discover that you’ve learned something, had fun, found a solution, and formed more questions.
WATCH
In this video by Peter Berkow, several professors and writers talk about their purposes for reading. In particular, these professionals are talking about how reading influences their writing. They read different kinds of texts: a busy marketplace, other writers, textbooks. Yet, they share the goal of making sense of what they read so that they can improve as writers.
After reading the overview and watching “Analyzing Text,” consider the question(s) below. Then “submit” your response.
Question
What is the best summary of Cynthia Selfe’s point: “We read the text of our lives and our experiences every single moment of every single day” (Berkow).
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Question
In “Analyzing Text,” Sue Grafton explains, “And so then I go back and I look at a book or a piece of fiction very analytically. And I’ll take it, I’ll break it down, I’ll start analyzing how a writer has created that effect” (Berkow). What is Grafton describing?
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Question
Several of the professionals in the video talk about reading as a writer. For instance, John Morgan Wilson says, “All the answers that a beginning writer needs to learn to write well are in what’s already been written and been published.… Read them, but you have to learn to read differently. Not to read as a reader anymore but to read as a writer.” Which statement best summarizes this idea of reading as a writer?
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Question
Marty Wallace admits that he has a problem reading chemistry textbooks. What’s his strategy for overcoming that problem?
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Question
Tom Fox gives these specific recommendations: “So you’re reading it also for how [the parts of the article are] working together. How [writers] start, how [writers] use evidence, how [writers] make claims. How [writers] document their work.” Which of the following practices would NOT help you achieve these goals?