CRITICAL READING

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

GRADE 12
WHAT YOU KNOW

• Ponder on this statement of Gary Goshgarian; “ Critical Reading is

an active process of discovery”
• What does it mean to read critically?
• Why did Goshgarian say that critical Reading is an active process
of discovery?
• Map out your answers by writing words/phrases that you can
associate with critical reading, active, and process discovery. Write
as many as you can.
WHAT YOU KNOW

Critical Active
Reading

Process
of
Discovery
IMAGINE THIS
• Imagine that you are reading a magazine
and you see the ff. statements:

“Girls most likely do well in academics

during high school years but boys get ahead
of them in college.”

“Female teenagers are more concerned with

their physical appearance than male
teenagers.”
IMAGINE THIS

• Do you believe and agree with the

statements after reading them?

• Would you question their veracity

(accuracy)?

• How would you react after reading

the statements?
Jens Martensson 7
CRITICAL READING
• It involves scrutinizing (analyzing)
information that you read or hear.
• An active approach to reading that
involves an in depth examination of
the text. Memorization and
understanding of the text is
achieved. Additionally, the text is
broken down into its components
and examined critically in order to
achieve a meaningful
understanding of the material.

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Read not to contradict and confute;
nor to believe and take for granted;
nor to find talk and discourse; but to
weigh and consider
- Francis Bacon
PASSIVE VS ACTIVE READING
Passive Reading: Largely inactive
process.
• Low motivation to examine the text
critically or at an in-depth level.
• Important pieces of data and
assumptions may be missed.
• Data and assumptions that are
perceived by the passive reader are
accepted at face value or are
examined superficially, with little
thought.

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PASSIVE VS ACTIVE READING
• Active Reading:
• It involves interacting with the text
and therefore requires significantly
more energy than passive reading.
• Critical reading ALWAYS involves
active reading. The active reader
invests sufficient effort to understand
the text and commit important details
to memory (schema).

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PASSIVE VS ACTIVE READING
• Active Reading:
• The active reader identifies
important pieces of data, the
assumptions underlying arguments,
and examines them critically. They
rely on their personal experiences
and knowledge of theory to analyze
the text.

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WAYS IN READING A TEXT CRITICALLY

1. Annotate
2. Outline
3. Summarize
4. Evaluate

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WAYS IN CRITICAL READING A TEXT

• Annotate – You annotate what you read. Mark,

highlight, or underline parts of the text that you
think are very important.
Option 1 - Write a few words in the margin that
capture the essence of your reaction.
Option 2 – Write a few words that will help you to
remember the passage.
WAYS IN CRITICAL READING A TEXT

• Outline – in order to fully engage in a dialogue with the

text, identify the main points of the writer and list them
down so you can support or raise the ideas or stand of
the writer.
I. Thesis Statement/Main Idea:
A. Supporting details:
point 1:
point 2:
point 3:
WAYS IN CRITICAL READING A TEXT

•Summarize – Aside from outlining a text you

can get the main points of the text that you
are reading and writing and gist it in your
own words.
•It is usually 1 paragraph long.
WAYS IN CRITICAL READING A TEXT

•Evaluate – It is the most challenging part of

the critical reading process. This where you
will find summarizing, annotating , and
outlining helpful.
•You question the purpose and intention of
the author as well as their assumptions in
claims.