The document discusses techniques for developing critical reading skills. It defines critical reading as evaluating claims, seeking definitions, making judgments after careful consideration. Key techniques include keeping a reading journal, annotating texts by underlining or noting questions, outlining texts to understand structure and ideas, summarizing main points and details, and questioning points of skepticism. The document also discusses identifying explicit vs implicit information, determining the writer's central claim or thesis by their intended point or position, and different types of claims including facts, values, and policies.

1. Critical Reading

2. Defining Critical Reading
• Whenever you read something and you evaluate
claims, seek definitions, judge information, demand
proof, and question assumptions, you are thinking
critically.
• This type of reading goes beyond passively
understanding a text because you process the
author’s word and make judgements after carefully
considering the reading message.

3. Techniques to develop critical thinking:
1. Keeping a reading journal
A reading journal is similar
to keeping a diary, except you
are writing your feelings and
ideas in reaction to your reading
assignment

4. Techniques to develop critical thinking:
2. Annotating the text
Annotating the text simply means
making notes on your copy of the reading.
This includes highlighting or underlining
important passages and writing notes,
comments, questions, and reaction on the
margins.

5. Techniques to develop critical thinking:
3. Outlining the text
Creating a rough outline of the text will also
be helpful in gettingto understand it more
critically. By locating the thesis statement, claims,
and evidence, and then plotting these into an
outline, you can see hoe the writer structures,
sequences, and connects his or her ideas.

6. Techniques to develop critical thinking:
4. Summarizing the text
Summarizing the text is similar to
outlining, in that you need to get the gist.
A summary consists of getting the main
points of the essay and important
supporting details.

7. Techniques to develop critical thinking:
5. Questioning the text
Questioning the text involves asking
specific questions on points that you are
spektical about. These may be topics that do
not meet your expectations or are not
aligned with your personal views.

8. Identifying and Analyzing
Claims

9. Critical reading also means that
you are able to distinguish the
information that is clearly stated
(Explicit) in the text from ideas
that are suggested (implicit). This
will help you make inferences about
what you read.
Determining Explicit and Implicit
Information

10. Defining Claims
Whenever you read something, you find
yourself looking for the writer’s point or
position regarding the chosen topic. That
point is also known as the claims, or the
central argument or thesis statement of
the text.
This claim is what the writer tries to
prove in the text by providing details,
explanations, and other types of evidence.

11. Characteristics of good
claims:
1. A claims should be
argumentative and debatable. When
a writer makes a claims, he/she
is making a case for a particular
perspective on the topic.

12. Characteristics of good
claims:
2. A claims should be specific
and focused. If the claim is
unfocused, the paper will be too
broad in scope and will lack
direction and a clear connection
to the support provided. It may
also lead to overgeneralizations
and vague assertions.

13. Characteristics of good
claims:
3. A claims should be interesting
and engaging. It should hook the
reader, who may or may not agree
with you, to encourage them to
consider your perspective and
learn something new form you.

14. Characteristics of good
claims:
4. A claims should be logical. It
should result from reasonable
weighing of the support provided.

15. Here are some questions to help you
determine the writer’s claim while you are
reading a text:
•What is the author’s main point?
•What is the author’s position
regarding it?

16. Distinguishing Between
the Types of Claim

17. Different types of claim
1. Claims of fact state a
quantifiable assertion or a
measurable topic.They assert that
something has existed, exists, or
will exist based on the data.
Claims of fact usually answer a
“what” question.

18. Different types of claim
2. Claims of value assert something that
can be qualified. They consist of
argument about moral, philosophical, or
aesthetic topics. These types of topics
try to prove that some values are more
or less desirable compared to others.
Claims of value attempt to explain
how problems, situations, or issues
ought to be valued.

19. Different types of claim
3. Claims of policy posit that
specific actions should be chosen
as solutions to a paticular
problem. You can easily identify a
claims of policy because they begin
with “should” “ought” or “must.”
Claims of policy because they
defend actionable plans, usually
answer “how” questions.

21. Identifying the Context of Text
Development
Context is defined as the social,
cultural, political, historical, and
other related circumstances that
surround the text and form the terms
form which it can be better
understood and evaluated. Knowledge
of the text’s context helps in
appreciating the text’s message more
deeply.

22. Intertextuality is the modeling of a text’s meaning
by another text
•It is defined as the connections
between language, images,
characters , themes, or subjects
depending on their similarities
in language, genre, or
discourse.

23. Hypertext - is a nonlinear way
of showing information. Hypertext
connects topics on a screen to
related information, graphics,
videos, and music--information
that is not simply related text.

24. Critical Reading as Reasoning

25. Identifying Assertions
Assertion are declarative
sentences that claims
something is true about
something else. Simply, put,
it is a channel that is either
true or false.

26. Read the following examples:
1.The sampaguita’s roots are used for
medical purposes, such as an
anesthetic and a sedative.
2.The sampaguita belongs to the genus
jasminum of the family Oleaceae.

27. Read the following examples:
3.The popularity of sampaguita
flower is most evident in places
of worship.
4.Sampaguita are the most
beautiful and most frangant of
all flower.

28. The first type of assertion is a
fact. This is a statement that
can be proven objectively by
direct experience, testimonies of
witnesses, verified observations,
or the results of research.

29. Read the following examples:
1.The sampaguita’s roots are used for
medical purposes, such as an
anesthetic and a sedative.
2.The sampaguita belongs to the genus
jasminum of the family Oleaceae.

30. The second type is an assertion of
conversation. A convention is a way in
which something is done, similar to
traditions and noms. Conventions depend
on history precedent, laws rules, usage
and customs.
Some to note about conventions is that
they may sound factual due to them
being derived from customs, but becuase
they are socially accepted ways of
doing things, they cannot be verified
objectively by measurements.

31. Read the following examples:
1.The sampaguita’s roots are used for
medical purposes, such as an
anesthetic and a sedative.
2.The sampaguita belongs to the genus
jasminum of the family Oleaceae.

32. •The third type of assertion is an
opinion. Opinions are based on
facts, but are difficult to
objectively verify because of
uncertainty of producing
satisfactory proofs of soundness.
Opinion result from ambiguities;
the more ambigous a statement, the
more difficult it is to verify.

33. Read the following examples:
3.The popularity of sampaguita
flower is most evident in places
of worship.
4.Sampaguita are the most
beautiful and most frangant of
all flower.

34. The fourth type of assertion is a
preference. Preferences are based
on personal choice; therefore, they
are subjective and cannot be
objectively proven of ligocally
attacked.

35. Read the following examples:
3.The popularity of sampaguita
flower is most evident in places
of worship.
4.Sampaguita are the most
beautiful and most frangant of
all flower.