The Nature Of
The Text: What Are You Reading?
The more you know
about the text and the topic, the better prepared you are to follow
references, anticipate arguments, and understand the discussion.
What book or article are you reading?
- What is the
title? In other words, what does the author claim it is
about?
- What kind of information or discussion do you anticipate?
- What do you know about the topic? What might
you want to know?
- What background reading might you do first?
You can often get a
good idea of these matters by scanning the preface or table of contents
of a book, or the subheadings of a chapter or article.
Remember that most discussions involve a number of interrelated issues
Who cares?
- Who has a
stake in the issue?
- Who controls the outcome of the issue?
- Who is affected by the issue?
The more you know
about the issue before reading, the better prepared you will
be to recognize bias.
Who wrote
the text?
- What do you
know of the author's goal or purpose?
The text in question
may not be consistant with concerns or biases of an author's earlier
works or mirror the author's public statements-- but it might.
- When was it
published? Where? By whom?
Information such as
this may help you follow references and associations and possibly
suggest a bias. The date of publication can also indicates
how up-to-date the information and claims may be.
See: The Spoken Word: The Base For Writing and
Reading
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