2

Reading Texts
FAQs
What is active reading? (p. 15)
How do I preview a text? (p. 15)
How do I highlight a text? (p. 16)
How do I annotate a text? (p. 16)

Central to becoming a writer is learning the techniques of active

reading. Being an active reader means being actively involved with
the text: reading with pen in hand and physically marking the text in
order to identify parallels, question ambiguities, distinguish impor-
tant points from not-so-important ones, and connect causes with ef-
fects and generalizations with specific examples. The understanding
you gain from active reading prepares you to think (and write) criti-
cally about a text.

ESL TIP
When you read a text for the first time, don’t worry about understand-
ing every word. Instead, just try to get a general idea of what the text is
about and how it is organized. Later on, you can use a dictionary to
look up any unfamiliar words.

2a Previewing a Text
Before you actually begin reading a text, you should preview it—that
is, skim it to get a sense of the writer’s subject and emphasis.
When you preview a book, start by looking at its table of contents;
then, turn to its index. A quick glance at the index will reveal the
amount of coverage the book gives to subjects that may be important
to you. As you leaf through the chapters, look at pictures, graphs, or
tables and the captions that appear with them.
When you preview a periodical article, scan the introductory and
concluding paragraphs for summaries of the writer’s main points.
( Journal articles in the sciences and social sciences often begin with
summaries called abstracts.) Thesis statements, topic sentences,

15
16 2c Reading Texts

repeated key terms, transitional words and phrases, and transitional

See paragraphs can also help you to identify the points a writer is making.
30b In addition, look for the visual cues—such as headings—that writers
use to emphasize ideas.

CLOSE-UP
VISUAL CUES
When you preview a text, don’t forget to note its use of color and of
various typographical elements—such as typeface and type size, bold-
face and italics—to emphasize ideas.

2b Highlighting a Text
When you have finished previewing a work, you should highlight it,
using a system of graphic symbols and underlining to identify the
writer’s key points and their relationships to one another. (If you are
working with library material, photocopy the pages before you high-
light them.) Be sure to use symbols that you will understand when
you reread your material later on.

CHECKLIST
USING HIGHLIGHTING SYMBOLS
Underline to indicate information you should read again.
Box or circle key words or important phrases.
Put question marks next to confusing passages, unclear points, or
words you need to look up.
Draw lines or arrows to show connections between ideas.
Number points that are discussed in sequence.
Draw a vertical line in the margin to set off an important section.
Star especially important ideas.

2c Annotating a Text
After you have read through a text once, read it again—this time,
more critically. At this stage, you should annotate the pages, record-
ing your responses to what you read. This process of recording notes
in the margins or between the lines will help you understand the
writer’s ideas and your own reactions to those ideas.
 Annotating a Text 2c 17

ESL TIP
You may find it useful to use your native language when you annotate a
text.

Some of your annotations may be relatively straightforward. For

example, you may define new words, identify unfamiliar references, or
jot down brief summaries. Other annotations may be more personal:
you may identify a parallel between your own experience and one de-
scribed in the reading selection, or you may record your opinion of
the writer’s position.

CLOSE-UP
READING CRITICALLY
See
When you start to think critically about a text, your annotations may Ch. 8
identify points that confirm (or dispute) your own ideas, question the
appropriateness or accuracy of the writer’s support, uncover the writer’s
biases, or even question (or challenge) the writer’s conclusion.

The following passage illustrates a student’s highlighting and an-

notations on an article about the decline of American public schools.

One of the most compelling arguments about the Vietnam

War is that it lasted as long as it did because of its “classist”
nature. The central thesis is that because neither the decision
makers in the government nor anyone they knew had children
fighting and dying in Vietnam, they had no personal incentive to
bring the war to a halt. The government’s generous college-
deferment system, steeped as it was in class distinctions, allowed
the white middle class to avoid the tragic consequences of the
war. And the people who did the fighting and dying in place of
the college-deferred were those whose voices were least heard in
Washington: the poor and the disenfranchised.
Is this I bring this up because I believe that the decline of the public
comparison schools is rooted in the same cause. Just as with the Vietnam
valid?
(seems War, as soon as the middle class no longer had a stake in the
forced) public schools, the surest pressure on school systems to provide a
decent education instantly disappeared. Once the middle class
was gone, no mayor was going to get booted out of office
because the schools were bad. No incompetent teacher had to
18 2c Reading Texts

