Coverage
Critical Reading
Applying Critical Reading Strategies
Identifying and Analysing Claims
Distinguishing Between the Types of
Claim
Critical Reading
Whenever you read something and
you evaluate claims, seek definitions,
judge information, demand proof, and
question assumptions, you are thinking
critically. This type of reading goes
beyond passively understanding a text,
because you process the author’s words
and make judgments after carefully
considering the reading’s message.
Critical Reading
But why should you read critically?
Reading critically means you are
thinking critically. This shows that you
do not simply accept the message on
the page. You bring to your reading
your own experience and perspective,
and use these to separate yourself from
the text and judge for yourself what you
consider significant, logical, or right.
Critical Reading
This interaction between the text
and the reader is necessary and the
reader is necessary because reading
results from a negotiation of meaning
between the text and the reader. By
reading critically, you find out the
author’s views on something, ask
questions, evaluate the strengths and
weaknesses of the author’s argument,
and decide to agree or disagree with it.
Critical Reading
Thus, critical reading allows you to
enter into a dialogue with the author-
and this deepens your understanding of
the issue or topic discussed. Therefore,
to arrive at a sufficient interpretation of
the text, you need to become a critical
and active reader.
Why do we have
to read critically?
Do we really have to do that?
Do you think when
you read a text you
are interacting with
the writer itself?
When we read critically we find out the author’s
views on something, we ask questions, evaluate the
strengths and weaknesses of the author’s
argument, and decide to agree or disagree with it, it
allows us to enter into a dialogue with the author –
thus deepening our understanding of the issue or
topic discussed.
Keep in mind that “if we are able to arrive at a
sufficient interpretation of the text, we are already
a critical and active reader.”
Applying Critical Reading Strategies
Keeping a reading journal
Annotating the text
Outlining the text
Summarizing the text
Questioning the text
Keeping a Reading Journal
Have you ever kept a diary? If you did, you
must have felt free while expressing
whatever was on your mind. This is because
there are no rules in keeping a diary; you
write for yourself.
A reading journal is similar to keeping a
diary, except you are writing your feelings
and ideas in reaction to your reading
assignment.
Keeping a Reading Journal
This process allows you to develop your
impressions of the text and connect them to
your personal experiences. This allows you
to be better relate to the essay and
understand the author’s ideas.
Keeping a Reading Journal
When keeping a reading journal, it is best
to have a separate notebook for this
purpose. Include the titles of the reading
assignments you are responding to add
dates to your entries.
Make it a habit to reread your entries so
you can see how your ideas and writing have
evolved. Keep in mind that your teacher and
classmates may read your work ― so only
write about what you feel comfortable
sharing.
Annotating the Text
Annotating the text simply means
making notes on your copy of the reading.
This includes highlighting or underlining
significant passages and writing notes,
comments, questions, and reactions on the
margins. By doing this, you are entering into
a dialogue with the author and not just
passively reading the text. It is usually best
to annotate the text after you have read it
more than once to ensure that you
understand it properly.
Outlining the Text
Creating a rough outline of the text will
also be helpful in getting to understand it
more critically. By locating the thesis
statement, claims, and evidence, and then
plotting these into an outline, you can see
how the writer structures, sequences, and
connects his/her ideas. This way you will be
able to better evaluate the quality of the
writing.
Summarizing the Text
Summarizing the text is similar to
outlining, in that you need to get the gist. A
summary consists of getting the main points
of the essay and important supporting
details. It is a useful skill because you can
better understand the reading if you can
recognise and differentiate major and minor
points in the text. Usually, locating the
thesis statement and topic sentences are
helpful in creating your summary.
Summarizing the Text
The supporting details in a paragraph
and succeeding paragraphs may be used to
develop or clarify the writer’s point.
Questioning the Text
Questioning the text involves asking
specific questions on points that you are
skeptical about. These may be topics that do
not meet your expectations or agree with
your personal views. Alternately, you should
also take note of things that you found
impressive.
Questioning the Text
The following question may be asked:
What type of audience is addressed?
What are the writer’s assumptions?
What are the writer’s intentions?
How well does the writer accomplish
these?
How persuasive is the evidence
presented?
Questioning the Text
How reliable are the sources? Are they
based on personal experience, scientific
data, or outside authorities?
Did the writer address opposing views on
the issue?
Is the writer persuasive in his/her
perspective?
Based on the discussion,
what are the benefits of
becoming a critical reader?
What do you think are the
benefits of critical reading
in writing?
Identifying and Analysing Claims
Explicit information
Implicit information
Critical reading also means that you’re able
to distinguish the information that is clearly
stated (explicit) in the text from ideas that are
suggested (implicit). This will you make
inferences about what you read.
How can you tell whether something is
implicit or explicit?
