Teaching Critical Reading

Teaching Critical Reading
Students are assigned heavy reading lists throughout their years at UC Berkeley,
and frequently they skimp on their reading. On Berkeley’s 2020 University of
California Undergraduate Experience Survey, 49% of the respondents reported
reading 70% or less of their assigned readings during the academic year. Only 29%
reported completing 81% or more of their readings.
Several factors can contribute to the shortfall, but a phenomenon many GSIs
encounter — and one they are in a good position to address — is that students
sometimes employ ineffective strategies for their readings and become disengaged
or discouraged when they perceive that the gain from their reading is low. Many
assume that reading any text means reading straight through, from beginning to
end, as one would a novel. Advanced students and professionals, however, do not
read academic and professional literature in this way; instead, they have developed
a set of informed strategies.
Strategies for critical reading can vary by discipline, text-type, and the purpose of
the particular reading assignment. Textbooks, research reports, epic poems,
ethnographies, eyewitness journals, and scholarly articles all demand different
processes that we call “reading,” and students may never have thought about
employing differential strategies. “Reading critically” is a fairly abstract concept;
students are helped greatly when their GSIs explain and demonstrate what it looks
like, modeling the processes and behaviors of their particular course context and
discipline. When students know more about what you want them to get from a text
and how to get it, they will spend their study time far more fruitfully. Their
newfound competence can, in turn, motivate them to keep up.
This section of the Teaching Guide offers strategies developed by GSIs and faculty
members at UC Berkeley for their teaching situations. Some are addressed to GSIs,
others to students. It can be very useful to compare how someone in a different
discipline from your own conceives of and teaches critical reading. For instance, the
C.R.E.A.T.E. method uses tools of intensive textual analysis to teach students to
read and assess scientific research critically. For specific examples of how these
Graduate Student Instructor Teaching & Resource Center, Graduate Division, UC Berkeley © 2021
Regents of the University of California 1
techniques have been used in science classes at universities around the country,
see the searchable “Roadmap Archive.”
In This Section
● Guiding and Motivating Students

● Critical Reading in the Natural Sciences
● Critical Reading in the Social Sciences
● Critical Reading in the Humanities
● Developing a Reading Heuristic or Guide for Students
○ Science and Scientific Claims (Biology) (pdf)
○ Reading Arabic Poetry (pdf)
○ Tips for Reading Medieval Texts in Translation (Celtic Studies) (pdf)
○ Becoming an Active Reader (English) (pdf)
○ Practical Tips for Reading Sociology (pdf)
○ Reading Actively (and Efficiently) for History Courses (pdf)
● Creative Approaches: GSI Award Essays on Teaching Critical Reading
GSI Teaching & Resource Center

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Guiding and Motivating Students
GSIs may be the first to know when students are having trouble with either the kind
or the volume of assigned readings. Students may show up in class without having
prepared or done the readings, and this produces frustration for GSIs whose lesson
plans depend on students coming to class prepared, as well as for students who
have succeeded in doing the reading and are ready to work with the content.
How can we motivate students to prepare adequately on their own? Remember

that your course isn’t just about content: it also requires skills to get at and work
with the content. A good starting point for students is to show them what you mean
by “read” for your particular course or a common kind of text in your field. It may
be that nothing in their previous academic or reading experience has prepared
them for the kinds of learning activities you as an instructor have in mind when you
assign a reading.
What are some typical pitfalls when reading texts that are important in your
course? What are the most useful reading behaviors? Here are some activities to
start thinking about. What suggestions would be on your list?
● read the introduction, then list what you anticipate the rest of the text will try
to do
● skim first before reading word-for-word
● scan first sentences of paragraphs first to get the gist
● read the abstract and “results” section first, and translate them into your own
words
● look up unfamiliar terms or try to figure them out from context (and how do
you do this?)
● summarize or outline the argument (and bring it to class)
● list key words and concepts
● look for tensions in the argument or in the use of key concepts
● apply a particular set of instructor-generated questions to their reading
● notice the uses of particular linguistic or rhetorical features
● read or ignore sidebars of a textbook chapter
● work through all the sample problems, or just a few of them
● make notes as you read
● make notes in the margin of the text
● make connections with other content in the course
On the first reading assignment of the semester, you might bring several activities
such as those listed together to give a step-by-step reading process for your
students to start with. Follow up with a way students can demonstrate to you (and
themselves) what they have gotten out of these steps. As the semester proceeds,
work toward further procedures for more conceptually sophisticated objectives,
such as discerning a rhetorical context or tracking a bibliographic or analytical trail.
Giving students such detailed guidance does not mean reducing a complex
intellectual engagement into a rote exercise, nor does it mean taking students’
creative agency as readers away from them. It means initially working with the
procedural knowledge (how people read in your discipline) that is necessary for
them to get at the conceptual knowledge (content and relationships) you want
them to ultimately work with.
Success with this kind of guided practice will give them a sense of mastery, which
translates to motivation to move on to independent practice (in other words, more
effective reading activities on their own).
To read more about the learning model this approach is based on, see the
subsection “Learning” on our Cognitive Constructivism page. For more on different
kinds of knowledge (e.g., “procedural” and “conceptual”), see the “Cognitive
Domain” section of Leslie Owen Wilson’s page “Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised.”
Critical Reading in the Natural Sciences
by Jann Vendetti, Integrative Biology
Journal articles and scientific papers are the medium through which biologists relay
their research to their colleagues. Scientific articles are most often presented in a
standard format, beginning with an abstract, followed by an introduction, then
methods, results, and finally conclusions. A good paper presents the author’s topic,
data, and interpretations clearly and logically.
The reader’s challenge is to comprehend the paper’s main ideas despite new
vocabulary, unfamiliar tone, and often complex subject matter. This requires active
and critical reading. The following strategies suggest how to facilitate active and
critical reading while minimizing frustration.
Strategies of Critical Readers

