To Read, or not to Read

When you sit down and read an article, do you ever wonder about how you're reading it? Do you have a particular strategy to the way you read and understand information? Believe it or not, you read and interpret different types of texts in different ways. You wouldn't analyze a newspaper article the same way you would analyze a science text book. In order to have a better understanding of the way we interpret articles, the Norton Field Guide gives many clues and helpful tips on how to read different texts with a "critical eye."

When you first go to read any text, there are a few ways you can proceed to evaluate the text efficiently. As stated in the Norton Field Guide, it's best to start by previewing a text. Look at it, evaluate it, skim it, and think about your initial response to what the reading is about. By doing so, you can get a fresh look at the text and start the mental process involved in evaluating the text. Another strategy that can be used is annotating. This strategy requires the reader to highlight key words, phrases, and sentences and then connect tehm with how they work in the text. This particular strategy is good to use because everything that you feel is important is highlighted and noted for future purposes.

After you have initiated the first steps to analyzing the text, the next step is to think about what the writer says in the text. Explain his point to writing what he wrote. After you correctly analyze the situation, then you can move on to analyze the argument and figure out what the writer is arguing against. Find out what his motives for writing the text was. Who is the writer arguing against and what side does he present in the text?

Once all of these steps have been followed, you should have a deep understanding of the text. These particular strategies noted in the book realy help me to evaluate a text. Some of the strategies I, personally, have never heard about, and it's always nice to find new ways to help make life a little easier. The book helps to explain that the best way to analyze a particular text is by having a "critical eye" to watch for everything stated in the paper. With the information listed in the book, the reader will have a better understanding of what the text is really explaining.