Critical Reading

1. Critical Reading “Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” – John Locke

2. Expository Forms Goal: Do you understand? Goal: Are you convinced? Genres: Critique or Analytic Synthesis Genres: Summary or Explanatory Synthesis

3. Step 1: Summary

4. Ways to Annotate Annotation & Note-taking Annotations reflect your observations of details in the text, questions the text raises, new ideas it suggests, and personal reactions.

5. Step 2: Author Purpose (Spin)

6. Example: Green Eggs and Ham • Description: A children’s story told in rhyme and repetition that describes a persuasive argument between Sam-I-Am and the narrator. • Summary: Sam-I-Am offers breakfast to an unnamed narrator. The narrator refuses to eat under any circumstances. Finally, he surrenders and tries the food, discovering that he likes it.

7. Purpose and Interpretation • Dr. Seuss may intend the narrator (whose lack of a name makes him universally identifiable) to represent a child unwilling to try new things, no matter what enticement or logical reasoning is offered. The repetition of increasingly silly situations shows children that their objections can easily become unmoored from logical reality. • Based on the apparent age difference between Sam-I-Am (shorter and younger than the narrator), I also think that the story might be a social satire on how older people reject the ideas of the younger generation out of hand. The book was written in 1960 (as the Beat writers were challenging the political status quo), and Dr. Seuss himself was a political cartoonist known for injecting social satire in his work on other occasions.

8. Step 3: Do you agree or disagree?

9. Summarizing: 8 Easy Steps

10. Summarizing: 7 Easy Steps

11. Summarizing In Action Original Version: Virtual-reality systems can use cyberspace to represent physical space, even to the point that we can feel telepresent in a transmitted scene, whether Mars or the deep ocean. We can achieve the illusion of being present in remote locations, for example the planet Mars or deep parts of the ocean, by using virtual-reality equipment that creates a cyberspace representation of the real world (Heim 80). Virtual-reality systems can represent physical space by using cyberspace, even to the extent that people can feel telepresent in a scene that is transmitted, perhaps Mars or the deep ocean (Heim 80).

12. Summarizing In Action According to the author of “Seeing the Forest,” the extent of global deforestation was difficult to measure until satellite remote sensing techniques were applied. Measuring the extent of global deforestation is important because of concerns about global warming and species extinctions. The technique compares old infrared LANDSAT images with new images. The authors conclude the method is accurate and cost effective. This article covers the topic of measuring the extent of global deforestation. The article discusses the reasons for concern, the technique, the results, and the project’s current goal.