● Identify the paper’s major conclusions from the title and abstract. Keep its
theme(s) in mind while reading the entire paper.
● Look up unfamiliar words as you encounter them. Rewrite them in your own
words if necessary, and use that definition when you encounter them later in
the paper.
● Learn from headings within the introduction, methods, results, and
conclusion. These may be summations of major themes of the paper or
signify topic shifts.
● Tolerate confusion or ambiguity during your first read. Try not to expect the
complexities of the paper to be clarified immediately. Your confusion can
generate excellent questions that may be answered during your second
read; if not, it may provide material for discussion or further investigation.
● Don’t be put off by complicated methods. In most cases you don’t have to
understand all details of the paper’s experiments or analyses to make a
sufficient synopsis of its main conclusions.
● Summarize. As you reach the end of a section of interest, ask yourself if you
could explain it to someone else. If yes, great! If not, give it another read.
● Ask yourself questions throughout the paper. This is the “critical” component
of critical reading. Is evidence well-supported? Presented clearly? What are
the study’s broader implications?
● Read the paper a second or third time, highlighting key points. Check these
points with your summaries and the author’s abstract. Does your
interpretation of the paper match theirs?
Habits of Critical Readers
Effective habits, both of mind and of practice, are crucial to developing critical
reading skills. A simple routine that works for you can make all the difference. The
following are some suggestions.
● Use a marking system. This is a note-taking/making scheme that you use

consistently to mark-up or take notes on the paper that you are reading. It
may include written notes in the paper’s margin, short summaries at the end
of sections, stars/arrows/circles/numbers at key passages, color-coded
highlights, or Post-Its that designate main ideas, confusing sentences,
evidence, unfamiliar words, etc.
● Read without distraction. Critical reading is best done when you are focused
and comfortable, but not too comfortable. This might be at a library study
cubicle, a coffee shop, or wherever you find you work well and are alert.
Critical Reading in the Social Sciences
by Manuel Vallée, Sociology
What Is Critical Reading?
Overview of the Four-Step Approach
Assignments to Promote Reading Efficiency
In-Class Discussions
References
Appendix: Detailed Description of the Four-Step Approach (pdf)
What is Critical Reading?
It is reading actively with the goals of identifying arguments, weighing evidence,

evaluating sources, looking for conflicts of interest, and questioning underlying
assumptions. It is distinctly different from the passive reading associated with
reading for pleasure, which many students mistakenly apply to academic texts.
Regardless of discipline, critical reading is an important skill that will help students
become more informed and, hopefully, more effective citizens.
What does it mean for the social sciences?
In the social sciences, critical reading also means being aware of how a reading fits
into an analytic lineage. That means identifying the research question being asked,
what has been said about that question, and what the current author is
contributing to the analysis.
What difficulties do students face?
Students at the beginning of their college career might confuse the concept of
critique with the idea that they are always supposed to criticize a reading. Others
might confuse critical engagement with a text with the hopeless task of
distinguishing the part of an article that is objective and factual from the part that is
opinion-based, biased, or just plain false.
Where do these difficulties come from?
This confusion stems from a model of teaching prevalent at the high-school level
that teaches students to memorize answers that have been coded as “facts” for
one-time testing. In general, beginning college students have not been prepared to
critically engage with their texts, understand how the texts are part of an
intellectual lineage, or question the assumptions that have been built into the
particular models of understanding that they have been exposed to in different
disciplines.
Therefore, in asking students to become critical readers within many disciplines at

the college level, we are asking students to develop a skill set which is diametrically
opposed to the one they learned at the high-school level.
How do we help students surmount these difficulties?
To alleviate these difficulties I offer a comprehensive, four-step approach to critical

reading as well as suggestions for assignments, in-class discussions, and ways to
help students better relate to social science articles.
Overview of the Four-Step Approach
This approach includes three layers of reading as well as a “response” component.

Good readers will reread a piece several times until they are satisfied that they
know it inside and out. It is recommended that you read a text three times to elicit
as much meaning as you can.
First Reading: Previewing
The first time you read a text, skim it quickly for its main ideas. Pay attention to the
introduction, the opening sentences of paragraphs, and section headings, if there
are any. Previewing the text in this way gets you off to a good start when you have
to read critically.
Second Reading: Annotating and Analyzing
The second reading includes annotating and analyzing the evidence in support of
the argument. It should be a slow, meditative read, and you should have your
pencil in your hand so you can annotate the text. Taking time to annotate your text
during the second reading may be the most important strategy to master if you
want to become a critical reader.
Third Reading: Review
The third reading should take into account any questions you asked yourself by
annotating in the margins. You should use this reading to look up any unfamiliar
words and to make sure you have understood any confusing or complicated
sections of the text.
Fourth Step: Responding
Responding to what you read is an important step in understanding what you read.
You can respond in writing or by talking about what you’ve read to others.
Below I provide details about the first two levels of reading and the “response”
portion of the approach. Additionally, I provide suggestions for critical reading
assignments, topics for in-class discussions, and ways to help students better relate
to academic texts.
Assignments to Promote Reading Efficiency

