ACTIVITY 9.13
Setting the Stage for Reading Critically

Step 1: Choosing a Format for Your Reading

Once you have found an E-text to critique, you could, of course, read it on-line. A number of drawbacks to doing so exist. Some people find extended reading on a computer monitor difficult and stressful on the eyes. If you are gathering E-texts on a system that charges for on-line time, or if you're hooked up via a modem and you're paying the phone bill, you may not want to spend valuable hook-up time reading. Also, you may be using a public access machine in the library or computer lab, and reading on-line might deny others use of the machine. Finally, you might have time constraints yourself: if you only have an hour or so to spare now, your time might be better used finding rather than reading and critiquing the sources. Before you decide in what format you want to read, scan the E-text quickly to see whether it fits your needs. Scanning is especially important if your search leads you to numerous E-texts on the same topic. Once you have determined that you actually want to read the E-text more carefully, consider the following:

Many E-texts can be copied electronically as text files onto your hard or floppy disk, and that text can later be opened with a word processor. If the E-text you have found is copyable, make an electronic copy, which you can print out at a later time or read on your computer monitor.

Some computing facilities allow you to print E-texts immediately. Before you do so, however, you want to make sure you really need and can use the document. Printing documents you don't need wastes paper and computing resources, and paying for copies out of your own pocket wastes your own money.

Some complex E-texts, such as World Wide Web sites that have multiple links to other documents, may be too difficult to print, unless you have time to pursue all the links and print those pages individually, too. Because complex WWW documents are best read on-line, be sure to keep a list of the URLs you come across so you can revisit those sites as time permits.

Step 2: Preparing a Reading Log

Once you have chosen an E-text and determined in what format you want to read it, you will want to take notes as you read. We recommend you create a file in your word processor. Of course, you could accomplish much of the same with pen and paper, but doing so on the word processor will allow you to more easily revise your notes into a critical annotation. And you may end up writing some ideas and text you may eventually use in your essays. To prepare your reading notes file, you should read through Activities 9.14-9.17 so that you can better anticipate what kind of information you will be looking for. Also, you might consider typing in the items in the box entitled "Critical Reading Template" to create such a template. Detailed explanations of what to look for in each of the categories is provided in Activities 9.14-9.17.

Crtical Reading Template Bibliographical Information Initial impressions Genre: Main Idea: Audience Analysis Author Reliability Evaluation of Structure: Evaluation of Content: Evaluation of Writing Quality: Evaluate Usability for Your Purposes:

Step 3: Logging Bibliographical Information

Begin your reading file with the following:

Record full bibliographical information. Depending on what discipline you're writing in or what directions your teacher has given you, you may want to use Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), Chicago style, or whatever style is preferred in your discipline. In addition to basic information like author's name, title of document, place and date of "publication," and page numbers (if applicable), you may also need to include the URL if you're reading a Web page, the Gopher address if you're reading a Gopher document, and so on.

Note how you found the E-text. Did you use a WWW search engine? Were you browsing around some professional or government organization's Web site and happen upon the source? Remember, there are many ways of getting to an E-text; keeping track of how you found it will help you find it again a later, if you need to.