worry about angry parents calling for his or her head

“downtown.” No third-rate educationalist at the local teachers
bias
college had to fear having his or her methods criticized by
Who are anyone that mattered.
these
people? The analogy to the Vietnam War can be extended even to
Does he the extent of the denial. It amuses me sometimes to hear people
really
represent
like myself decry the state of the public schools. We bemoan the
them? lack of money, the decaying facilities, the absurd credentialism,
the high foolishness of the school boards. We applaud the
burgeoning reform movement. And everything we say is deeply,
Is this undeniably true. We can see every problem with the schools
“one small
example” *
clearly except one: the fact that our decision to abandon the
enough schools has helped create all the other problems. One small
to support example: In the early 1980s, Massachusetts passed one of those
his claim?
tax cap measures, called Proposition 2 1/2, which has turned out
to be a force for genuine evil in the public schools. Would
bias Proposition 2 1/2 have passed had the middle class still had a
stake in the schools? I wonder. I also wonder whether 20 years
from now, in the next round of breast-beating memoirs, the
O vers im p l i- exodus of the white middle class from the public schools will
f i c a ti o n --
Do a ll finally be seen for what it was. Individually, every parent’s
pa ren t s rationale made impeccable sense—“I can’t deprive my children
ha ve t h e
same
of a decent education”—but collectively, it was a deeply
m o ti ve s ? destructive act.
The main reason the white middle class fled, of course, is
race, or more precisely, the complicated admixture of race
Is this a and class and good intentions gone awry. The fundamental
valid good intention—which even today strikes one as both moral
assumption?
and right—was to integrate the public classroom, and in so
doing, to equalize the resources available to all school
children. In Boston, this was done through enforced busing.
Why does In Washington, it was done through a series of judicial edicts
he assume that attempted to spread the good teachers and resources
intent was
“good” +
throughout the system. In other big city districts, judges
“moral”? weren’t involved; school committees, seeing the handwriting
Is he right? on the wall, tried to do it themselves.
?
However moral the intent, the result almost always was the
same. The white middle class left. The historic parental
vigilance I mentioned earlier had had a lot to do with creating
the two-tiered system—one in which schools attended by the
kids of the white middle class had better teachers, better
equipment, better everything than those attended by the kids of
the poor. This did not happen because the white middle-class
 Annotating a Text 2c 19

parents were racists, necessarily; it happened because they knew

how to manipulate the system and were willing to do so on
Interesting behalf of their kids. Their neighborhood schools became little
point--but
is it true? havens of decent education, and they didn’t much care what
Slanted happened in the other public schools.
language In retrospect, this behavior, though perfectly understandable,
(over-
emotional)
was tragically short-sighted. When the judicial fiats made those
safe havens untenable, the white middle class quickly discovered
Generali- what the poor had always known: There weren’t enough
zation good teachers, decent equipment, and so forth to go
around. For that matter, there weren’t even enough good
students to go around; along with everything else,
Slanted
language middle-class parents had to start worrying about whether
(over- their kids were going to be mugged in school.
emotional) Faced with the grim fact that their children’s education was
Either/or quickly deteriorating, middle-class parents essentially had
fallacy?
Were
two choices: They could stay and pour the energy that had
there once gone into improving the neighborhood school into
other improving the entire school system—a frightening task, to be
choices?
sure. Or they could leave. Invariably, they chose the latter.
Oversimpli-
fication?
And it wasn’t just the white middle class that fled. The black
No excep- middle class, and even the black poor who were especially
tions? ambitious for their children, were getting out as fast as they could
too, though not to the suburbs. They headed mainly for the
parochial schools, which subsequently became integration’s great
success story, even as the public schools became integration’s
great failure. (Joseph Nocera, “The Case Against Joe Nocera:
How People Like Me Helped Ruin the Public Schools”)

■ EXERCISE 1
Preview the following passage, and then read it more carefully, high-
lighting and annotating it to help you understand the writer’s ideas.
Then, compare your highlighting and annotations with a classmate’s.
When you are satisfied that you have identified the most important
ideas and that you both understand the passage, work together to an-
swer the following questions.
• What is the writer’s general subject?
• What is the writer’s most important idea?
• How does he support this key idea?
• How does the writer make connections among related points
clear?
“Go to Wall Street,” my classmates said.
“Go to Wall Street,” my professor advised.
20 2c Reading Texts

“Go to Wall Street,” my father threatened.

