Rules for writers, Tenth edition - Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers 2021

Read actively
Reading and writing critically
Academic Reading and Writing

✵ 4 Reading and writing critically

✵ 5 Reading and writing about multimodal texts

✵ 6 Reading arguments

✵ 7 Writing arguments

4Reading and writing critically

✵ Guidelines for active reading

✵ How to read like a writer

✵ How to draft an analytical thesis statement

✵ Writing guide: How to write an analytical essay

One of the best ways to become a successful college writer is to become a critical reader. When you read critically, you read with an open, curious mind, trying to understand not only what is written but also why and how it is written. When you write analytically, you respond to a text and its author with your observations and insights. The more you take from your reading, the more you have to give as a writer.

4a Read actively.

Reading, like writing, is an active process that happens in steps. For most texts, such as the ones assigned in college, a single quick reading is often a missed opportunity. Many such texts require you to read and reread to comprehend their ideas and the evidence used to support their claims.

When you read actively, you ask questions about a text and pay attention to details you would miss if you just skimmed the text. Active readers preview a text, annotate it, and then converse with it.

Previewing a text

Start by previewing a text to help you understand its basic features and structure. A text’s title, for example, may reveal the author’s purpose; a text’s style and format, either print or digital, may reveal what kind of text it is — a book, a report, a scholarly article, a memo, or something else. The more you know about a text before you read it, the easier it will be to dig deeper into it.

Annotating a text

Annotating a text helps you read actively and deeply to understand what the text says and why it was written. Think of annotating as an exchange you have with the text’s author. Your role in the exchange is to respond as a reader, inserting and adding your observations, questions, responses, and reactions. As you read, you note the strengths and limitations of the text, comment on what’s clear and what’s confusing, and answer the basic question “What is this text about?” These guidelines will help you annotate a text effectively.

The following example shows how one student, Emilia Sanchez, annotated an article from CQ Researcher, a newsletter about social and political issues.

ANNOTATED ARTICLE

HOW TO

Annotate a text effectively

The more you annotate a text with your words, symbols, and responses, the more you make the text your own — and the easier it is for you to start writing about it. The following strategies will help you annotate a text.

1. Circle, underline, or bracket the text’s thesis, key words, and major pieces of evidence to help you distinguish the main idea from the supporting ideas.

2. Use the text’s margins to ask questions about the author’s purpose and argument.

3. Note what surprises or puzzles you about the text, or where you agree or disagree with the author’s points.

4. Use symbols to visualize your responses, such as asterisks (*) for important ideas, exclamation points (!) for information that surprises you, and question marks (?) for points that confuse you.

For additional tips on annotating digital sources, see page 58.

READING AND ANNOTATING DIGITAL TEXTS

For most assignments, you will be asked to read online sources. It is tempting to skim online texts rather than read them carefully. When you skim a text, you are less likely to remember what you have read and less inclined to reread to grasp layers of meaning. However, when you annotate a text, you slow down your reading, noticing details and observing what is interesting and important about a text.

The purpose of annotating — to better understand what you are reading — stays the same across print and digital texts. What changes are the available tools. In both print and digital texts, you can highlight or underline key passages, write notes in the margins of the text, and insert your reactions and questions. Highlighting works best when it is accompanied by your own observations about the text and your responses to the words and sentences you have highlighted.

Here are some strategies for reading and annotating online sources:

✵ Experiment with annotation tools. If you prefer working with printed texts, you can print out and annotate hard copies of online sources. But annotating digitally can be just as effective. Adobe Reader, for example, is a free program that offers annotation tools for PDFs, such as sticky notes, a highlighter, and other commenting features. Smartphones have built-in annotation tools for text and images. Try different methods to find which ones work for you.

✵ Save your sources. Make sure you have copies of your sources and annotations so that you can return to them when writing your assignment. Most web browsers allow you to save web pages as PDFs or to print hard copies; you can take screenshots of web pages or other sources that you view on your smartphone.

✵ Read slowly. Instead of sweeping your eyes across the screen, slow the pace of your reading so you can focus on the meaning of each sentence.

✵ Avoid multitasking. Close other applications, especially messaging and social media apps, to avoid distractions. If you follow a link for background information or the definition of a term, return immediately to the original source when you are done.

The guidelines for active reading on page 60 will also help you read online sources effectively.

