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Critical Reading: Getting Started

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

— FRANCIS BACON

Active Reading

In the passage that we quote above, Bacon makes two good points. One is that books are of varying worth; the second is that a taste of some books may be enough.

But even a book (or an essay) that you will chew and digest is one that you first may want to taste. How can you get a taste — that is, how can you get some sense of a piece of writing — before you sit down to read it carefully?

PREVIEWING

Even before reading a work, you may have some ideas about it, perhaps because you already know something about the author. You know, for example, that a work by Martin Luther King Jr. will probably deal with civil rights. You know, too, that it will be serious and eloquent. In contrast, if you pick up an essay by Stephen King, you’ll probably expect it to be about fear, the craft of writing, or his experiences as a horror novelist. It may be about something else, but it’s probable the essay will follow your expectations. For one thing, you know that King writes for a broad audience, so his essay won’t be terribly difficult to understand.

In short, a reader who has knowledge of the author probably has some idea of what the subject will be and what the writing will be like, so the reader approaches it in a certain light. But even if you don’t know the author, you can often discern important information about him or her by looking at biographical information provided in the text or by doing a quick Internet search. You can use this information to predict not only the essay’s subject and style but also the author’s approach to the topic, which helps when trying to diagnose assumptions and biases, among other things.

The place of publication may also reveal something about the essay in terms of its subject, style, and approach. For instance, the National Review is a conservative journal. If you notice that an essay on affirmative action was published in the National Review, you’re probably safe in tentatively assuming that the essay will not endorse affirmative action. In contrast, Ms. magazine is a liberal publication, and an essay on affirmative action published there will probably be an endorsement. You often can learn a good deal about a journal or magazine simply by flipping through it and noticing the kinds of articles and advertisements in it.

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The title of an essay, too, may give an idea of what to expect. Of course, a title may announce only the subject and not the author’s thesis or point of view (“On Gun Control”; “Should Drugs Be Legal?”), but fairly often it will indicate the thesis too (as in “Give Children the Vote” or “We Need Campaign Finance Reform Now”). By knowing more or less what to expect, you can probably take in some of the major points even on a quick reading.

When engaging with an essay, you can also consider the role of context — the situational conditions in which it was written. Context can refer to the time period, geographical location, cultural climate, political environment, or any other setting for a piece of writing. Recognizing the context of any piece of writing can reveal a lot about how an author treats a subject. For example, an essay written before September 11, 2001, about how to contain global terrorism might have a less urgent approach and advocate more lenient measures than one written today. An article about transgender identity or police brutality might convey different assumptions about those topics depending on whether it was written before or after Bruce Jenner publicly became Caitlyn Jenner, for instance, or before or after the events of Ferguson, Missouri, brought the issue of race and police violence into the public’s consciousness in new ways.

Anything you read exists in at least two broad contexts: the context of its production (where and when it was written or published) and the context of its consumption (where and when it is encountered and read). One thing all good critical thinkers do when considering the validity of claims and arguments is to take both types of context into account. This means asking questions not only about the approach, assumptions, and beliefs that were in place when an essay was written, but also about how current events and understandings generate new issues and challenges within the subject of the essay. The state of affairs in the time and place in which that argument is made and received shapes the questions you might ask, the evidence you might consider, and the responses you might produce.

Notice that you can apply these previewing techniques before reading a single word of the essay. And once you have a good sense of the what, who, where, and when of an essay, you should keep them in mind while reading.

Your first reading might involve another previewing technique, skimming. Sometimes, you can find the thesis (the main point or major claim) of an essay by looking at the first paragraph. Other times, especially if the paragraphs are short, you can locate the thesis within the first several paragraphs. Depending on what you discover while skimming, you can speed up or slow down your reading as needed while you locate the thesis and get a sense of how the argument for it is structured. If the essay has sections, pay attention to headings and subheadings. Look for key expressions that indicate an author’s conclusive statements, such as “Finally, then, it is time that we …” or “Given this evidence, it is clear that….” These kinds of sentences frequently appear at the beginnings or endings of paragraphs and sections. Final paragraphs are particularly important because they often summarize the argument and restate the thesis.

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By previewing and skimming effectively, you can quickly ascertain quite a bit of information about an article or essay. You can detect the author’s claims and methods, see the evidence he or she uses (experience, statistics, quotations, etc.), ascertain the tone and difficulty level, and determine whether the piece of writing offers useful ideas for you. This strategy works well if you’re researching a topic and need to review many essays — you can read efficiently to find those that are most important or relevant to you, or those that offer different perspectives. Of course, if you do find an essay to be compelling during previewing, you can begin “chewing and digesting,” as Francis Bacon put it — reading more closely and carefully (or else putting it aside for later when you can give it more time).

CALL OUT: CRITICAL READING TIP Instead of imagining previewing and close reading as two separate stages to be completed consecutively, think of previewing as an activity that might at any time develop into close reading.