Freewrite
Immediately after reading the article or chapter, write about it for 15 minutes. Do
not concern yourself with logic, style, punctuation, or any other standard of
“correctness.” If, in the middle of a sentence, another idea comes to you — go with
it. The point of this exercise is to get down as many of your impressions of what
you have read as possible without having to consider any possible use for what you
are writing. Just let yourself think about what you have read and record these
thoughts.
Reflect on the Title
Before reading the article or chapter, reflect on its title. Write a paragraph about
what is conveyed by the title, what the article’s focus will be, and what you believe
the argument will be. Don’t worry about “getting it right,” as that isn’t the point of
this exercise. Then read the article in question and, when you are done, summarize
the author’s argument. After summarizing the argument, reflect on a) how your
reading of the article or chapter was informed by reflecting on its title, and b)
whether you were misled by the title.
Reflect on the Abstract
Same as above, but with the article’s abstract instead of the title.
Evaluate the Argument
Read the introduction and conclusion of the article. Then identify the argument of
the text. Then take ten minutes to freewrite, identifying what types of evidence the
article will need to provide to persuade you of its argument. Read the article, and
then write a paragraph that analyzes the extent to which the article did or did not
meet your expectations. Were you persuaded by the evidence? Why or why not?
Freewrite about Connections to Other Readings
After freewriting about the article, take a short break, and then do a freewrite on
the various ways you think the text links up to the preceding texts covered in the
class, and/or themes of the course. What are the similarities and differences in
terms of subject matter, research question, geographical focus, temporal focus,
type of data, and argument?
Identify Citation Lineages
a) Make a list of the theoretical approaches mentioned in the text.
b) Make a list of the specific authors referred to.
c) Make a list of the key concepts used in the text. (Can the reader glean a working
definition of these concepts from the text?)
d) Mark each member of the lists created above in reference to the author’s
relationship to it. Does the author mention the theoretical approach, concept, or
thinker under consideration as an advance to previous thinking, or does he / she
emphasize the limitations of it?
e) What is the author’s main analytical point as opposed to the ideas of other
thinkers in the text?
Answer Reading Questions
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Another strategy is for the instructor to provide reading questions a few days
before the readings are due. These can include standard questions, such as “what is
the author’s argument?” and “how does his / her argument relate to the readings
that preceded it?” Or the questions can be more specific to the article, such as
asking for definitions of key concepts in the reading. The questions provide
students with guidance about how to read texts and help focus class discussion
around salient points. Also, teachers can provide extra incentive by offering extra
credit to students who submit satisfactory written responses to the questions.
In-Class Discussions
Discuss Reading Strategies
Set aside class time for a short discussion about the reading process. Ask each
student to share one or more strategies that help them with their reading
assignments. This could pertain to places they read, the number of pages they
attempt to read at one sitting, comfort of the reading environment, time of day, etc.
This exercise will help the students become more conscious of their reading habits
or strategies, learn about the reading strategies used by others, and build
classroom solidarity.
Discuss Difficulties
Have a similar conversation about the difficulties students face vis-à-vis the
readings and how they have sought to address those difficulties.
Apply Metaphors
A difficulty experienced by many social science students is understanding that a
particular article is a piece in an ongoing analytical lineage. To address this
difficulty, below I provide metaphors that help students read analytically within a
particular disciplinary lineage. These metaphors also help students understand that
the main task that they are expected to master is to understand analytical
arguments and the assumptions that those arguments are based on, not only for
the author they are reading now but for the authors that the current author is
citing.
● The metaphor of a citation lineage: This expression can itself be considered

a metaphor. It references the fact that disciplines within an analytic tradition
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produce texts that are densely referenced and that authors are working
within multilayered traditions of citation.
● The metaphor of a conversation: Instead of trying to read for “the facts,”
encourage students to see an article as an ongoing conversation in which the
current author of the article being read is engaging with other authors’ ideas.
These other authors might span large expanses of time and disciplinary
space, so the student needs to pay attention to the different authors and
concepts mentioned. They need to start to construct a conceptual map for
themselves.
● The metaphor of the party: Tell students that reading an analytical article
feels very similar to going to a party where they know only one person, but
everyone else has been going to the same parties for years. The new person
(the student) doesn’t know the prior history of the groups (who hates whom,
who used to date whom, for example) and needs to be filled in on the
backstory. This is very similar to many disciplines in which the ongoing
conversation into which a particular author is making an intervention is quite
complex and pulls from divergent sources. When students are first asked to
read an analytical argument that is densely referenced, they may get
confused and give up. The metaphor of the party lets students know that you
expect them to feel over-loaded when they first read an article that is densely
layered from multiple citation lineages.
● The metaphor of enemies and allies: This is very similar to the metaphor of
the party but emphasizes the fact that the author being read either agrees or
disagrees with aspects of the argumentation of the other thinkers cited in his
/ her own article. Students therefore need to pay attention to tone.
● The metaphor of a language class: This helps students understand that we
are giving them “real” articles that will be difficult for them in the beginning.
When students start to read this kind of text they might feel like they are
being asked to read a third-year foreign language text when they haven’t yet
taken the first two years.
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References
Crusius, Timothy and Carolyn Channell (1995). The Aims of Argument, Mayfield
Publishing.
Mather, George, PhD Candidate, Anthropology, UC Berkeley. GSI Teaching &

Resource Center workshop on critical reading, Spring 2007.
Matlock, Diane, PhD, English, UC Berkeley. GSI Teaching & Resource Center, Guiding
Research Papers: Evaluating Sources.
The Writing Center, Cleveland State University. Critical Reading: What Is Critical
Reading, and Why Do I Need to Do It?
Writing @ Colorado State University, Critical Reading.
Appendix
The remainder of Manuel’s document can be viewed in the Appendix: Detailed
Description of the Four-Step Approach (pdf).
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Critical Reading in the Humanities
What is “critical reading” for the humanities? For any given discipline in the
humanities, each instructor over time develops a working idea of the kinds of goals,
procedures, and strategies involved in it. As scholars we all internalize some
procedures, and we sometimes don’t realize that our less advanced students lack
this procedural knowledge. It needs to be made explicit for most of them.
“Reading” is a highly generic term for many students; they don’t necessarily
understand that instructional purpose, genre, and strategy are involved. To many,
to read is to decode the surface meaning and try to remember it. They may
additionally look for something to criticize or to form a personal opinion about, but
in the humanities this can be frustrating because they may harbor a vague sense
that the “great works” of literature and art or the great turns of historical events
require a sublime sensibility they must either have, or pretend to have, or pick up
from their instructors. What many students find empowering is to learn that study
and criticism in the humanities are more about concrete objects, skills they can
develop, and networks of meaning they can learn about and learn to construct.
Students need to develop greater range and flexibility in their engagement with
literature, art, history, and culture. They tend to try to fit whatever new ideas they’re
reading with things they already think rather than letting the “other” be “other” on
its own terms. For example, they may so insist on using the popular and familiar
terms of a debate that they have trouble grasping a text that introduces different
terms or a different paradigm. So they may think they see things in a text that
aren’t “there” to a reader with different expectations. They make what connections
they can.
This is not a bad situation; it’s a starting point. Students must work forward from
where they are. They need both to connect the material to their current
understanding and to allow the new material to help them reshape their evolving
understanding into new schemas.
The sheer volume of their reading load can hinder students’ critical development as
readers. Instructors often assign a large volume of reading material that many
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students can’t realistically process without some well-informed strategies. This
leaves them to come up with “economies of effort” that may derail the instructional
purpose of the reading. For example, students may go to the internet to find
auxiliary material to supplement (or reduce the challenge of) the main reading, and
then become reluctant to engage with the skill building and the terms of discussion
the instructor is introducing.
Suggestions for Teaching

