Posts Tagged ‘reading to respond’
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.
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READING TO RESPOND TECHNIQUE
Our personal response to a text as a critical reader is the second component of a critical, comprehensive reading. If our reponses are to be informed, we must understand what we have read, which is why our first job is to understand. The overall goal of reading to respond is to identify and explore our reactions to a text. More specifically, these goals are as follows:
- Reflect on our experiences and associations with the topic of a text, i.e. know what you feel about a text and know your emotional response.
- Let the text challenge you.
- Use the text to spark new, imaginative thinking.
We can achieve the goals of reading to respond when we approach a text with a set of questions that continually returns our focus to us and our reactions. Here is a sampling of such questions:
- Which one or two sentences did I respond to most strongly in this text ? What was my response ? Explore our reasons for being excited, thoughtful, surprised, or threatened. Keep the focus on us.
- What is the origin of my views on this topic ? If we are reading on a controversial topic, explore where and under what circumstances we learned about the topic.
- If I turned the topic of this text into a question on which people voted, how should I vote and why ? Try getting involved with the text by locating a debate in the text and by taking sides.
- What new interest, question, or observation does this text spark in me ? Use a text to spark our own thinking. Let the text help us pose new questions or make new observations. Use the text a basis for speculation.
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.