Explicit Information
As you have observed, explicit information
is clearly written and elucidated in the text
so the reader will not be confused. If
something is explicit, it is in the text―there
is an evidence that you can point to―it can
be a fact or opinion, but it is there in black
and white.
Ex.
Ellaine did not like snakes and had never
owned one.
EXPLICIT [1] Kristel, my brother’s new girlfriend, is a
INFORMATION 1
catlike creature. [2] Framing her face is a layer
of sleek black hair that always looks just-
combed. [3] Her face, with its wide forehead,
sharp cheekbones, and narrow, pointed chin,
resembles a triangle. [4] Kristel’s skin is a soft,
velvety brown. [5] Her large brown eyes slant
upward at the corners, and she emphasizes
their angle with a sweep of maroon eye shadow.
[6] Kristel’s habit of looking sidelong out of the
tail of her eyes makes her appear cautious, as if
she were expecting something to sneak up on
her. [7] Her nose is small and flat.
EXPLICIT [8] The sharply outlined depression under
INFORMATION 1
it leads the observer’s eye to a pair of red-
tinted lips. [9] With their slight upward tilt
at the corners, Kristel’s lips make her seem
self-satisfied and secretly pleased. [1O] One
reason Kristel may be happy is that she
recently was asked to be in a local beauty
contest. [11] Her long neck and slim body
are perfectly in proportion with her face. [12]
Kristel manages to look elegant and sleek no
matter how she is standing or sitting, for her
body seems to be made up of graceful
angles.
EXPLICIT [13] Her slender hands are tipped with
INFORMATION 1
long, polished nails. [14] Her narrow feet are
long, too, but they appear delicate even in
flat-soled running shoes. [15] Somehow,
Kristel would look perfect in a cat’s jeweled
collar.
[1] The pet shop in the mall is a depressing EXPLICIT
place. [2] A display window attracts passersby who INFORMATION 2
stare at the prisoners penned inside. [3] In the
right-hand side of the window, two puppies press
their forepaws against the glass and attempt to lick
the human hands that press from the outside. [4]
A cardboard barrier separates the dogs from
several black-and-white kittens piled together in
the opposite end of the window. [5] Inside the shop,
rows of wire cages line one wall from top to bottom.
[6] At first, it is hard to tell whether a bird,
hamster, gerbil, cat, or dog is locked inside each
cage. [7] Only an occasional movement or clawing,
shuffling sound tells visitors that living creatures
are inside.
[8] Running down the center of the store is a EXPLICIT
line of large wooden perches that look like coat INFORMATION 2
racks. [9] When customers pass by, the parrots
and mynahs chained to these perches flutter their
clipped wings in a useless attempt to escape. [1O]
At the end of this center aisle is a large plastic tub
of dirty, stagnant-looking water containing a few
motionless turtles. [11] The shelves against the
left-hand wall are packed with all kinds of pet
related items. [12] The smell inside the entire shop
is an unpleasant mixture of strong chemical
deodorizers, urine-soaked newspapers, and musty
sawdust.
[13] Because so many animals are crammed EXPLICIT
together, the normally pleasant, slightly milky INFORMATION 2
smell of the puppies and kittens is sour and
strong. [14] The droppings inside the uncleaned
birdcages give off a dry, stinging odour. [15]
Visitors hurry out of the shop, anxious to feel fresh
air and sunlight. [16] The animals stay on.
Implicit Information
Meanwhile, it is something that is implied,
but not stated outright in the text. The
writer’s ideas are not explicitly stated.
Because the idea is not written in the text,
you need to use the clues in the text to make
an inference on what you have read. For
his/her intentions to be revealed, the writer
merely uses clues, hints, words, or symbols
to point out her point.
Implicit Information
For you to understand and unearth the writer’s
“concealed” information in a text, you have to make
an inference.
An inference is a reasoning involved in drawing
a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the
basis of circumstantial evidence and prior
conclusions rather than on the basis of direct
observation.
Ex.
George moved away from snakes, she’d never
owned one.
IMPLICIT
INFORMATION 1
With a lean built, broad, muscular,
and reliable shoulders, tall stature, and
a majestic face – thick volume of
platinum-blonde lashes rivalling the
colour of his wavy and soft hair, tall,
proud nose, and eyes on the deep
shade of electric blue, Railey was used
on getting what he wants.