In the first class meeting, provide a brief text, musical piece, or image for students
to analyze. If you introduce a text, keep the passage down to two pages or less.
Model the kinds of questions you ask when you analyze such a text or image. Help
students begin to articulate what’s curious to them. Guide this discussion in the
direction of some important tips you’ve thought through beforehand.
Provide this set of tips to students to take with them as they do their first analytical
reading assignment. Let them know what kind of text they’ll be reading, a few
essential questions to ask, and what good websites they can use for reference. (As
a point of departure you may want to look at an example developed by a GSI in
English that does a great job orienting students to reading practices relevant to her
particular course.)
Return to these tips and expand on them frequently through the semester. Keep
the students focused on performing the procedures until they’re second nature to
them. Although flexibility of thought is the ultimate goal, the practices constitute an
important step toward flexibility.
Let students know that there’s a lot more to reading than decoding content. Show
them a few different kinds of texts and demonstrate, briefly, that reading a poem,
reading a chapter of a novel, and reading a critical article are quite different
activities — there’s some overlap, but each has its own set of characteristics.
Introduce the ideas of genre and strategy.
Much of what happens in humanities sections is “class discussion.” Some students

approach class discussion as a performance venue for ready talkers to sound
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smart. To even the field for all students, it helps to define with students what class
discussion is supposed to accomplish: something along the lines of an exploration
and collaborative analysis of a text. In other words, try to cultivate a supportive
classroom setting in which students can join in the processes of reading,
questioning, misprision, adjustment, and location of cruxes without any negative
judgment of the participants.
A hallmark of a UC Berkeley education is learning to do independent analysis and

evaluation of primary sources. Let students know that whatever sorts of “helps” or
summaries they find on the internet or elsewhere will be no better than what they
can come up with themselves with a bit of work — and that the ability to do this
work is a major objective of their UC Berkeley education.
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Developing a Reading Heuristic or Guide for Students
Effective reading strategies can vary by discipline, text-type, and the purpose of the
particular reading assignment. They can also vary with the level of the student and
the instructor’s purpose in developing the assignment.
Here are some reading heuristics developed by GSIs and faculty members at UC
Berkeley for their students. They address a range of students and a range of
disciplines and text-types. As you look them over, think about what you want your
students to do with the readings for your section. Consider composing a heuristic
for them.
● Science and Scientific Claims (Biology) (pdf)

● Reading Arabic Poetry (pdf)
● Tips for Reading Medieval Texts in Translation (Celtic Studies) (pdf)
● Becoming an Active Reader (English) (pdf)
● Practical Tips for Reading Sociology (pdf)
● Reading Actively (and Efficiently) for History Courses (pdf)
Experienced GSIs and faculty mentors in your department will likely also have
suggestions based on their work with students.
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A Sample Critical Thinking Assignment
Science and Scientific Claims

Assignment (10 pts):
Read the attached article, “106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney,” by William Speed Weed.
He is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Popular Science magazine. He lives in San
Francisco. This article is found in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005, published by
Houghton Mifflin.
Observe your surroundings and compile a list of 10 scientific claims that you encounter. They can be
from food packaging, the internet, billboards, television commercials, shampoo bottles, etc. Describe
each claim, its source, and provide an evaluation of each claim as bogus/false, true, incomplete,
misleading, or whatever is an appropriate assessment (as is done in the article). Do some internet
(or other) research to evaluate each claim. Be careful to use reliable sources, e.g. peer-reviewed
journal articles, fine print, textbooks, doctors, scientists, and reliable internet sources. Cite all
sources, please.
Note: As with the other writing assignments, you’ll be graded on the: (1) thoroughness of your
answers (in this case, your description and evaluation of each claim), (2) writing clarity, and (3)
proper use of citations.
Please drop off this assignment into box X in Room Y on Monday, DATE.
Skills of Critical Reading and Thinking and Rules of Evidential Reasoning
Table 1. Skills involved in critical thinking (Wade, 1990).

Skills of Critical Thinking Simple Techniques
1. Ask questions: be willing to wonder. Start by asking “Why?”
2. Define the problem. Restate the issue several different ways so it is clear.
3. Examine the evidence. Ask what evidence supports or refutes the claim. Is it
reliable?
4. Analyze assumptions and biases. List the evidence on which each part of the argument
is based. The assumptions and biases will be
unsupported and should be eliminated from further
consideration.
5. Avoid emotional reasoning. Identify emotional influence and “gut feelings” in the
arguments and exclude them.
6. Don’t oversimplify. Do not generalize from too little evidence.
7. Consider other interpretations and Make sure alternate views are adequately evaluated.
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evaluate them with evidential reasoning
8. Tolerate uncertainty. Be ready to accept tentative answers when evidence
is incomplete, and new answers when further
evidence warrants them.
Table 2. Rules for evidential reasoning (Lett, 1990) or a guide to intelligent living and the scientific
method (Lipps, 1999).
Rules for Evidential Reasoning What to Do
1) Falsifiability Conceive of all evidence that would prove the claim
false
2) Logic Argument must be sound
3) Comprehensiveness Must use all the available evidence
4) Honesty Evaluate evidence without self-deception
5) Replicability Evidence must be repeatable
6) Sufficiency A. Burden of proof rests on the claimant.
B. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence
C. Authority and/or testimony is always inadequate
Reproduced with permission from Lipps, J.H. 1999. "This is science!" Pp. 3-16 in J. Scotchmoor and D.A. Springer (eds.).
Evolution: Investigating the Evidence. Paleontological Society Special Publication, vol. 9.
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Rachel Friedman
Near Eastern Studies
Reading Arabic Poetry

