CRITICAL READING

Critical reading requires you to evaluate the arguments in the text. You need to
distinguish fact from opinion, and look at arguments given for and against the various
claims. It is related to the ability to read carefully, to evaluate ideas, and to judge the
value of a text.

Important Parts in Critical Reading:

1. Audience and Purpose

 Who is the intended audience?

e.g., scientists, academics, educated laypeople, the general population

 What is the author’s purpose?

e.g., to inform, to entertain, to persuade, to share new research

Purpose is the reason an author writes about a topic.

One of the three following purposes will drive a main idea: to inform, to entertain, and to
persuade.

To inform – to give information about a subject. Authors with this purpose wish to
provide facts that will explain or teach something to readers. Example: Pain is a normal
part of a physical process that lets us know something is wrong.

To entertain – to amuse and delight; to appeal to the reader’s senses and imagination.
Authors with this purpose set out to captivate or interest the audience. Example: “Yes, I
have gained weight. I weighed only 8 pounds when I was born.”

To persuade – to convince the reader to agree with the author’s point of view on a
subject. Authors with this purpose may give facts, but their main goal is to argue or
prove a point to readers. Example: The death penalty is deeply flawed and should be
abolished.

To figure out the author’s purpose, the reader must consider the main idea, thought
pattern, and tone.

2. Language and Tone

Tone is the author’s attitude toward the topic. The author’s attitude is expressed through
the words and details he or she selects. Tone is expressed through the words and details
the author selects. To determine the author’s tone, you must notice how these words and
details are used within the writing.
 Example: The following statements each express different attitudes about a shabby
apartment. Six different tones are used: optimistic, bitter, tolerant, sentimental, humorous,
and objective.

1. This place may be shabby, but since both of my children were born while we lived here,
it has a special place in my heart. The tone is sentimental. “It has a special place in my
heart,” expresses tender emotions.
2. This isn’t the greatest apartment in the world, but it’s not really that bad. The tone is
tolerant. The words “not really that bad” show that the writer accepts the situation while
recognizing that it could be better.
3. If only there were some decent jobs out there, I wouldn’t be reduced to living in this
miserable dump. The tone is bitter. The writer resents a situation that forces him or her to
live in a “miserable dump.”
4. This place does need some repairs, but I’m sure the landlord will be making
improvements sometime soon. The tone is optimistic. The writer is expecting the
apartment to be improved soon.
5. When we move away, we’re planning to release three hundred cockroaches and tow
mice, so we can leave the place exactly as we found it. The tone is humorous. The writer
claims to be planning a comic revenge on the landlord by returning the apartment to the
terrible condition it was in when the tenants moved in.
6. This is the apartment we live in. It provides shelter. The tone is objective. The writer
does not express feelings about the apartment. He simply states facts.

Identifying Author Tone

Example of Analysis:

Passage 1

“The treadmill began to whir, and my heart sped up faster than the belt could go. Instead of
pressing "select" on my remote control to escape into a TV show, I had just selected "Power
Run." A sleek screen with a simple set of red lines showed me the terrain on which I was
running. Those red lines looked like a pulse, and they got me to run farther and faster than I
could ever run when I'm outside, worried about weather, cars, or other people. It may not have
looked like I was going anywhere that night, but I had just broken out of a ten-year slump.”

How would you describe this author's attitude towards the treadmill?
In Passage above, the author must have a positive view of the experience.

How do we know that?

Consider the specific details, comparisons and word choices that the author uses.

Specific Details that the Author Chose to Include

  I had just selected "Power Run." (The phrase shows ambition and confidence if the
outcome is positive)
 " I had just broken out of a ten-year slump." (The author ends by explaining the positive
impact this workout had on her life)

Comparisons

 "heart sped up faster than the belt could" ( intense )

 "red lines looked like a pulse" (shows energy or liveliness)

Word Choice

 "farther and faster" ( benefits of running inside)

 "sleek" (author's positive opinion of the screen on the treadmill)

Those adverbs and adjectives show a positive view of the subject's progress and one of the
treadmill's main features.
Words to describe the author's tone include exuberant, enthusiastic, and excited.

3. Bias, Argument and Evidence

Questions:

 What is the thesis?

 What are the main points that support the thesis?
 What evidence is used?
 Is there a clear distinction between fact and opinion?
 Is evidence used to support arguments? How good is the evidence? Are all the points
supported?

Bias is closely related to tone and the author's purpose. Tone helps us recognize the author's
purpose. At the same time, through tone and purpose we can conclude whether or not the author
is biased. Bias in reading does not have a much different meaning. If an author is biased, he is
also taking sides: he or she takes one side of a controversial issue and does not want to consider
what other people have to say about it. Thus, bias in reading refers to an author's partiality
toward a certain viewpoint.

To identify bias in a passage where the bias is hidden or not so strong, you still can use the
same procedure as you did with the ad, and apply the following:

1. Analyze the tone and purpose. The author's tone and purpose provides important clues.

2. Analyze-connotative meanings. Can you find many positive or negative terms toward
the subject?
 3. Notice descriptive language. What impression does the author want to give his readers?

4. Look for opposing viewpoints. Does the author present only one viewpoint (his own)
or does he give both sides of the issue?

An academic argument is made up of three components:

Each component is looked at in more detail below:

Claim

The claim is the point that the author is trying to make. They are asserting something that they are
then going to try and back up in the rest of the argument.

Premise

Premises are the reasons and evidence the author is using to justify a claim. A premise is
something that the author believes to be true - either because they suggest it
is uncontested knowledge or because it is contested yet persuasive knowledge. This is important
because at university you are often looking at papers that are pushing the boundaries of knowledge
and a lot of that is contested.

Attempt to persuade

Without attempting to persuade the reader of something, the author is not completing an argument.
The simplest way an author can do this is to show exactly why the premise leads to the claim:

Looking for the Evidences in the text

Read the following book review by Olga Semnova, the review contains both positive and negative
comments on the book. Mark the parts of the text which give you this information.
 Olga Semenova
In sadness
1917: The Russian Revolution and the Origins of Present-Day Communism
by Leonard Schapiro, Temple Smith, £12.95

1. Leonard Schapiro was exceptionally well-qualified to write a book on 1917. A

leading academic authority on the Bolsheviks (Professor at the LSE, author of The
Communist Party of the Soviet Union etc.), he witnessed the Russian revolution
as well. Schapiro completed 1917 in 1983, just before he died. His book is the
distillation of a lifetime's teaching and reflection on the Russian revolution. It is
both a concise and lucid narrative and a highly-charged piece of political analysis.
2. As narrative, 1917 fills a surprising gap in the literature on the subject. There are
a large number of detailed studies of different aspects of the revolution, some of
them brilliant works of scholarship. But no simple, comprehensive account of the
two revolutions and the civil war exists. Schapiro's book is brief, but covers all
the main points with absolute clarity. It also incorporates the conclusions of the
most important recent research on the subject. The reader gets both an excellent
introduction to the Russian revolution and an idea of how new material is causing
thinking about it to change.
3. The value of Schapiro's analysis is more questionable. Schapiro was old and rigid,
an adherent of the cold war/totalitarianism school. His interpretation of the
Russian revolution is crude and unashamedly biased. He hates the Bolsheviks. He
looks at the Russian revolution purely from the point of view of political power.