Throughout the semester, I have learned to take a new approach to critical reading. Previously in high school courses, critical reading consisted of just finding an implied theme, and we did virtually no annotating of texts. Through this course, I have learned that critical reading and annotating are more process driven and require more thought.
When reading a piece, I would annotate the text with my initial thoughts. For example, does the text parallel any other text and have any prevalent themes or paradoxes? I also make note of where I agree or disagree with the writer’s opinion. Putting my own opinion into other texts was something I struggled with learning to do at the beginning of the semester, but with more practice I was able to find my position. Most of our discussions were regarding our opinion on the text, and whether we agreed with the writer’s ideas or not so it certainly helped to be able to express your opinion.
After an initial reading of the text, I found it very helpful to review the material as a class, in the form of journals and discussion. Hearing my peer’s opinions on the texts helped to form my own opinions and dig deeper into the analysis of the piece. Furthermore, I can form new opinions based on the ideas presented by my classmates. This makes it easier to not only understand the text, but to create a position for which I can argue in my own writing.
Once assigned a prompt, I found it was helpful to go back into the text and annotate parts that lend itself to my thesis, or anything that will help develop a thesis. This was especially helpful during paper 2 when we used two different texts. Going through each piece again allowed me to find stronger parallels between them which drove me to write a thesis and identify passages that would make strong evidence in my own writing.
This new approach to critical reading and annotating forced me to dig deeper into each text and form my own opinions, rather than drawing surface level conclusions. Furthermore, I was able to identify passages that would most accurately support my thesis. Overall, this style of reading helped me to improve my own writing.
Annotated Pages
