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Alright, let's get the ball rolling here was the kinds of questions that we need to ask about what we read in order to become a critical reader. Where the heck do we even start with this? Well first remember what a critical reader is, right definition and purpose. So, what is the critical reader? What do they do? Well, instead of passively accepting the ideas in author presents, a critical reader attempts to engage in a dialogue with the text. They will pose and work out answers to tough questions concerning the materials purpose, audience, language and content. We might call these kinds of questions. critical questions, critical reading critical questions, it makes sense. Them most productive critical questions will center on the connections that exist between a text author and their audience subject in language. Just to repeat that the most productive critical questions center on the connections that exist between a text author and their audiences subject and language, and that's language in literal terms as in my first language, or my mother tongue or my second language or what what have you but as well as their language use, how they're using the language, what the language there are choices of diction, and syntactical organization, tone, style, commonness, peculiarity, etc, etc. There are so many components and utilities have function in this umbrella term of language that we can connect to a text author, and to their audience into their subject. All of these elements can be connected to one another. And one excellent way of doing that is asking good questions. But not just any question, not just questions in general, no critical questions that center on revealing the connections that exist. revealing those connections is the goal that drives the creation of these questions. That goal, you can think of it as a kind of exigence. Keep in mind that everything you've read has been written by someone for someone about something. And yes, I think this still counts for the internet. Because we have web pages. Remember that the web page is a piece of this grand interconnectivity circulating information driven by code. Remember that, and just as apt of a word we can use medium instead. Anyway, that's not the point. Everything you've read has been written by someone for someone about something using certain words on a page, a webpage, a medium, into some kind of externalized, holder or receptacle, vessel of language. The point is, learning how to identify and question the relationship between these various aspects of a reading can help you understand the material more fully, and determine its meaning and importance. All right, so what are the kinds of questions that we should ask of a reading? Well, let's look at a few. Okay, and we'll start simple. For example, who is the author of the piece? Who is the author of the piece? Very simple. Like I said, what is their stand on the issue that they are addressing? What are their interests, qualifications? Or possible biases? See how we're pushing deeper into the critical question territory? By starting with a very simple question. Alright, so let's move on more. Another question. What was their intent when writing this piece or whatever it was? So after intent, or along with intent, we can think about who the intended audience might be. So in the form of a question, Who is the intended audience? And how does the author support their the author's contentions? What language have they used to convey their ideas on this topic to this audience for this purpose?
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Now here's a prospective question where you're asking this of yourself, based on my own knowledge and experience, what do I think about their ideas, intent, language and support? And then finally, in our sample set here, how well does the author achieve their goal? Often, you'll find that there are a lot of pieces to juggle when trying to make sense of, you know, just one article, let alone two to three articles together. Okay. And sometimes, when we're trying to make sense of all of those different moving parts, we can be confronted with conflicting sources of information, like this author says that about audience but this author kind of doesn't say that they sort of do, but they say something a little bit different. And this author just flat out like, says something totally different than the other two. So I don't know what to what do I do? How do I handle these conflicting sources? This is frequently the case when you're writing a college essay. Well, I mean, ask the questions like the ones that we just went over, you know, questions like these, can I clarify for you the, the the different positions that different authors may hold, you know, it's a way to sort them out and evaluate the worth of each source, and even decide who presents the clearer, more convincing case. We want to form full critical understandings of what we read, and forming this full critical understanding requires asking the right kinds of questions about the author, subjects, audience and language of the piece. In a minute, we'll consider some questions to ask before, during and then after our reading. However, these questions are merely suggestive, not exhaustive. It's not a total absolute final list, okay? They indicate only starting points for your critical assessment of a text. Your teacher, myself and your peers may suggest other questions to ask as well. The specific questions that you can ask, are ultimately dependent on the text or set of texts that you're working with. Still, we can create for ourselves a kind of generic list of questions that will probably work with most articles, as at least entry points into finding those more particular precise, specific questions. Finally, let me just say, with emphasis, that it is a good idea to write out your answers to these questions. Use paper, use an application, use something or devise some system that will allow you to stay organized, super important organization, right, the better organized your notes are, the better organize your writing from those notes will become. Don't rely on your memory alone to keep track of your responses. And that will work to a degree by when you're handling multiple texts for the eventual composition of an extended article, you know, say a synthesis or something. juggling all of that in your memory is just a task that you don't have to put yourself through. I mean, kudos to you if you can do it. But good luck to you. So yeah, probably best to write them down.