0:00
Hey, what's up, y'all? Let's talk about something very important in writing, in writing courses—English Composition, for example, this course—any course you're going to take, really, relies on this. And of course, this goes for the student side of things, but also the instructor side of things. Administration. Every component. Every interaction that produces some kind of educational context—or, to be frank, any kind of context, in general, really, relies on this at its foundation, at its core. So what is this thing? (I feel like I'm click-baiting you into just waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, but I'm not trying to do that.) This thing is called Critical Reading.
0:45
Critical Reading, it's fundamentally important. And I'll be honest, I don't really like using the word fundamental; it carries with it a sense of absolute unchangeability, something which by its very nature cannot be reproached or even reconsidered. But in this case, I think the word is appropriate to describe the foundation, the critical foundation, of what we do with language and the things that language allows us to connect to and be connected thereby. And so if we're failing to cultivate and really nourish with the vitality that's necessary, our critical reading practice, we are failing ourselves in so many ways. We're putting our engagement with texts and use of language in general at risk, we're putting all of that at risk.
1:48
So what can we do about it? Well, that's exactly what we're gonna do here, in this series about critical reading. So, again, without further ado, beginning with definition and purpose. So what is the big deal for college writers and critical readers? What's the connection? Well, most successful college writers are also sophisticated critical readers, they assume a skeptical attitude toward texts. Instead of believing whatever they read, they critically examine the author's ideas and their own responses to those ideas, to the reading. So they are active, reflective readers, who ask questions about the words on the page, and they mark passages, and they take notes. And they draw connections between the author's ideas as well as their own experiences and knowledge. They draw connections between ideas, experiences, and knowledge, all those things very important to developing not only their personal encyclopedias, so to speak, but also ways into writing about what they read, and actually wanting to engage in interesting discussions, not just in the classroom, and not just in response to a teacher's question, but also outside the classroom, beyond the thresholds of these preloaded spaces for education. Right? I'm talking about wanting to facilitate a discussion or [to] just bring up something interesting, that you think is interesting, over a lunch with a friend, or in the middle of a conversation with one of your family members, or, you know, [situations and scenarios] like that. I mean, [becoming a critical reader is] like gaining another sense, or taking all the senses that you have now and amping them up.
3:42
And that's what critical reading does; it allows you to see the richness in your environment. And think about environment. Conceptually, it doesn't have to be just your literal physical surroundings; it can be the environment of a specific passage in a book that you're reading, the environment of the paragraph that you're producing in your essay at the moment—wherever it is, you know, there's always a deeper level, and you can get to that through your kind of all-access pass of critical reading. Right? So, again, critical readers are active, reflective readers who ask questions about the words on the page, and they mark passages, and they take notes, and they draw connections between things. They're open to new ideas, but they don't just accept them without serious reflective consideration.
4:38
Now, unreflective readers, however, tend to accept unquestioningly what they see in print. In their view, if something has been published, it must be accurate—it's published, it's got to be the truth, right? Well, instead of asking questions about what they read, they tend to accept the author's words at face value. Now remember, this is a tendency we're talking about. For unreflective readers, they have a tendency to accept an author's words at face value. That doesn't mean they're automatically blindly accepting everything. Don't take it to the extreme. It's just a tendency. But that tendency can become a staple, a sort of automaticity, a default setting or configuration for the unreflective reader whenever they come across an idea or, especially, something that's trying to persuade them towards some action. (So yeah, not exactly the best kind of reader to become, to put it lightly.) So think about what this means: a major difference. Well, a major difference between the reflective and the unreflective reader is the way they try to learn from what they read—really, just pause it here, you know, and think about that, let that sink in.
6:03
A major difference between reflective and unreflective reading is how each produces in us the ways that we learn. (Wow, I mean, that's shocking. Honestly, I was, I was floored when I first realized this. It scared me, you know, because I thought, "Wow, all those years where I was just, like, trying to get done with the assignment, because I didn't care about anything else, except having free time...") You got to pay attention to how you learn. Because how you learn participates with what you can do and the opportunities that you can build for you. You know what I mean? How you learn and where you go: they articulate together, they're a unified hinge that can open doors and can extend to shake the right hands or sign important contracts. (Or, you know, I could probably spiel about this all day; so to avoid that, and to save you from possible annoyances very early on, I'll just move on here to the next part of our discussion.)
7:26
So let's characterize the unreflective reader a bit more. Well, the unreflective reader will usually believe that the meaning of a text can be found in the words on the page. That sounds reasonable enough. But what that means is that to understand a text, all a reader has to do is understand the meaning of the author's words. For them, that straightforward process is all reading is—reading is just very simple. They read the text, they look up any words they don't know, they isolate the author's main ideas, perhaps take some notes, then move on to the next reading. And they also tend to believe that because the meaning of a text resides in the author's words, then students, reading the same material, the same words from the same author, ought to come away with the same information—[in other words, they also tend to believe that] the text should mean roughly the same thing to any competent reader who studies it. But no, that's not the whole picture. It's not that simple, not that straightforward. To a degree, yes, but, ultimately, no, [it's not that simple or straightforward].
8:33
So what do reflective, critical readers do to counter this? Well, they tend to adopt a different view of reading. They believe that the meaning of a text resides in the interaction between the reader and the words on the page. In the interaction—not just in the words. So to understand a text, readers must be aware of how their own knowledge and feelings and experiences influences their interpretation of the words on the page. [For reflective, critical readers,] interaction and interpretation are the truer and the higher measures of meaning; for them, reading is a rather dynamic and fluid process. The critical reader will read through a text skeptically, then assess the author's words and ideas in light of their own knowledge and experience. And they'll jot down some notes that capture their questions and responses—of course, this is more detailed than just jotting down (but, you know, for the purpose of brevity...). And then they'll reread the text after they have had some time to consider what the author had to say. And then they'll move on. But they won't just forget what they read; they'll try to make connections to what they move on to.
9:57
Now, what I want you to pay attention to as we move along, as we go along, is that, as I was saying earlier, critical readers are active, reflective readers. They question what they read. And this is key. This is where they get their power, their agency, to do all the things that we were talking about before, all those great things. If you think about it, if you just sit there and accept unquestioningly whatever an author is saying, you're not going to get anything out of that. Maybe a little bit, sure, but you're not really going to learn anything, except maybe how to parrot back what the author has said. You know? But if you're questioning, on the other hand, if you're exploring, if you're investigating, you're going to get so much more out of what you're reading. It'll feel worthwhile, too. There is a sort of caveat here that we should note, that's important to note, that questioning doesn't mean disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing. It's not about being contrarian for the sake of it. It's not about that. It's about exploring the author's ideas, and your own ideas in response to those ideas, and trying to come to some understanding.
11:18
And this is one of those points where critical reading and critical writing intersect, because, to be a critical writer, you must be a critical reader—you have to. But in order to be a critical reader, must you be able to write critically? Is this a two-way street? Well, that's a complicated question, and one that we can't answer fully here. But we can say that, generally speaking, being a critical reader will help you to become a better critical writer, and vice versa. So, in a way, they both rely on each other. But, ultimately, it's up to you to develop your own critical writing skills. And, as with anything else, practice makes perfect.
12:02
The takeaway here is this: as a critical reader, you have the power to engage with texts on your own terms, and to explore the author's ideas and your own ideas in response to those [ideas], and to come to your own understanding. And that right there, let me tell you, that is a really powerful position to be in.