Conversing with a text

Conversing with a text — that is, responding to a text and its author — helps you move beyond your initial notes to draw conclusions about what you’ve read. Perhaps you ask additional questions, examine the author’s assumptions, point out something that doesn’t make sense, or explain how the author’s ideas suggest wider implications. As you talk back to a text, you look more closely and skeptically at how the author works through a topic, and you analyze the author’s evidence and conclusions.

Conversing takes your annotations to the next level. You might begin your conversation with a text and its author by using sentence starters such as these:

✵ But what about ?

✵ Have you considered ?

✵ What’s missing here is .

✵ I find this point so important because .

✵ Couldn’t we also see it this way: .

✵ What if we conclude instead of ?

Using a double-entry notebook

Many writers use a double-entry notebook to converse with a text and its author and to generate ideas. To create one, draw a line down the center of a notebook page or create a two-column table in a Word or Google document. On the left side, record what the author says; include quotations, sentences, and key terms from the text. On the right side, record your observations and questions. A double-entry notebook allows you to visualize the conversation between you and the author as it develops.

Here is an excerpt from student writer Emilia Sanchez’s double-entry notebook (with sentence starters highlighted).

Using sources responsibly To avoid plagiarizing, put quotation marks around words you copy from the text and keep an accurate record of page numbers for quotations.

Asking “So what?”

As you read and annotate a text, make sure you understand its thesis, or central idea. Ask yourself: What is the author’s thesis? Then put the author’s thesis to the “So what?” test: Why does this thesis matter? Why does it need to be argued? What’s at stake? Try using language like the following to evaluate the author’s argument:

✵ The author overlooks this important point: .

✵ The author’s argument is convincing because .

Perhaps you’ll conclude that the thesis is too obvious and doesn’t matter at all — or that it matters so much that you believe the author stopped short and overlooked key details or asked the wrong questions. Or perhaps you’ll see many strengths in the author’s argument but feel that a reasonable person might draw different conclusions about the issue.

GUIDELINES FOR ACTIVE READING

Preview a written text.

✵ Who is the author? What are the author’s credentials?

✵ What is the author’s purpose: To inform? To persuade? To call to action?

✵ Who is the expected audience?

✵ When was the text written? Where was it published or posted?

✵ What kind of text is it: A book? A scholarly article? An online news report? A public service video?

Annotate a written text.

✵ What surprises, puzzles, or intrigues you about the text?

✵ What words or terms do you need to look up?

✵ What question does the text attempt to answer, or what problem does it attempt to solve?

✵ What is the author’s thesis, or main idea? What does the author want you to believe or do?

✵ What type of evidence does the author provide to support the thesis?

✵ How persuasive is this evidence?

✵ If the text includes sound or images, what purpose do they serve?

✵ What do you notice about design details?

Converse with a written text.

✵ What are the strengths and limitations of the text?

✵ Has the author drawn conclusions that you question?

✵ Do you have a different interpretation of the evidence?

✵ Does the text raise questions that it does not answer?

✵ Does the author consider opposing points of view? Does the author treat sources fairly?

✵ If the text is multimodal, has the author chosen the best combinations of modes (video, audio, etc.) for the message?

Ask “So what?”

✵ Why does the author’s thesis need to be argued or explained? What’s at stake?

✵ What has the author overlooked in presenting this thesis or message? What’s missing?

✵ Could a reasonable person draw different conclusions?

VIDEO

Watch "How to read actively" for tips on how to be an active reader.

HOW TO

Read like a writer

Reading like a writer helps you identify the techniques writers use so that you can use them, too. To read like a writer is to pay attention to how a text is written and how it creates an effect on you. The following strategies will help you develop and strengthen your own reading and writing skills.

1. Review any notes you’ve made on a text. What passages do you find effective? What words or sentences did you underline? If you think the text is powerful or well written, figure out why and how the text works.

2. Ask what, why, and how questions about the techniques writers use. What techniques do writers use in their introductions, for instance, to hook readers? How does a writer’s use of a surprising statistic or a provocative question capture your attention? Or how does a writer find common ground among differing positions to establish trust with readers? Identify the specific techniques you appreciate as a reader — and name them — so that they may become part of your repertoire as a writer.

3. Observe how writers use specific academic writing techniques you want to learn. For instance, if you’re interested in learning how writers introduce and respond to counterarguments or how they quote and paraphrase sources, pay attention to these academic writing techniques when you read.

4. Use your experiences as a reader to plan the effect you want to create for your readers. As you draft and revise your writing, make deliberate choices to create this effect.