Posts Tagged ‘reading to evaluate’
FORMS OF WRITING ASSIGNMENT
August 30, 2011 | 
Author During college years, we will often be asked to demonstrate our understanding of sources by writing summaries, evaluations, analyses, and syntheses. These thing make up the four forms of writing that are fundamental to college-level work. Each form emphasizes a particular way of thinking about texts, and each is built on particular skills in critical reading, which in turn will lead us to be a critical writer.
Forms of writing that build on reading that will make us a critical writer, are:
Summary.
When we summarize, we briefly and neutrally restate the main points of a text. Summary draws on our skills of reading to understand.
Evaluation.
When we evaluate, we judge the effectiveness of an author’s presentation and explain our agreement or disagreement. Evaluation draws on our skills of reading to understand, reading to respond, and reading to evaluate.
Analysis.
When we analyze, we use the clearly defined principles set out by one or more authors to investigate the work of other authors or to investigate various situations in the world. Analysis draws on our skills of reading to understand, reading to respond, and reading to evaluate.
Synthesis.
When we synthesize texts, we gather the work of various authors according to our purpose. Synthesis draws on our skills of reading to understand, reading to respond, reading to evaluate, and reading to synthesize.
READING TO EVALUATE TECHNIQUE
Evaluating a text is the third component of a close, critical reading for a critical reader. Having understood and responded to a text, we are in a position to investigate its strengths and weaknesses, that is to evaluate it. We will not find every text to be of equal value: equally accurate, equally useful, equally convincing, equally well written. As a critical reader, you should determine the extent to which an author has succeeded or failed in presenting material. We should be able to explain why we and the author agree or disagree.
We have four goals in reading to evaluate:
- Distinguish between an author’s use of facts and opinions. When we are reading to evaluate, we want to be alert to an author’s use of facts, opinions, and definitions, and his or her assumed views of the world. We will also want to know if an author’s purpose is primarily to inform or to argue, so that we can pose specific questions accordingly.
- Distinguish between an author’s assumptions (fundamental beliefs about the world) and our own. An assumptions is a fundamental belief that shapes people’s views. Sometimes assumptions are based on clearly defined reasons, and other times they are based on ill-defined feelings. Either way, the opinions that people have can be better understood by indentifying the underlying assumpions.
- Judge the effectiveness of an explanation.
- Judge the effectiveness of an argument.
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Tags: assumptions, critical reader, reading to evaluate | 
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BE A CRITICAL READER
Especially in college, our success as a writer will require that we be an effective reader. To be an effective reader, we have to try to develop habits of mind that prompt us to think critically about what we read. “Critical” in this sense does not mean negative, but rather active and alert. Critical habits include being alert to similarities and differences; posing questions; setting issues in broader contexts; and forming and supporting opinions. Developing the habits of a critical thinker will prepare you for working with the source materials on which we will base much of our writing.
Those habits mentioned above prepare us in a general way for thinking critically about what we see and hear. Noting differences, challenging and being challenged by sources, setting issues in a broader context, and forming and supporting opinions, these habits of mind, so important to thinking critically, do not necessarily lead to formal statements on our part about the materials we encounter.
When teachers and, later, employers ask that we read and use source materials as a basis for writing, we will need to formalize and systematize our critical thinking skills. A close, critical reading requires that we have the skills of reading to understand, reading to respond, reading to evaluate, and reading to synthesize as appropriate to our task.
To a greater or lesser extent, we will naturally mix into a single reading the tasks of reading to understand, to respond, to evaluate, and to synthesize. The goal of a close, critical reading is to make sure we perform these tasks well. To do so, even the most experienced readers find they must read a text or two more times. Reading and rereading are the habits that we must have to achieve the goal.