Chapter 4 | Reading Critically

Reading critically is best summarized as taking an active approach to your material, by marking and annotating critical information and discoveries, all while having an attitude of questioning and testing what you are reading.  Basically - don't be a lazy reader!  In other words, as Bedford puts it, question what your source says, and think about what it means – and take notes!  If you read critically, you will be able to gleam relevant and pertinent information from your sources quickly.  This is different than learning to evaluate your sources, which is the act of identifying if your sources are of reliable and notable descent.

As Bedford points out, it’s important to have as many primary sources as possible.  Primary sources are “...original works or evidence provided directly by and observer of an event” (Bedford, 71).  These are different from secondary sources which “...comment on or interpret and event, often using primary sources as evidence” (Bedford, 72).  From my opinion, this is key because it allows you, the writer, to initially think about the topic more authentically without the clutter of other people’s opinions or interpretations.  You will likely come up with your own ideas more, verses simply regurgitating someone else's.   

My question with this though is if you see a hole in the conversation you are joining about your topic, and want to write a paper proposing new information to the conversation, how can you have an “against” argument?  For example, in my topic of play, I am noticing that although many scholars and scientist agree and identify that play is important, there is a lack of discussion on how to engage in play – especially for adults who have perhaps lost the skill-set or ability.  The sources all seem to agree that playing is critical for adults to achieve advance creative thought, innovation, and general happiness.  This is great, but unless we start talking about how to get adults to engage in creative play and work out their play muscles on a more daily basis, that information is just that – information.  When it comes to the conversation of play, I’m more interested in the how – not the what or why.  How do we apply, to our daily lives, this information of the importance of play we have all agreed upon?  That’s the question I want to answer.