In this course, we will be reading classical and modern Arabic poems in English translation. These
texts might seem very foreign and difficult to understand at first, but you will become more adept at
reading these texts as the semester progresses. Along the way, you will have to develop some
reading strategies to help you read effectively. What does it mean to “read effectively”? It does not
mean you understand everything in the text by the time you finish reading it. Rather, it means you
are paying attention to the text and actively responding to it as you read. You are not reading
passively, hoping to absorb as much information as you can. Instead, you are doing things like
making notes, asking questions, figuring out relationships to outside knowledge. You do not have to
have any specific knowledge or understanding to do these things. Here are some tips to get you
started:
● Plan on reading the text more than once. The first time you read it, read the poem aloud.
This poetry was composed in a highly oral culture, so get a feel for the sound of it. Try to get
a sense of the major contours of the text. The second time through, look up unfamiliar
words, identify difficult or interesting parts you want to explore further, and get a more
detailed idea of what is going on in the text. A third or even fourth reading may be necessary
in order to feel familiar with the text, depending on the difficulty and density of it. Doing this
work is part of your class preparation.
● Take notes! THis means having a hard copy of the text rather thaan reading it off a screen. It
is not enough to highlight or underline important passages. Note-taking can include the
following:
○ Listing new vocabulary words and unfamiliar phrases
○ Writing down your observations and questions
○ Composing an outline of the poem’s structure and noting where transitions occur
○ Noting relationships you notice to outside knowledge
○ Highly recommended: write down what each section is about in the margin. This can
be a word, phrase, or sentence that will help you sum up and remember the topic of
it.
● Think and write about your answers to these questions:
○ Who are the characters in the poem? What does the text tell you about them? How
does it communicate these things?
○ What genre(s) does this text include? Be specific - e.g. not just ‘poetry’, but rather
‘erotic love poetry’ or ‘poetry of yearning from a distance’
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○ What kind of audience do you think this text was composed for? What kind of
background knowledge does this audience already seem to have? (Think about what
references the text makes but does not explain.) What pieces of background are
familiar/unfamiliar to you?
○ What are the formal features of the text? Does it rhyme? Does it have a particular
cadence, rhythm, or meter? Is there a lot of repetition of words or phrases?
○ What strikes you as being important to the text and its characters? Think about what
main topics they talk about, discuss, and argue about.
● After reading the text:
○ Write a short summary of what you have read.
○ Identify what you find most interesting, puzzling, liable, and displeasurable about the
text. Think about why you find these aspects interesting, puzzling, likeable, and
displeasurable.
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Tips for Reading Medieval Texts in Translation
Medieval Celtic tales often seem like fairy tales to modern readers. Some features seem familiar
enough in a fairy-tale setting, but many things just look strange. Our task is to read for the cultural
concerns the medieval audience had, not just our own. Once we understand more of the medieval
concerns, our feel for the tales will be better informed and more satisfying.
So how do you read for “medieval concerns”?
First off, read actively. Interact with the text; get into a dialogue with it. Get your own copy of the
text. Get a pen. Get a notebook. Mark things you don’t understand, write your question or
comments on the page or on post-its, or in your notebook. (Don’t bother with highlighters.
Highlighting is a fairly passive intellectual activity, and it doesn’t help you dig into the text.) What
questions do you have about details in the text?
Look up information you need in appropriate reference works. A short list of items available to UCB
library user:
Oxford English Dictionary Online
http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl
Oxford Reference Online - Literature

http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/SUBJECT_SEARCH.html?subject=s13
Oxford Reference Online - Mythology & Folklore

http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/SUBJECT_SEARCH.html?subject=s17
Oxford Reference Online - History

http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/SUBJECT_SEARCH.html?subject=s11&au
Note that Celticists do not find Wikipedia to be particularly reliable for medieval Celtic studies topics,
for reasons we’ll address later in the semester.
Good interpretive questions to start with in a medieval literary text:
Who are the characters? How do you find out about them - what indicators does the text give you
about them? (Note that there are no internal monologues and that descriptions tend to be terse and
visual.)
22
What things seem to matter to the characters in the world of the text?
What are the conflicts and the objectives of the characters?
What do you think needs to happen for the plot to resolve? Why?
What part does location or landscape play in the narrative?
Did the narrative end the way you thought it would? What unexpected elements did you encounter?
What do you like about the text? What do you dislike? Why?
After you’ve read the piece, write a brief summary of it in your notebook. Write down any further
questions you have. Question your questions: Why do you find those particular questions
important? Do you want definitions or explanations? Does something not make sense from the
point of view of your experiences and expectations?
Please do bring these questions up in your homework response and in class discussion.
After reading the entire piece a couple of times, you can return to it with broader questions such as
these:
Is there a single plot, or are there multiple strands of plot? What are they? Do they intersect, or do
they come up in sequential episodes? Do different episodes comment on one another?
Do the characters do what characters in your culture’s stories do? Do they go about attaining their
objectives in ways people in your culture do? In what ways do their behaviors or feelings differ?
Different cultures may tell similar stories but talk about quite different issues through those stories.
In what ways are the text’s issue similar to situations in your culture or in your culture’s stories? In
what ways are they different? (For example, “The Wooing of Etain” and the movie Titanic are both
organized around a love triangle, but the pressures on the love affairs differ markedly from the
medieval Irish tale to the modern American film - the former is largely a political tale, while the latter
is about individuals breaking free from social constraints.)
Again, write your questions and your reactions
23
Becoming an Active Reader
For this class, you will write essays in which you formulate and present a coherent
analysis of what you have read. To do this, you must consider a variety of issues.
How does the text work? What meaning does it construct? How do the language,
tone, and imagery of the text contribute to its sense of meaning? The only way you
can begin to answer these questions is to spend time with the text. Read it. Read it
again. The following tips are intended to help you become an active reader, aware
of your responses to the text, and able to communicate clearly your thoughts and
ideas about the materials you have read.
Remember that being an active reader is also being an active questioner. Always
read with a pen and notepad handy. You want to jot down any ideas and pages
references so you can reflect again later. You want to mark key passages, themes,
and tropes in the text and to note any questions that arise while reading. Post-its
are a great tool for marking your books for papers and discussions. You can “label”
the passage topic on the post-it while reading to help collect textual evidence for
your essays.
The First Reading

