RAWS

• Critical Reading


  Also known as "Active Reading", interpreting facts along with the author's attitude using implied meaning to make accurate assumptions and draw accurate conclusions
• Critical Reading


  Applying certain processes, models, questions and theories that result in enhanced clarity and comprehension
• Things that involve critical reading

  • Carefully considering and evaluating the reading
  • Identifying the reading's strengths and implications
  • Identifying the reading's weaknesses and flaws
  • Looking at the "big picture" and deciding how the reading fits into the greater academic context
• What to consider in critical reading


  • Reading's background
  • Its purpose and overall conclusion
  • Evidence used in the reading
  • Logical connections between the claim and the evidence
  • Its limitations
  • How it relates to other sources and research
  • If reading is based on research, how this research was conducted
• Characteristics of a critical reader


  • Examine the evidence or argument presented
  • Check out any influence on the evidence or argument presented
  • Check out the limitations of study design or focus
  • Examine the interpretation made
  • Decide to what extent you are prepared to accept the authors' arguments, opinions and conclusions
• SQ5R's Method


  1. Survey

  2. Question

  3. Read

  4. Respond

  5. Record

  6. Recite

  7. Review
• Claim


  Central argument or thesis statement on a text, writer's point or position regarding a chosen topic, defines the paper's direction and scope
• Characteristics of a good claim

  • Argumentative and debatable
  • Specific and focused
  • Interesting and engaging
  • Logical
• Categories of claims


  • Based on method
  • Based on nature
• Explicit claim


  Clear and fully expressed in a text
• Implicit claim


  Not expressly stated, but the reader understands it anyway through other clues from the text
• Inference


  Involves using what you know to make a guess about what you do not know, or reading between the lines
• The youngest daughter was the most beautiful of them all
• The youngest daughter wanted a rose
• The name of the youngest daughter was Beauty
• The youngest daughter was the most modest
• Merchant wanted to buy gifts for her daughters
• Claim of fact


  Asserts that a condition had existed, exists or will exist, verifiable (accurate, or justified), non-negotiable (not open for debate or modification), either true or false
• Claim of value


  Attempts to prove that something is more or less desirable, expresses approval or disapproval, makes a judgement and attempts to prove some action is right or wrong, good or bad
• Claim of policy


  Asserts that specific plans or courses of action should be instituted as solutions to problems, key words are "should" or "ought to" or "must"