Mission and vision of inyange industries

From Reading to Writing

To move from reading to writing, you need to read actively and critically, with an alert, inquiring mind. Reading critically means learning how to analyze and respond to what you read. You must be able to discover what is going on in an essay, to figure out the writer’s reasons for shaping the essay in a particular way, to decide whether the result works well or poorly — and why. At first, such digging may seem odd, and for good reason. After all, we all know how to read. But do we know how to read critically?

Critical reading is a skill that takes time to acquire. By becoming more familiar with different types of writing, you will sharpen your critical thinking skills and learn how good writers make decisions in their writing. After reading an essay, most people feel more confident talking about the content of the piece than about the writer’s style because content is more tangible. In large part, this discrepancy results from our schooling. Most of us have been taught to read for ideas. Not many of us, however, have been trained to read critically, to engage a writer and his or her writing, and to ask why we like one piece of writing and not another. Similarly, most of us do not ask ourselves why one piece of writing is more convincing than another.

When you learn to read and think critically, you begin to answer these important questions and come to appreciate the craftsmanship involved in writing. Critical reading, then, is a skill you need if you are truly to engage and understand the content of a piece of writing as well as understand the craft that shapes the writer’s ideas into a presentable form. Critical reading will repay your efforts by helping you read more effectively, think more critically, and grow as a writer.

For more practice, visit the LaunchPad for Models for Writers: LearningCurve > Critical Reading

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http://www.macmillanhighered.com/launchpad/models13e
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Reading Critically Critical reading requires, first of all, that you commit time and effort. Second, try to take a positive interest in what you are reading, even if the subject matter is not immediately appealing. Remember that you are reading not for content alone but also to understand a writer’s methods — to see firsthand the kinds of choices writers make as they write.

To get the most out of your reading, follow the five steps of the reading process:

1. Prepare yourself to read the selection.

2. Read the selection.

3. Reread the selection.

4. Annotate the text with marginal notes.

5. Analyze and evaluate the text with questions.

Step 1: Prepare Yourself to Read the Selection

Before diving into any given selection, it’s helpful to get a context for the reading: What’s the essay about? What do you know about the writer’s background and reputation? Where was the essay first published? Who was the intended audience for the essay? How much do you already know about the subject of the reading selection?

We encourage you, therefore, to review the materials that precede each selection in this book. Each selection begins with a title, a portrait of the writer, a headnote, and a writing prompt.

From the title, you often discover the writer’s position on an issue or attitude toward the topic. On occasion, the title provides clues about the intended audience and the writer’s purpose in writing the piece.

The headnote contains three essential elements: a biographical note about the author, publication information, and rhetorical highlights of the selection. (1) The biographical note will tell you information on the person’s life and work as well as something about his or her reputation and authority to write on the subject of the piece. (2) The publication information tells you when the selection was published and in what book or magazine it appeared. This information gives you insights about the intended audience and the historical context. (3) The rhetorical highlights direct your attention to one or more of the

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model features of the selection.

Finally, the writing prompt, called Reflecting on What You Know, encourages you to collect your own thoughts and opinions about the topic or related subjects before you commence reading. This prompt makes it easy for you to keep a record of your own knowledge or thinking about a topic before you see what the writer has to offer in the essay.

To demonstrate how these context-building materials can work for you, carefully review the following materials that accompany Abraham Lincoln’s “The Gettysburg Address.” The speech itself appears later in this chapter (p. 46).