My Critical Reading Strategies

During the course we studied two main texts in 1984, and Hamlet. I was able to annotate both of them to help myself better understand the text. In 1984 I properly annotated, to help myself go back and find specific evidence to help my understanding of the text, for example on page four of 1984 I annotated the paragraph that had explained what all the ministries did. This was helpful because if I ever forgot during the book I could look back and see what I annotated. During Hamlet annotating was also a helpful strategy because of the log assignments we had. The logs required us to find important quotes, talk about the value of the scene, as well as discuss character’s relationships. Annotating was a helpful strategy for this because I could look back and find what I needed right away, for example in Act 4 Scene 7 I annotated the part where Claudius and Laertes devised a plan to kill Hamlet. Annotating this was helpful because it showed how relationships were developing throughout the play. Not only did I annotate to help comprehend a text, but I also paraphrased parts of the text to better understand it. During the soliloquy assignment I found a soliloquy and paraphrased the entire thing so i could better understand what the character was saying. In Act 3 Scene 3 King Claudius gave a soliloquy on how he murdered his brother and the pain it has brought with. I paraphrased this so I could properly present it to the class while understanding what I was saying. This

The Norton Field Guide to Writing covers topics about writing and composing. Several of which I was already familiar with. In chapter 2, Bullock and Weinberg express how “Many readers find it helps to annotate as they read…” (16). I have become very familiar with annotating over the years. I often use this writing method to help me understand and summarize text I come across.

Seagull Handbook the three most effective reading strategies are analyze, evaluate, and formulate. Analyzing is one effective reading strategy a reader can use. This method is most effective by thinking about the writer’s arranged ideas. For example, viewing the developed topics and the structure of the paragraph is a way of analyzing. Annotating is beneficial to the reader who is analyzing the text. When using annotating, a reader

At the time that I have been in the college, I have used some of the strategies named in the introduction of the book “The Norton Reader” such as: Describing, rereading, exemplifying and knowing about the author and the audience. However, it surprised me to know that there were even more strategies than the previously mentioned. Personally, I got some interest, knowing about comparing and contrasting that in the book’s word means: “which analyzes the similarities and differences between or among people, places, things, or ideas.” Because I can see how finding similarities between articles can help the reader to understand them better. Of course, I’m going to use those new strategies in future because they can help me as reader to create strong

This weeks reading included They Say I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein and From Critical Thinking to Argument by Sylvan Barnet, Hugo Bedau, and John O’Hara. In They Say I Say, Graff and Birkenstein talk about the importance of being able to look at writings and be able to not only find the thesis/ argument that the author is making but also be able to figure out “The view or views that motivate the thesis - the ‘they say’” (Graff and Birkenstein 155). In From Critical Thinking to Argument Barnet, Bedau, and O’Hara talk about how to think critically. This includes being able to see both sides of an argument. A good way to do this is by clustering, which is where one thinks about possible counterarguments/ responses to their claim. We also read about how when reading a paper, we should preview the paper by looking at the author, publisher, title, context, and the thesis. We should also annotate, highlight, and

--Answer below: My first step would be of course to process the information and figure out what approach to take to retain as much as possible in my memory. I’m not good reading directions follower but I remember much better by repetition, through memory consolidation. Sometimes I will read article several times, loud, pretending that I’m a TV presenter and that visual of myself speaking, even gestures that I might make will stay in my memory and I will be able to repeat something I read almost 100%. This takes time so I learned new techniques in memorizing information.

Read Like a Graduate Student I feel that the tools listed in the article “Read Like a Graduate Student, not a Mystery Fan” are going to help me immensely as I continue my course of education. The first chapter I read, for another course that I am currently enrolled in, I read from front to back like I would normally read a chapter for enjoyment. Upon completing the reading assignment, I felt like I had retained very little information. After reading the first discussion questions required for the course, I had to re-read portions of the first chapter in order to address the topics from discussion questions. I did not read the chapter from front to back but read the introduction, then the summary and finally the content. The second reading,

My annotation grades have not been consistent so far, because I annotate on the same day I write my rough draft and sometimes get in a rush just so I can get to writing my paper faster. I usually don’t have trouble understanding the article, unless I am particularly tired

I did not enjoy annotating because there were many things to annotate for and it was hard to tell if my annotations were critical enough. It might have been more enjoyable if we did not have to annotate it, but because we did, I focused mostly on thinking critically rather than enjoying the plot. It was easy to fall behind on, so although I think one book per night is not too bad, if I put off annotating, the amount of work I had to make up would get overwhelming. Nevertheless, the fact that I am very close to finishing the epic poem is very satisfying because I will not have to annotate that intensely for the rest of the year. But again, annotating was kind of frustrating because it took up a lot of time and energy and the fact that I may not have been up to the standards when it comes to thinking critically is really disheartening. I think I did as best as I could but there is still that doubt in my mind telling me my annotations were not critical enough. The standards for annotations were to notice thematic topics, epic conventions, and figurative language, all the while, thinking critically enough so that my notes were not just summaries. I thought that I did well on my annotations, however when I got my graded 1-4 chapters back, the notes said that could have been more critical. I think what I struggle with the most is thinking critically because I cannot make connections to bigger ideas.

Based on chapter 9, annotation is summing up the information in my text by briefly writing the key ideas in the margin. I have to annotate because annotation encourages me to process the information and think about it. It helps me to manage the amount of information I need to

A reflection of my reading strategies varies. When I reading, I try to keep an open mind to what I’m reading I have an open perspective from my point of view of from someone else, or even the author point of view. Depending on what kind of text is it or coming from I might see it in a different way. When reading a novel, you try to keep perspective of a character feelings as it expression it emotional and try to feel the emotion of through reading when character falls in love, or heartbroken. My reading strategies try to empathize with the text. When reading a textbook or newspaper that when my strategies change, your reading a textbook that’s more expand your knowledge or a newspaper to inform you of what going on in your community or all

The method by which I was taught to read literature effectively and discerningly similar to the formulaic pattern played out in the introduction to chapter five in the Brown and Yarborough text. The steps were to identify the setting, primary theme, characters, common motifs, and illusions to outside works. From

Once I squeezed out all the information I could muster from those sections, I moved on to reading the text in extreme focus latching on to every word. For example, in the article “Some Consequences of Having Too Little,” when the text said “currently there are two ways to explain

If you don't already know , don't look to see who wrote this. Your perception of this person prior to reading this will affect the way your mind interprets this. Say, if you had the mindset that this was written by someone you know to be very smart or someone of greatness, going into this you would no doubt already have assumptions that this will meet the same standards of aw. Going into this with the state of knowing this is a student already tells you that this will be under your bar of greatness.

Taking this class has taught me a lot about myself as a learner. At the beginning of this course I defined learning as how one takes in information in their surroundings and applies it to their life. While I do still believe that is a part of the learning process, I now know how to properly use my strong suits and weaknesses to get the best results from the information presented to me. With the information I have acquired throughout this course, I would also include applying critical thinking and reading skills to better decipher the information gained to my definition of learning. Knowing how to interpret the information given to you is a huge part of learning.