On your first reading of a text, you will probably be most interested in simply
following what happens. Such interest in the plot is natural, but try not to let that
blind you to other things that are going on while the plot unfolds. Mark passages
that strike you for whatever reason. Is a word, phrase, symbol, theme used
repeatedly? How does the author set the mood or tone of the piece? Mark the
passage so that you can return to it easily
Freewriting
Immediately after reading the work for the first time, write about it for fifteen
minutes. Do not concern yourself with logic, style, punctuation, or any other
standard of “correctness.” If, in the middle of a sentence, another idea comes to
you—go with it. The point of this exercise is to get down as many of your
24
impressions of what you have read as possible without having to consider any
possible use for what you are writing. Just let yourself think about what you have
read and record those thoughts.
To develop your compare and contrast skills, you can continue with the following
exercise: After a quick break, do another free-writing on the various ways you think
the text links up to other texts and themes of the course. What are the connections
with and differences from other works in terms of thematic content, generic
conventions, literary style?
Seeing your ideas and Asking Questions

You never know what a session of freewriting will produce, and once you have it in
front of you it is hard to know what to hang on to and what to toss away.
Presumably, you work this semester will make you a better judge of what is a useful
line of inquiry and what is not, but until you have informed such opinions, go
through what you have written and underline what looks to you like a possible idea
or significant question. List these on a separate sheet of paper and begin to think
about how to follow-up on them. Whatever topic you have begun to focus on, plan
to look for solid evidence of that on your next reading.
For Our Next Class - Due Thursday, August 29th

After completing the reading the first five chapters of Little Women, freewrite for
ten minutes. Time yourself and write continuously for the designated amount of
time. Take a break. Then reread you freewriting, and underline any possible ideas
or significant questions. Write these ideas/questions down on the back of the page
or a separate piece of paper. You will hand-in your freewriting to me in class, and
the ideas and questions you come up with will be part of our discussion.
25
Close Reading Worksheet
A close reading, or explication, seeks to confront the particular words, images, and
organization of a (usually literary) scene or passage. Close reading is a technique
used to break up dense or complex ideas and language, or to draw attention to
such individual parts as images or word choice. A critic employs close reading to
better understand the relationship between the form of a passage and its content,
and to clarify the meaning of a passage in the overall context of the text. Your close
reading of a passage constitutes the basis of your interpretation and becomes
evidence in your argument.
While you do not need to discuss every line in your chosen passage, you should
address the main features of the passage and quote from it to demonstrate your
interpretation. Consider the following elements. They may occur separately or
together; their relative importance will vary depending upon the passage at hand.
As you analyze a passage, you want to focus on how the form of presentation
contributes to the meaning a text conveys.
1. Context: How is the passage situated in the text? What comes before and after
it? How does your reaction to the passage change in relation to scenes, characters,
and narration that precede or follow?
2. Speaker/s and Narrator/s: Who is speaking or narrating and why? Is the
speaker or narrator objective or biased? How do you know?
3. Chronology: What chronology do events, dialogue, or the appearance of
characters take in the flow of the passage? How is the order of presentation
important?
4. Concepts: What are the main ideas the passage or speaker is trying to convey?
5. Imagery: What sorts of images, similes, or metaphors are used? What is their
effect?
6. Language: Are repetition, formal or informal language, conventional or
unconventional sentences, important to the way meaning is produced in the
passage?
26
Practical Tips for Reading Sociology
Loic Wacquant, Professor of Sociology
Adapted by Joshua Page, Sociology GSI
Reading scholarly books and articles critically requires a specific method and strategy that makes it
very different from reading for fun, or reading to survey a work. If you care to get the most out of
the materials you are assigned, you have to learn to read critically or analytically, that is, to break
down an argument into its constituent parts (explanandum, explanans, premises, hypotheses,
theorems, laws and mechanisms, conclusions and corollaries, ramifications for other theories or
arguments), retrace its major stages and turns, evaluate its strengths, weaknesses, and validity, and
grasp its implications (empirical, theoretical, moral, practical, and so forth). Here are some practical
tips to help you do just that.
Always Read with a Purpose

Moving your eyes across a printed page is not critical reading! Reading with a purpose means asking
a question (or, better yet, a system of questions) that you keep in mind as you progress and that
helps you put the pieces of the puzzle together. So always identify from the outset what the author
intends to do in the writing, how she or he proposes to do it, and what kind of arguments she or he
develops (causal, historical, interpretive, etc.).
Scan and Scope the Text Beforehand

You’ll do a much better job of picking up the argument(s) in the text if you know in advance what to
look for. For this, always scan the full text beforehand: flip through the pages, grab a few paragraphs
here and there, pay attention to titles and subtitles, notice highlighted phrases or italics, tables and
figures (in particular their captions) - in short, get a rough feel for what’s going on there. You can also
read the first and last sentence or paragraph of every section, just to become familiar with the
substance and tone of the argument(s). Then read the text in depth.
Read to Identify the Logic of the Piece

