Critical Reading

Critical reading is thoroughly analyzing a piece of writing. Readers draw in the important points of the piece of writing and decide whether or not the writer's argument provided sufficient logic, facts, or evidence. Readers should ask themselves after reading the piece "What is their argument?", "What audience are they appealing to?" "What is their tone?" "Are they biased?" "Do they provide sufficient support (dates, facts, quotes, etc.) for their argument?" All are key questions we should ask while analyzing the piece.

Critical readings skills are necessary through out college, especially for college text books. Critical reading skills in college will help us retain the important popints from new knowledge we receive daily from our classes.

Three tools the reading assignment suggested for critical reading are audience, illogical arguments, and images. When writing or reading an article or piece of literature, audience dictates everything. When we write, we must appeal to the audience. If we are writing for a school paper, generally the tone and style will be argumentative with a liberal flare. If we are writing a piece for a religious magazine, the tone and arguments will be conservative. Illogical arguments are arguments that do not provide an appropriate tone and style that provides facts and dates, which are current, for their argument. Image helps the article to be more appealing and for the reader to visualize the points made behind the reading. For example, a newspaper article over genocide in Darfur. A visual image of the refugees would help draw readers into the article and visualize the emergency of the event.