IMPLICIT National strength can only be built on character. A
INFORMATION 2 nation is nothing more nor less than its citizenry. It is
the people that make up the nation and, therefore, it
The strength of a
nation is founded
cannot be stronger that its component parts. Their
on the character of weakness is its failings, their strength is power. Show
its people me a people composed of vigorous, sturdy individuals,
of men and women healthy in mind and body;
courteous, brave, industrious, self-reliant; purposeful
in thought as well as in action; imbued with sound
patriotism and a profound sense of righteousness; with
high social ideals and a strong moral fiber; and I will
show you a great nation, a nation that will not be
submerged, a nation that will emerge victorious from
the trials and bitter strifes of a distracted world, a
nation that will live forever, sharing the common task
of advancing the welfare and promoting the happiness
of mankind. The strength of a nation is founded on the
character of its people.
IMPLICIT The Filipino of today is soft, easy-going. His
INFORMATION 2 tendency is towards parasitism. He is uninclined to
sustained strenuous effort! He lacks earnestness. Face-
The Filipinos
nowadays are more
saving is the dominant note in the confused symphony
selfish than they of his existence. His sense of righteousness is often
were in the past. dulled with the desire of personal gain. His norm of
conduct is generally prompted by expediency rather
than by principle. He shows a failing in that superb
courage which impels action because it is right, even at
the cost of self-sacrifice. His greatest fear is not to do
wrong, but of being caught doing wrong. He is frivolous
in his view of life. His conception of virtue is many
times conventional. He takes his religion lightly. He
thinks that lip service and profession are equivalent to
deep and abiding faith. He is inconstant; he lacks
perseverance; the first obstacles baffle him, and he
easily admits defeat.
IMPLICIT I have an abiding faith in our people. I know that they
INFORMATION 3 have all the faculties needed to become a powerful and
enlightened nation. The Filipino is not inferior to any man
Today’s Filipinos, of any race. His physical, intellectual, and moral qualities
compared to their are as excellent as those of the proudest stock of mankind.
ancestors, have But some of these qualities, I am constrained to admit,
lost the power for
have become dormant in recent years. If we compare our
growth because
they live in easier
individual and civic traits with those that adorned our
circumstances. forefathers, we will find, I fear, that we, the Filipinos of
today, have lost much of the moral strength and power for
growth of our ancestors. They were strong-willed, earnest,
adventurous people. They had traditions potent in influence
in their lives, individually and collectively. They had the
courage to be pioneers, to brave the seas, clear the forest
and erect towns and cities upon the wilderness. They led a
life of toil and communal service. Each one considered
himself an active part of the body politic. But those
traditions are either lost or forgotten. They exist only as a
hazy-mist in our distant past.
Defining Claims
Knowing how to identify explicit and
implicit information will help you in one
of the most significant sills needed in
critical reading: evaluating the claims
made by an author. This involves going
back to the text to recognise the writer’s
arguments and evidence so you can
begin judging the writer’s work.
Defining Claims
Whenever you read something, you find
yourself looking for the writer’s point or
position regarding the chosen topic. That
point is also known as the claim, or the
central argument or thesis statement of the
text. This claim is what the writer tries to
prove in the text by providing details,
elucidations, and other types of evidence. As
such, it is usually found in the introduction
or in the first few paragraphs of the text.
Defining Claims
The claim is the most significant part
of the text. The quality and complexity
of the reading depend on the claim,
because the claim defines the paper’s
direction and scope. The claim is a
sentence that summarizes the most
significant thing that the writer wants
to say as a result of his/her thinking,
reading, or writing.
Defining Claims
The following are the characteristics of
good claims:
It should be argumentative and debatable.
When a writer makes a claim, s/he is
making a case for a certain perspective on
the topic. Readers expect to be able to
raise objections to your claim, and they
can only raise objection if the claim is
something that can be reasonably
challenged. Claims that are only factual or
based on opinion, thus, are not debatable.
Defining Claims
It should be specific and focused. If
the claim is unfocused, the paper will
be too broad in scope and will lack
direction and a clear connection to
the support provided. It may also lead
to overgeneralizations and vague
assertions.
Defining Claims
It should be interesting and engaging. It
should hook the reader, who may or may
not agree with you, to encourage them to
consider your perspective and learn
something new from you.
It should be logical. It should result from
reasonable weighing of support provided.
Distinguishing the Three Types of Claim
Claims of Fact
- It states a quantifiable assertion or a
measurable topic
- It asserts that something has existed,
exists, or will exist based on data
- It relies on reliable sources or systematic
procedures to be validated.
- It usually answers a “what” question
Distinguishing the Three Types of Claim
Claims of Value
- It asserts that something can be qualified
- It consists of arguments about moral,
philosophical, or aesthetic topics
- It always proves that some values are
more or less desirable compared to
others
- It attempts to elucidate how problems,
situations, or issues ought to be valued
Distinguishing the Three Types of Claim
Claims of Policy
- It posits that specific actions should be
chosen as solutions to a certain problem.
Keywords such as “should,” “ought to,”
and/or “must.”
- It usually answers “how” questions.