This means identifying the problem the author is trying to resolve, the concepts she or he uses or
develops for that purpose, the evidence she or he brings to bear on the issue, and the quality of the
argument. Make an effort to situate the authors’ claims in the broader constellation of literary or
cultural theories or research you are familiar with (from class discussion, other classes, other
reading you’ve done - whatever you’ve experienced that is relevant). Never read a text in isolation:
always relate it to relevant texts you’ve read (among them, those assigned for the same and prior
weeks). Literary arguments have a structure; your reading should locate and mimic it.
27
Read Differentially
Do not treat all printed text in the same manner. “Democratic” reading is analytically inefficient (even
unsound); some parts of a text contain critical conceptual or causal arguments and should be read
very cautiously (and repeatedly if necessary); others contain illustrative materials, empirical
elaborations, or theoretical digressions and can be read more rapidly (or sometimes even skipped).
So allocate your time and effort wisely, in proportion to the difficulty and significance of the passage.
Annotate the Text as you Read

Read with a pen or pencil in hand and mark the progression, twists, and turns of the argument as it
unfolds. You can devise your own stenographic system (arrows, stars, circling, underlinings, etc.) to
highlight in a consistent and economical manner the main names, dates, definitions, and logical
turning points, conclusions, and implications, etc. But do not defeat your purpose and highlight
everything.
Pay Attention to Passages that Confuse

It may be, as you begin to read scholarship, that the terms or language used by an author may seem
confusing, or that the writing may be impenetrable. Be confident that you can still read critically
difficult texts, and be aware that reading these texts may take a bit more time than reading prose
that is written to be more accessible. Note the source of confusion. Is there a key term being used in
an unfamiliar or unclear way? If so, revisit the beginning of the text (or any other passages that set
up the framework of the argument) to see if there are helpful definitions. Don’t forget that a
dictionary is a tremendous aid - it will give you a range of meanings for the term and/or related
terms that will allow you to discover, with the help of the surrounding context, what is being said. Is
the writing difficult to rea on the sentence-level? Try diagramming a sentence, untangling complex
syntax, to see if the writer’s meaning becomes clear (and then, having learned a bit about the
writer’s habits, learn what you know to unravel other difficult passages). Ignoring difficult vocabulary
or passages will likely leave you unclear about the author’s overall work.
Notice the Author’s Relationship with Other Scholarship

Are there footnotes and other references to scholarly work? Does that author incorporate others’
research without comment, or does the author discuss the pros and cons of this research? An article
that engages with other scholarship is likely to have been thought through more thoroughly than
one that sticks in references with no articulated reasons.
Write Up Notes Immediately After Reading

If you’ve read a text with an active analytical intention, you should be able to summarize and
reconstruct the main lines of its argument(s). Immediately upon finishing your reading, write, type,
or scribble a short recapitulation of what you just absorbed. What was the key question posed by
28
the author, what answers were given to it, what concepts or theories were introduced, what
evidence adduced, how does this or that thesis or theory differ from rival views, etc. Use your
annotations and marginalia as guides and signposts; if the text introduces new concepts, make a
note of them and write down their definition (as given by the author and/or reconstructed by you); if
it contrasts several phenomena or theories, enumerate what makes them different or similar. Use
whatever devices (tables, lists, bullets, diagrams, etc.) give you the best synoptic and synthetic view
of the piece you’ve read. I highly recommend that you try and diagram the major argument(s) made
by the author. If you can draw an author’s argument, you likely get it. Your reading notes will be
invaluable self-teaching and learning aids as long as you study (and beyond).
Reflect Back Upon the Text and Evaluate the Argument

Never close a book or put away an article without evaluating its argument: was it logically consistent
and empirically adequate, plausible or convincing and why (not)? What alternative or rival arguments
come to mind? Again, relate the text you’ve read to others you know (or those mentioned by the
author). Never take an author at face value, no matter how famous and authoritative; there is a lot
of poor scholarly writing, as in every other kind of writing. It’s your job to separate the wheat from
the chaff. Also, do not be swayed by emotional appeals and moral exhortations; more often than
not, good sentiments hide bad scholarship. Watch out for mere rhetoric!
Do Not Hesitate to Read a Text for a Second or Third (or Nth) Time
A common myth among novice readers is that if you’ve read well a given text, you’re done for life.
This makes no sense! A text may be “rediscovered” as many times as there are purposes or
occasions for reading it. Genuinely complex and rich texts are profitably read several times over as
each reading unearths new layers and treasures.
Remember that reading analytically will save you time, energy, and throbbing headaches come
midterms, finals, and paper time!
29
Reading Actively (and Efficiently) for History Courses
In this course, you will be asked to read a variety of primary and secondary sources,
both for our in-class discussions and for your research project. Some weeks, the
assigned readings may seem overwhelming (in both length and content), but if you
establish a systematic approach to reading at the beginning of the semester, you
will be able to confidently manage these readings and effectively prepare for class.
Guidelines for Reading

● Read ACTIVELY! Do not be a passive consumer of texts. Some tips for active
reading include...
○ Always have pen and paper nearby (or computer, if that is your
preference). Don’t just record what the author says, though. Record
your thoughts on the readings, provide summaries of key sections,
write down questions that have not been addressed (or not answered
satisfactorily), and so on.
○ Annotate, or otherwise mark the reading up. Do not come into class
with a “clean” text. I should see some evidence that you worked
through the readings!
○ Read the work from the outside in, and ask questions at every step.
Reading a book from start to finish is rarely a useful approach in
history classes. Instead, start with the title (why was that title chosen?
what does it tell you about the argument that might be made?), then
read the introduction, table of contents and conclusion (What are the
main arguments of the book? How were these arguments supported?
What is the structure of the book? So far, do you agree with what the
author has written? Does the argument make sense to you?). Only
after reading these sections should you approach the body chapters,
30
and even then you should follow the same protocol (read first and last
paragraphs/sections first).
○ The process might be slightly shorter for articles or single chapters,
but the process should remain unchanged.
○ TIP #1: Unless you think the reading will be vital to your research (and
typically you won’t know this until you’ve read quite a few sources),
you do not need to read a source in its entirety. Go in, get the main
ideas, 1 Ashley Leyba, History formulate your own ideas, write them
down, and get out.
○ TIP #2: If you are having trouble with a book, particularly with
understanding its “intellectual pedigree,” find a review of the book on
JSTOR. Often, these reviews will provide some orientation as to where
the book you are reading fits into scholarship and/or a particular
intellectual debate.
● Read important sections more than once, especially if something is
confusing. Determine why you are confused--is it because you don’t know
definitions? If so, look them up. Does the confusion stem from not
understanding abstract concepts? Take each sentence on its own and try to
put it in your own words. If, after several read-throughs, the passage is still
impenetrable, bring it up in discussion.
● WRITE: Write, summarize, chart. You should come away from reading with
something tangible to reference later. What form this takes depends on your
own preferences and learning style.
More Specifically…
Though this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of the questions you can ask of
your sources, if you can answer all of the questions listed below, you will be
prepared to contribute to our class discussion.
Questions for Secondary Sources

