Reading Critically

The title, information about the author, and when and where the work was published are proven to be very beneficial to a reader's understanding of an essay. Before reading an essay, one should examine these facts in order to get a feel for what might go on in the essay before actually reading it. While reading, one should annotate, by underlining, writing questions, pointing out key points, etc. After reading the essay, it is beneficial to summarize it. First, summarize by paragraph, and then condense these summaries into two or three sentences. Then, a reader should analyze the essay, by looking at main ideas, support for the main ideas, writing strategies, language, and more. The analysis step also includes the steps of inference and synthesis, since they are so similar. All of these steps help us read more critically and better understand what we are reading.