Three Approaches to Reading
Three Approaches to Reading
Transcript
There are three key approaches to reading difficult texts. Let's talk about what they are and how to use them. There's skimming, critical reading and close reading. Skimming is reading at the level of the paragraph. Typically, people do this by reading every other word or by reading the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Skimming is a good way to look quickly through the entire text just picking up the general gist of things. Critical reading is reading at the level of the sentence. It's reading a text more or less word for word, cover to cover, not skipping anything but also not pausing anywhere for too long.
You might think of this as the way that you'd read the newspaper or read a book that you're reading for fun. It's sort of normal reading. Close reading is reading at the level of the word. It's typically done for short passages because it's a very detail-oriented close way of reading that often involves rereading individual sentences or key phrases. I like to explain the three approaches to reading using a metaphor of distance and an image of a pen. Say you go to visit the admissions office of the college and they give you a pen. The pen has the name of the college and the logo and maybe the phone number for the admissions department. Now, imagine that you hold the pen out all the way at full arm's length. You can still see the pen pretty clearly.
You can see what color it is and maybe that there's some writing on it but it's hard to get a real good look at it. That would be skimming the pen. Now, imagine that you're holding the pen a foot or two from your face. It's much clearer now. You can read exactly what's written on it, the name of the college, the phone number for the admissions office, the logo. You see it pretty well. That would be critical reading a pen. Now, imagine that you're holding the pen just a few inches from your face. You can see every detail. Not only can you read everything very clearly. You can even see tiny imperfections or maybe a spot where you chipped off a little bit of the logo with your thumbnail.
That would be close reading a pen. We should also talk a little bit about the strength and weaknesses of these various approaches to reading. Skimming is fast. It's a good way to get through a text quickly and have a general sense of what the text is about but it's not very detail-oriented. It's not a good way to learn a lot about a text. It's good for a first impression, a sort of quick breeze through the text before you move into a more detail-oriented form of reading or maybe you only need a quick impression and then it's enough to just skim.
Critical reading which is sort of the middle speed is usually enough for reading a textbook and it may even be enough to get the job done for a scholarly text or a literary text. Again, it's a normal speed of reading. You read all the way through something and you generally know what's happening there.
Close reading is slow. It's great for picking up details but it takes a long time and that means that you don't want for instance to close read an entire 300 page novel. With close reading, you wanna pick your spots and focus in on the finer points usually of a scholarly or a literary text. You may wanna save close reading for those moments that you're gonna write a paper about or that you think might appear on the exam.
By using each of these approaches at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way, you can help yourself understand the important parts of a text efficiently and effectively.
You might think of this as the way that you'd read the newspaper or read a book that you're reading for fun. It's sort of normal reading. Close reading is reading at the level of the word. It's typically done for short passages because it's a very detail-oriented close way of reading that often involves rereading individual sentences or key phrases. I like to explain the three approaches to reading using a metaphor of distance and an image of a pen. Say you go to visit the admissions office of the college and they give you a pen. The pen has the name of the college and the logo and maybe the phone number for the admissions department. Now, imagine that you hold the pen out all the way at full arm's length. You can still see the pen pretty clearly.
You can see what color it is and maybe that there's some writing on it but it's hard to get a real good look at it. That would be skimming the pen. Now, imagine that you're holding the pen a foot or two from your face. It's much clearer now. You can read exactly what's written on it, the name of the college, the phone number for the admissions office, the logo. You see it pretty well. That would be critical reading a pen. Now, imagine that you're holding the pen just a few inches from your face. You can see every detail. Not only can you read everything very clearly. You can even see tiny imperfections or maybe a spot where you chipped off a little bit of the logo with your thumbnail.
That would be close reading a pen. We should also talk a little bit about the strength and weaknesses of these various approaches to reading. Skimming is fast. It's a good way to get through a text quickly and have a general sense of what the text is about but it's not very detail-oriented. It's not a good way to learn a lot about a text. It's good for a first impression, a sort of quick breeze through the text before you move into a more detail-oriented form of reading or maybe you only need a quick impression and then it's enough to just skim.
Critical reading which is sort of the middle speed is usually enough for reading a textbook and it may even be enough to get the job done for a scholarly text or a literary text. Again, it's a normal speed of reading. You read all the way through something and you generally know what's happening there.
Close reading is slow. It's great for picking up details but it takes a long time and that means that you don't want for instance to close read an entire 300 page novel. With close reading, you wanna pick your spots and focus in on the finer points usually of a scholarly or a literary text. You may wanna save close reading for those moments that you're gonna write a paper about or that you think might appear on the exam.
By using each of these approaches at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way, you can help yourself understand the important parts of a text efficiently and effectively.