Reading Actively

Reading Actively Badge

Reading Actively

WHAT IS ACTIVE READING?

Active reading points to an engaged process of working with a text. This active process leads to critical reading, which goes beyond a superficial deciphering of the meaning of singular words. Instead, when you read critically, you analyze the full meaning of a text by questioning factors such as authority, context, relevance, tone, audience, organization, etc., then come to conclusions based on your analysis

WHY IS ACTIVE READING IMPORTANT?

Active reading is one of the most important skills you'll learn during your time in college. I'm sure you're thinking, "Wait a minute, I don't need to learn how to read! I already know how to read!" And to a degree, you're right; you do know how to read, but you may not know the skill of critical reading. Critical reading will help you to fully understand a text, so it will be easier for you to analyze, synthesize, and remember the information you read. It will also help you to see beyond the surface meaning of a particular text.

But before we delve into critical reading skills, let's hit the rewind button for a minute. Do you remember your favorite children's book or video? How many times did you watch it/read it or have someone read it to you? Eventually you knew the characters and the storyline inside and out, and we're willing to wager that you began to make guesses or hypotheses about the characters' or author's motivations, right? Believe it or not, that was the beginning of critical reading! You probably thought you were just annoying your family, but really you were beginning to analyze and understand the nuances of your text beyond that distant first, pre-critical reading.

Time and attention were central to that reading and re-reading (or watching and re-watching) then discussing and/or wondering about a text (a book, a show, a movie). And though many things have changed (you are reading dense theoretical texts now, not children's books), that will remain the same. Critical and active reading demands both time and attention, and the more of these you put into a text, the richer understandings you will cultivate. But that's not all there is to it. What makes critical reading, well, "critical" is that it asks us to tease apart the language to thoroughly understand a text. And some of the same strategies you used as a writer in ENGL 101 apply to this activity too, such as structure, language and use of evidence. Only, now you're discovering and deciphering these elements about a text rather than creating them. It's also important to understand that these elements do not exist on their own but are connected to the contexts that inform every piece of writing. And considering these elements will help you to figure out the hows and whys of the text you're reading.

HOW DO I READ ACTIVELY?

  1. Look ahead. Before reading a text, take some time to anticipate the main points and arguments you expect from the piece. Look at the following textual elements and use them to form ideas about what might be coming:

This process of looking ahead won't take too long, but it positions you to anticipate what is coming in a piece. By taking the time to anticipate what a text might focus on, you provide yourself with a map of sorts. As you actually read the text, you now have something to return to and consider as you question how well you were able to predict what was to come. This process, in turn, makes your reading process more active and productive

  1. Look closely. While the process of looking ahead, of testing a text against what you thought it might explore, will help you participate in your reading more actively, as a critical reader, you will also want to do some writing as you read to remain active. Have you ever paused while you were reading a text only to realize that you can't remember any of what came on the last few pages? Come on. We know you have. At that point you have to flip back a few pages and start again (we hope). By writing while you read, you are less likely to lose focus in this way, and your reading process will become more productive. The best way to make sure you are reading actively is to annotate a text as you read it, making short, but frequent, notes. When you combine the activities of reading and writing (adding notations to the margins of a print text or comment boxes to digital pieces) you can create an archive of your reactions to a text. This practice will help you stay focused as you mark significant passages, possible lines of inquiry, and connections. This will help you remember what you read and is a smart way to read to approach all of the reading you do as a college student.

To really engage a text, you will need to read it more than one time (and in many cases, you will need to return to complicated texts a number of times). During a first read through, you should focus exclusively on the "what" of a text — that is, your primary goal during your initial reading might simply be to understand what a piece is about, what main point the author is trying to make. To make sure you fully understand the main point that drives a text, you should try to put the writer's (or writers') points in your own words periodically. Depending on how complicated a text is, you might write a summary for every paragraph, page, or section. If you struggle to do this, you'll want to slow down your reading a bit and reread sections. A fast reading isn't usually as helpful as a slow and deliberate one in college. As you work to understand what a text is about, consider these questions:

After you feel you have a decent understanding of what a text is about, return to the piece to consider the "how" and the "why" of the text. Paying attention to the "how" allows you to question the functioning of the smaller elements of a text in light of the larger whole. You might consider the following aspects of a piece of writing:

  1. Structure. How does it begin and end? How does the writer lead readers through this piece of writing? How do paragraph breaks or sections work? What do they emphasize (or hide)?
  2. Language. What do you notice about the decisions the writer seems to make about diction and tone? What can you say about the formality of the language? What kind of writing style is employed?
  3. Use of Evidence. How does the writer back up the central argument? What do you notice about the kinds of evidence used? How persuasive do you find it?

While this list of questions is certainly not exhaustive, it should give you a sense of the kinds of things to consider as you pay attention to the "how" of a piece.

During a reread, you will also want to question the "why" of the text by considering its larger purpose or why it was written. Considering why a text was written and what it is meant to accomplish will most likely help you question some of the broader contexts that shape a text. Considering the following questions might be helpful:

While reading and retreading a text, you will want to get your impressions of the "what," "why," and "how" down in writing so you can return to these ideas later (during class discussion or in a more extensive written response). Annotations are the perfect way to do this.

  1. Look back. Once you have read and reread a text, you will want to reflect on it as well as on your reactions and responses. While you drew on marginal comments to track and archive your thinking as you read, you will want to write about it in more fleshed out ways at this point. Though many instructors of ENGL 102 will ask that you do this in a reading journal or on a class discussion thread, you will want to do a bit of this kind of writing even if it isn't required. Take five or ten minutes to articulate your response to a text to collect your thoughts. By writing about what you find most striking, surprising, or interesting about a text, you position yourself as an active and critical reader, as someone who is ready to comment on this piece in informed and interesting ways.

For citation, use:

Coastal Carolina University, Department of English, First-Year Writing Program. "Reading Actively." Coastal Composition Commons, 24 August 2017, https://ccc.coastal.edu/task/102-badge-5/. Accessed xx xxxxxx xxxx.