Critical Reading/Questioning the Text

Questioning the text means to pose key questions about it and then answer them as well as you can. Questioning is a helpful means of understanding an essay's substance and structure. It is a good habit to have these questions in mind as you read, and then to return to them once you've thought through your reading.

Typical questions often address the following issues:

• the thesis or main point
• the methods the author uses to support these points
• the value position the author presents
• special terms or expressions that need to be clarified
• the level of discourse of the essay
• the implied audience for the essay

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