This page uses the following terminology:
Informational text: a piece of writing (or other media) whose purpose is to inform
Central idea: the overall topic of an informational text; what the article or book is about
Main idea: a sub-topic in any text
Argument text: a piece of writing (or other media) whose purpose is to persuade
Thesis: the overall assertion or argument made in an argument text; what the author intends to prove
Claim: a smaller assertion in an argument text; an assertion that helps the author support the thesis
Who are the creators of and/or contributors to the source and what makes them credible? (Who published this? Who paid for it? What biases (if any) do you expect to see?)
Can you tell if this is an informational text or an argument text? An argument piece will have a thesis while an informational text will not. Both types of writing may have biases or positions, explicit or not.
Read from the outside in to get a general understanding of the text.
You will follow the same process regardless of whether you're looking at a brief article, a lengthy journal article, or a book. The differences between shorter texts and longer texts are noted in the instructions.
Use these parts of a text to identify the central idea (information text) or thesis (argument text):
title
introduction (If the introduction is multiple pages, just read its beginning and end.)
conclusion (If the conclusion is multiple pages, just read its beginning and end.)
Double star the clearest statement of the central idea or thesis in the text. Also paraphrase this to solidify your understanding.
Your goal here is to identify how the text develops the central idea or proves the thesis. You are looking for the main ideas (informational text) or claims (argument text). Use these parts of a text to do this:
chapter or section headings (if present)
first and last paragraphs of chapters or sections (for a longer text)
topic sentences and conclusion sentences (for a shorter text)
Star the main ideas or claims in the text. Also paraphrase these to solidify your understanding.
After getting a general sense of the text's topic and structure, you're ready to read in more detail. How you read the text depends on your purpose, however. Here are the processes for some different purposes.
Start reading from the beginning. Pay attention to main ideas and transitions to make sure you're understanding the text. Feel free to skip any sections that don't interest you.
If you're reading the text as part of a research process, the first question you need to answer is whether the source is relevant to your research. If it isn't, don't continue reading; instead, look for more relevant sources.
If the source is relevant, identify how it is relevant to develop a focus for your reading. Here are two questions that could help you find that focus.
How will this text help to deepen your understanding of your research topic?
If it provides general information: As you read, write down the information that is relevant to your topic. Be careful to put direct quotes in quotation marks and to cite information specifically and accurately so you can find the information again if you need to.
If it reveals a specific perspective: It is important to understand different perspectives on a topic. If the text offers a specific perspective you want to understand, note what the author believes and why they believe it. This could be the thesis and claims in an argument piece. You can also look for assumptions that an author makes as well as any of the author's values or beliefs that may be implied rather than stated.
If you're analyzing its messaging: Depending on your topic, you might want to understand what information is being given to different audiences: what messages are being spread most widely or most effectively. If this is your purpose, identify the intended audience for the text. Then analyze the message being conveyed as well as how it is conveyed. Look for potential biases as well as the tone of the piece.
What parts of the text are most relevant?
If only one part of the text is relevant to your topic, you could just read that part of the text. Make sure you are aware of how that part fits into the overall text, however, because that can affect its overall meaning.
Even if the whole text is relevant, some parts may be more relevant than others. You may want to skim some parts (reading only topic sentences, for example), read some parts quickly but completely, and read other parts carefully while taking notes.
It can be helpful to read about the historical, geographical, or cultural context in which a text was written and/or set. If this is your purpose, you should track general information but also focus on some of these questions about the society or culture being described:
What were the cultural norms and values?
Whose voices were valued? Whose voices were suppressed?
What issues did people care about?
What cultural shifts were taking place? What new ideas were being introduced? How were people's lives changing?
What kind of literature would you expect to see coming out of this society?
You might also be asked to read an article because it describes a real-life situation or issue that connects to something in a work of literature. Once you've identified a theme in a work of literature, it can be valuable to look for that theme in real life. Here are some questions you might ask while reading a thematically relevant article.
What similar situations are described in the article and the literary text?
What themes in the literary text do you also see in the article? Does the article confirm, build on, complicate, or refute the theme in the literature?
Does the article give insight into any perspectives that were either highlighted or omitted in the literary text?
Literary criticism articles contain scholarly analysis of literature. You would read these to deepen your understanding or introduce you to a different interpretation of the literature. Literary criticism is argument writing: the author will state a thesis and support it with claims, evidence, and analysis.
What is the author's thesis and how do they support it? (Take good notes on the main ideas and structure as described above.)
Does the article align with your own analysis of the literature? How does it confirm, build on, complicate, or refute your prior understanding of the literary text?
What new insights does the article offer? What do they notice in the text that you did not?