Reading Critically
"I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life.  As I see it today, the ability to read awoke in me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive."
                     - Malcolm XMalcolm X
 When considering English as a course of study, most people focus on writing as the source of their apprehension or their enthusiasm.  Reading sometimes seems to be an afterthought when thinking about what goes on in an English class.  This should not be the case, however.  The two go hand in hand.  When you learn a foreign language, it’s crucial to listen to people who speak it well.  The more you listen, the more you pick up the language’s rhythms, pronunciations and idiomatic expressions.  Likewise, if you want to be a better writer, you must read. The more you read, the more your brain is exposed to effective patterns of written language, and you’ll find yourself consciously or unconsciously mimicking those patterns in your own work.  These are the reasons why you should be immediately concerned about improving your reading skills.  There is also the long term benefit that reading can save the world - but we'll save that discussion for English 1B.
"There is then creative reading as well as creative writing"
         -Ralph Waldo Emersonemerson

Chances are, a lot (if not most) of the reading you do is either for fun or for work.  Most of this type of reading calls for haste rather than depth.  You read quickly, to get to the next chapter or to pick up the essentials of a memo.  The goal is to quickly assimilate the important information and move on.  In this class, that important information is just the gateway to a much more in-depth understanding of the essay, its author, its audience, and ourselves as readers, writers, members of a community and human beings.  The goal is not to read quickly, but to read analytically, with the intent to understand and respond to writing.  What does it mean to read analytically?  We have all encountered the word “analysis” before, but I wonder how many people really know what it means?  Take a moment now to look it up in your dictionary.

Go on.  I’ll wait here. 

I mean it.  Go look it up.  What do you think you have a dictionary for?  Dang.

Okay.  That was revealing, wasn’t it?  “Analysis” comes from a combination of Greek words meaning to undo or loosen or break down into constituent components.  When you look at all the separate elements of an essay, it makes it easier to see how those components work together to form a cohesive whole, which is the expression and development of the writer’s main point.
            analyzing a book                       The Elements of Analysis                             
The Author
 Knowing a little about the author helps you understand where he or she is “coming from” – a term I usually consider vague and annoying, but effective for this example. What do you know about the author?  Biographical information, such as date of birth, political affiliation, sex and/or gender, ethnicity and/or race, cultural, familial and educational background, socioeconomic status, and more, can often contribute to a deeper understanding of the author’s purpose and a more accurate and relevant response from the reader.  You can’t rely too heavily on such information, because it can be misleading, but very often it provides a very useful context for studying expository writing.
The Audience
 Identifying the author’s intended audience helps clarify the author’s purpose as well.  When was the work written or published?  A work that is a century old can (and often should) be examined from a different angle than one that was published last year.  Where was the work first presented?  Whether an essay was presented publicly in Cosmo or Maxim, in America or in Iraq, in a college classroom or People magazine will affect both the form and content of the essay. 
The Work Itself
 Many people argue that the cultural and biographical background of the author and audience don’t matter.  In this school of thought, nothing matters but the work itself; we should consider it as an integrated whole, transcending the forces that created it.  I will not engage in this debate here (I do in English 1B, for those of you that are interested!)  Still, whether you choose to consider or ignore the cultural and biographical background of the essay, the work itself is a critical component of analysis.
  Writing strategies.  What strategies are presented in the text?  To consider this question, it is useful to ask not what an essay is about, but what it attempts to do.  Does it mean to make you laugh?  To argue a point?  To compare two subjects?  To establish a cause and effect relationship?  To do more than one thing at a time?  We’ll study the various strategies for  writing essays throughout the semester; for now, you may find a list of them in your Bedford book, chapters 1-10.
   Tone.  Is the essay bitter?  Affectionate?  Humorous?  Stern?  Sarcastic, sardonic, wry, smug, concerned, patronizing, aggressive, compassionate, enraged, pleasant – there is no end to the adjectives that can describe the tone of an essay.  An essay can be a combination of tones as well – for example, both bitterness and affection often co-exist in essays about childhood.  When you can describe the tone/s of the essay, you come a step closer to being able to understand the thesis, or main point.
   Language.  Language is not just what is being said (content), but how it’s being said (form).  Form and content work together to accomplish a writer’s purpose.  When you examine the language of an essay, it’s important to remember that writers choose certain words and ways of arranging those words in order to most efficiently get their point across.  To successfully employ this method of analysis, you must be familiar with the terms “denotation” and “connotation”.  Look them up. By now you should know that I mean it whenever I say, “Look it up.” 
Your Reaction
 Once you’ve established the author’s main ideas, you’ll examine your own reaction as part of the experience.  Did you agree with the author, disagree, or a combination of the two?  What questions did the essay raise for you?  Did you come away feeling any emotion, or did it leave you flat?  Did the author successfully carry out his or her purpose?  These questions can help frame the essay, as well as prompt ideas for response.  You can’t rely solely on your own reaction, because, like all responses, it is biased.  However, your own experiences, beliefs, attitudes and background, when considered consciously, contribute to the experience of reading.
  dancing bookws                            The Reading Process
                                                                             Many of us are out of the habit of reading analytically, so let's review that process as well, shall we?
Annotate
 Look this word up if you don’t know it.  As you annotate, ask questions, clarify concepts, define words and identify gaps in the essay, record emotions and reactions to the text.
   Summarize 
 To summarize a text ’s key points in your own words, you must be able to understand it.  Summarizing is also necessary to respond to the text ’s thesis and main supporting points.
   Infer 
 Try to figure out from the text what assumptions the author holds.  Cultural and biographical information help to develop inferences about the author’s assumptions.  Knowing the author’s assumptions helps you to agree or disagree with the main points.
   Synthesize 
 Based on a thorough examination of all elements of the text, what is the author’s ultimate intention? 
   Evaluate
 Do you agree or disagree with the author?  Why?  Do you feel he or she accomplished the intended goal?  Why or why not?  How do your assumptions, based on your own background and experiences, influence your reaction to the text?
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