Steps in Critifcal Reading

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Steps in Critical Reading

Critical reading is presented here in discrete steps
to isolate and highlight individual elements.

In actual practice, many steps are accomplished at the same time,
each step reinforcing and facilitating others as you go along.

Read for literal meaning

Read sentence by sentence to decode meaning.

recognize word meaning.
   See Words , Inference: Denotation , and Inference: Reading and Writing Ideas as Well as Words
recognize sentence structure and sentence meaning.
   See A Grammar for Reading and Writing
infer meaning from references, associations, and figurative language.
   See Inference: Association and Reference and Inference: Figurative Language

Analyze and Describe

Isolate and classify patterns of elements and their relationships

Content: recognize the major topics amd subtopics under discussion.

who or what is talked about
how are those groups or subtopics portrayed?
   See: Choices: The Choice of Content and Recognizing What Examples Are Examples Of
Language: be alert to the choice of terms

what kind of language is applied to what topics
to what purpose or affect?  How is each subtopic portrayed?
   See: Choices: The Choice of Language

Structure

recognize the relationship of each sentence to the others within paragraphs, and of one paragraph to the next within larger sections
   See: The Choice of Structure

idenitify examples and conclusion
identify how description, narration. and argumentations are employed to reach a position
See Descriptive Formats: Ways to Describe a Discussion and A Variety of Descriptive Formats

recognize relationships between patterns of content throughout the text as a whole. [See Controlling Patterns of Content and Patterns of Content: An Example--PoliceMagazine]

Interpret an overall meaning

What meaning and understanding is implied by presenting these ideas in this manner?

Infer meaning from the way in which elements are portrayed and related
Account for all of the elements being as they are within the relationships within which they are presented.
See Inference: Inference Equations and Interpretation: Analyzing What A Text Means