Curiosity engagement responsibility reflection

Engage with the texts you read

“The best way to become a good writer is to become a good reader. The more you take from a reading, the more you have to give as a writer.”

—Carolyn Cremona, student, Austin Community College

In college, you’ll read a range of texts, and you’ll be asked to respond—to write analytically about the texts you read, to argue with their authors, and to offer your insights about what the texts mean. College reading and writing are intertwined. Becoming a college writer requires you to develop a new habit, as Carolyn Cremona suggests: Become an engaged reader.

You might ask, though, “How can I judge the work of a researcher who has spent decades studying a topic?” This is a natural question. After all, these expectations—entering academic conversations and taking positions on topics you are learning about—may be new to you. Commit yourself to reading carefully enough to understand an author’s ideas and then reading skeptically enough to question those ideas and talk back to the author.