Whenever I tell people about my career indecisiveness, their answer
is always the same: Get a blueprint for life and get one fast. Perhaps I’m
simply too immature, but I think 20 is far too young to set my life in
stone.
Nobody mentioned any award for being the first to have a white
picket fence, 2.4 screaming kids, and a spanking new Ford station
wagon.
What’s wrong with uncertainty, with exploring multiple options in
multiple fields? What’s wrong with writing, “Heck, I don’t know,” un-
der the “objective” section of my résumé?
Parents, professors, recruiters and even other students seem to
think there’s a lot wrong with it. And they are all pressuring me to
launch a career prematurely.
My sociology professor warns that my generation will be the first in
American history not to be more successful than our parents’ genera-
tion. This depressing thought drives college students to think of suc-
cess as something that must be achieved at all costs as soon as possible.
My father wants me to emulate his success: Every family wants its
children to improve the family fortune. I feel that desire myself, but I
realize I don’t need to do it by age 25.
This pressure to do better, to compete with the achievements of
our parents in a rapidly changing world, has forced my generation to
pursue definitive, lifelong career paths at far too young an age. Many
of my friends who have graduated in recent years are already miserably
unhappy.
My professors encourage such pre-professionalism. In upper level
finance classes, the discussion is extremely career-oriented. “Learn to
do this and you’ll be paid more” is the theme of many a lecture. Never
is there any talk of actually enjoying the exercise.
Nationwide, universities are finally taking steps in the right direc-
tion by re-emphasizing the study of liberal arts and a return to the
classics. If only job recruiters for Wall Street firms would do the same.
“Get your M.B.A. as soon as possible and you’ll have a jump on the
competition,” said one overly zealous recruiter from Goldman Sachs.
Learning for learning’s sake was completely forgotten: Goldman Sachs
refused to interview anybody without a high grade-point average, re-
gardless of the courses composing that average.
In other interviews, it is expected that you know exactly what you
want to do or you won’t be hired. “Finance?” they say, “What kind of
finance?”
A recruiter at Dean Witter Reynolds said investment banking de-
mands 80 to 100 hours of work per week. I don’t see how anyone will
ever find time to enjoy the gobs of money they’ll be making.
The worst news came from a partner at Salomon Brothers. He told
me no one was happy there, and if they said they were, they’re lying.
He said you come in, make a lot of money and leave as fast as you can.
Two recent Wharton alumni, scarcely two years older than I, spoke
at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette’s presentation. Their jokes about not
having a life outside the office were only partially in jest.
 Annotating a Text 2c 21

Yet, students can’t wait to play this corporate charade. They don
ties and jackets and tote briefcases to class.
It is not just business students who are obsessed with their careers.
The five other people who live in my house are not undergraduate
business majors, but all five plan to attend graduate school next year.
How is it possible that, without one iota of real work experience, these
people are willing to commit themselves to years of intensive study in
one narrow field?
Mom, dad, grandpa, recruiters, professors, fellow students: I im-
plore you to leave me alone.
Now is my chance to explore, to spend time pursuing interests sim-
ply because they make me happy and not because they fill my wallet. I
don’t want to waste my youth toiling at a miserable job. I want to make
the right decisions about my future.
Who knows, I may even end up on Wall Street. (Michael Finkel,
“Undecided—and Proud of It”)

CHECKLIST
READING TEXTS
As you read a text, keep the following questions in mind:
Does the writer provide any information about his or her back-
ground? If so, how does this information affect your reading of
the text?
Are there parallels between the writer’s experiences and your own?
What is the writer’s purpose? How can you tell? See
1a–b
What audience is the text aimed at? How can you tell?
What is the most important idea? What support does the writer
provide for that idea?
What information can you learn from the introduction and con-
clusion?
See
What information can you learn from the thesis statement? 5b
What information can you learn from the topic sentences? See
7a1
What key words are repeated? What does this repetition tell you
about the writer’s purpose and emphasis?
How would you characterize the writer’s tone?
Where do you agree with the writer? Where do you disagree?
What, if anything, is not clear to you?