Do you know how “critical reading” differs from just “reading” or how “critical thinking” differs from just “thinking?” What Every Student Should Know About Critical Reading will teach you how to approach a variety of reading situations with a critical eye so that you can make better and smarter decisions about what you read.
Thinking critically about a text requires hard work, but the benefits are tremendous. With What Every Student Should Know About Critical Reading, you’ll learn the critical reading and thinking skills that will help you do better in school, at work, and in life.
Table of Contents:
Preface v
CHAPTER 1: What Is Critical Reading and Why Is It
Important? 1
Benefits of critical reading and thinking 1
Learning to read and think critically 3
Identifying your own biases and obstacles to critical reading
and thinking 5
The structure of this text 6
CHAPTER 2: Reading Strategies: Surveying, Predicting,
Annotating, and Learning New Vocabulary 8
Surveying 8
Predicting 10
Annotating 11
Learning new vocabulary 12
CHAPTER 3: Identifying Topic, Main Idea,
and Details 21
Identifying the topic 21
Identifying details 22
Identifying the main idea 27
CHAPTER 4: Making Inferences and Recognizing Author’s
Purpose, Audience, and Tone 35
Forming inferences 36
Inferring an author’s audience 37
Inferring an author’s purpose 39
Inferring word connotation 42
Inferring an author’s tone 43
CHAPTER 5: Recognizing and Judging Arguments 47
Recognizing arguments 47
Evidence 49
Source credibility 53
Logic 55
CHAPTER 6: Dealing with Worldviews and Bias 60
Worldviews 60
Identifying worldviews as you read 62
Bias 63
Identifying bias as you read 65
CHAPTER 7: Reading and Thinking for Life 69
Index 71
