This document provides guidance on developing critical reading and thinking skills for college-level work. It recommends that readers actively engage with texts by previewing, annotating, highlighting, and reading closely. Critical thinking involves questioning assumptions, analyzing arguments, and forming independent judgments. Specific skills include evaluating claims and evidence, anticipating counterarguments, and avoiding logical fallacies. When writing about what you've read, you should read the text multiple times, take notes, and critically analyze the main and underlying ideas.
6. Writing Rhetorically…
• Asks you to read critically
• Asks you to respond to
what you read with your
own critical analysis of
the text
7. Good Ideas:
• Read the text at least twice
• Annotate the text
• List the text’s main and
underlying ideas
• List your ideas about the text
8. Bibliography
“ACT Profile Report – National: Class of 2015.”
ACT. 24 Jan. 2016.
Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell.
Practical Argument: A Text and
Anthology, 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2014.
Miller-Cochran, Susan, Roy Stamper, and Stacey
Cochran. An Insider’s Guide to Academic
Writing: A Rhetoric and Reader. New
York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.
Ruszkiewicz, John J. and Jay T. Dolmage.
How to Write Anything: A Guide and
Reference, 2nd ed. NY: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2012.
Smith, Trixie G. and Allison D. Smith.
Building Bridges through Writing.
Southlake,TX: Fountainhead Press, 2014.