1. Why did the author write this? What is their research question(s)?
2. What is their main argument(s)?
31
3. How do they support this argument? What types of evidence/source material
do they utilize?
4. Does this author make a compelling argument? Why or why not?
5. How does this work fit into scholarship on similar topics? (i.e. Is the author
arguing against a previously held belief? Is this a novel approach? etc)
6. How does this work fit into our class, or your research?
Questions for Primary Sources

1. Who wrote this? Look for some basic biographical information on this person
(Wikipedia, for all its flaws, is generally a good source for this type of
information. Do not -- and I cannot state this strongly enough - rely on
Wikipedia for summaries of readings or critical information).
2. When was it written? What background information do you need in order for
the source to make sense?
3. Why was it written, and for whom was it written?
4. What is the argument(s)?
5. What does this source tell you about the author/time period/subject?
6. Does this source support the secondary literature that you have read? Why
or why not?
32
Creative Approaches: GSI Award Essays on Teaching Critical
Reading
Each year, a small group of GSIs receive the Teaching Effectiveness Award. The
Advisory Committee for GSI Affairs receives entries from Outstanding GSIs in the
form of essays about teaching interventions they came up with to address
difficulties that arose in their sections or labs. The Advisory Committee reads
through all the essays and chooses the best for the TEA awards.
Many of these select essays are about increasing students’ motivation to read,
cultivating their strategies for reading difficult texts, or improving their
sophistication in analyzing the claims and content of their readings. The links below
are to just a few of the TEA essays that touch on the topic of reading. Many more
are posted at the Teaching Effectiveness Award section of the GSI Center website.
A New Way to Appreciate Cicero’s Style, Yelena Baraz, Classics
Teaching Students ‘Street Smarts’ Necessary for Navigating Peer-Reviewed

Literature, Jeffrey Benca, Integrative Biology
The Theory Scare: Teaching Students How to Grasp Abstract Ideas, Polina Dimova,
Comparative Literature
Poetry and the Scientific Method, Hillary Gravendyk, English
Teaching Critical Skills in Legal Studies, Sonya Lebsack, Legal Studies
It Said What?: Reading Critically for Bias and Point of View, Amy Lerman, Political
Science
Creating Coherence with Conceptual Maps, Edith Replogle Sheffer, History
Experiments in Communicative Latin, William Short, Classics
Sources into Evidence; or, Rethinking the Research Requirement in Reading and
Composition Courses, Leonard von Morzé, English
33

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Teaching Critical Reading

● Guiding and Motivating Students

GSI Teaching & Resource Center

How can we motivate students to prepare adequately on their own? Remember

Strategies of Critical Readers

Habits of Critical Readers

● Use a marking system. This is a note-taking/making scheme that you use

What Is Critical Reading?

Overview of the Four-Step Approach

Assignments to Promote Reading Efficiency

Appendix: Detailed Description of the Four-Step Approach (pdf)

What is Critical Reading?

It is reading actively with the goals of identifying arguments, weighing evidence,

What does it mean for the social sciences?

What difficulties do students face?

Therefore, in asking students to become critical readers within many disciplines at

How do we help students surmount these difficulties?

To alleviate these difficulties I offer a comprehensive, four-step approach to critical

Overview of the Four-Step Approach

This approach includes three layers of reading as well as a “response” component.

First Reading: Previewing

Second Reading: Annotating and Analyzing

Third Reading: Review

Fourth Step: Responding

Assignments to Promote Reading Efficiency

b) Make a list of the specific authors referred to.

Answer Reading Questions

● The metaphor of a citation lineage: This expression can itself be considered

Mather, George, PhD Candidate, Anthropology, UC Berkeley. GSI Teaching &

Writing @ Colorado State University, Critical Reading.

Suggestions for Teaching

Much of what happens in humanities sections is “class discussion.” Some students

A hallmark of a UC Berkeley education is learning to do independent analysis and

● Science and Scientific Claims (Biology) (pdf)

Science and Scientific Claims

Skills of Critical Reading and Thinking and Rules of Evidential Reasoning

Table 1. Skills involved in critical thinking (Wade, 1990).

Reading Arabic Poetry

So how do you read for “medieval concerns”?

Oxford Reference Online - Literature

Oxford Reference Online - Mythology & Folklore

Oxford Reference Online - History

Good interpretive questions to start with in a medieval literary text:

What are the conflicts and the objectives of the characters?

What part does location or landscape play in the narrative?

Again, write your questions and your reactions

The First Reading

Seeing your ideas and Asking Questions

For Our Next Class - Due Thursday, August 29th

Always Read with a Purpose

Scan and Scope the Text Beforehand

Read to Identify the Logic of the Piece

Annotate the Text as you Read

Pay Attention to Passages that Confuse

Notice the Author’s Relationship with Other Scholarship

Write Up Notes Immediately After Reading

Reflect Back Upon the Text and Evaluate the Argument

Guidelines for Reading