Critical Reading

     It is important to learn to read. When you have a hard copy, you can take the time to underline the important parts of the text and think about the meaning of the text. It is important to use a pencil, so that you can erase any errors you make.

     When it comes to comprehension and memorizing, deep reading is the best way. To do this, it is important to think about the meaning and value of the statements that the author is presenting. This is equivalent to having a discussion in your mind with the author of the text. There is no need to go fast. Take your time and think about each sentence the author writes. 

 

As you are reading, you ask questions like, 

"is this true?" 

'How does this connect with other things the author has said?" 

"how does this connect with other things I know?" 

​

     The problem with hard copy texts is the nature of the physical book itself. You can lose the book, someone can steal it, the book can be damaged. Unlike PDF's there is no 'search' Ctrl+F function where you can search the entire document for a term. Physical books have a value contingent on your ability to take care of them. If you are prone to losing physical objects, you risk losing all the progress you made in evaluating the book itself. Digital copies, when saved to your Google Drive or other accounts, cannot be lost in a physical sense. These digital formats do have the problem of being hacked and come with different safety measures than hard copies. 

​

Evaluation Symbols

[...]   As you are reading, you can bracket different statements and evaluate them as premises and conclusions.

​

-    For all statements, they get a dash in the center of the bracket, so that you know it is one point that the author is making. Sometimes it may be many sentences to make one point. Other times, it is one sentence per point. 

 

X    Some premises may be false, for which you can use an 'X' to signify you disagree.

 

       If the statement is correct, and it is a major premise or conclusion, you can use a '🗸' to signify its importance.

 

?   If the statement is confusing or you have questions about it, you can use a '?" beside the bracket.

 

(     )   If the statement is extremely important, determined by if it was the only sentence on the page you would read, you can use a checkmark and circle it. 

​

This way, you make progress through the text by segmententing each premise into brackets and evaluating that premise. When you go back in the chapter later, you can see your progress of evaluation.

​

Digital Text

     In PDF's the technique is different. A colour coding is best in this circumstance but is not as good as the symbol evaluation shown above. Using 3 colours works best. Having the PDF colour coded makes it easy to skim through it and pick out the most important statements. It would take a long time to write symbols to represent the value of each section.

     The problem with the PDF is different apps you use to view the PDF can save the document in a way that the file will freeze and you lose your progress. This can be quite frustrating. Also, files can become corrupt, where the highlights become solid and you cover the text with the colour and cannot read it. This also is frustrating because now the PDF is useless to you, for all the work in highlighting is lost. Finally, you can simply delete or lose the file you worked on, which means that the progress is lost again. 

     Sometimes we have to read PDFs. Some people simply print them out to avoid the problems discussed above. Most often these problems do not occur, but they can. Always save your PDF to Google drive. This assumes there are no problems with Google drive. I have highlighted a lot of PDFs and had no problems. But sometimes, I have experienced the problems listed above. 

​

Blue = Statements that are true and basic points.

Green/Purple = Most important statement, the 🗸 ones. 

Red = Questions or disagreements. 

​

     This is a good first step in critical thinking for texts. You are mechanically evaluating the author. This is very good practice and will dramatically increase your comprehension, understanding and memory of the text. It is not necessary to go through these steps when reading. One can take their time, think about what is written  and understand it well. These steps are very useful though and recommended if you have the time.