David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. “Push and shove”. You mark and the book and it marks on you.

• Texts present ideas not absolute truths.

  
  

Reading is a rhetorical tool. Douglas Brent’s book, Reading and Rhetorical Invention. Reading is a means of persuasion. Updates our view of the world.

Brent’s theory of reading:

• The purpose of research is not simply to retrieve data, but to participate in a conversation about it.

• Feelings can be a source of shareable good reason for belief.

• Research is recursive.

• There is no such thing as an unbiased source.

Actively responding to difficult texts, posing questions, and analyzing ideas presented in them is the key to successful reading.

• Reacting to a text. Emotional level. Quick and shallow.

• Responding to a text. Careful study of the ideas presented, and arguments advanced in it.

  
  

Critical reading.

• Read the text several times.

• Study “why” the author of the text advances presented issues.

• Study the intended audience of the text.

• Study the history of the argument (as much as possible).

• Study the social, political, and intellectual context in which the text was written. 

• Consider the author’s (and your own) previous knowledge of the issue at the center of the text and your experiences with it.

  
  

Critical readers/writers avoid agree-disagree responses. Binary reading.

One of the key principles of critical reading is that active readers do not read silently and by themselves.

• They take notes and write about what they read.

• They also discuss the texts they are working with, with others and compare their own interpretations of those texts with the interpretations constructed by their colleagues.

Important to use your existing knowledge and prior experience to create new meaning out of unfamiliar and difficult texts.

Strategies for connecting reading and writing.

• Multiple readings.

• Underline words, sentences, and passages that stand out, for whatever reason.

• Take notes on the margins. Don't be afraid to write too much.

• Write extended responses to readings.

• Use reading and your responses to start your own formal writing projects.

• Keep a double entry journal.

• Don’t give up.