We explain what a critical reading is and what this analysis consists of. Also, examples of critical reading and what is inference.
What is a critical reading?
When we speak of a critical reading, we refer to a analysis deep of a text, who is not content with deciphering what it says, but is given the task of understanding its points of support, discovering possible counterarguments and implicit messages, or interpreting its content from different points of view.
In this way, a critical reading of any text tests its network of ideas and arguments, putting it in relation to a context, a tradition or a genre in which they are registered, and also providing elements for a more complete and complex understanding of the text. It is the most common form of implementation of the critical thinking.
Through this procedure of reading, in addition, texts and speeches independent, just as literary criticism does with works of literature: it constructs essays that, based on the readings made and based on textual quotations, offer an interpretive point of view regarding a book or the work of an author.
There is no single method or universal way to carry out critical reading. On the contrary, all critical reading proposes a method (or follows one already proposed) to establish conclusions punctual about what was read.
That is why ancient texts, like works of classical literature, can be read again and find in them more and more possible meanings, without ever exhausting the aesthetic or philosophical value of the work.
Critical reading example
An imaginary example of critical reading could be made of a story in which the charactersAs soccer players, they face a legendary rival team, by which they are miserably defeated.
A critical reading of the story would subject the text to questions and considerations regarding the rules of the fictional universe represented there, to provide clues regarding the message underlying the anecdote. For example:
- In what context does the story take place? Where and at what time? What was happening in the world while the story was happening?
- What narrative tradition does the author belong to and what possible literary authors does he refer to in his story, or what historical events does he refer to?
- How do you describe the protagonists and antagonists, and what political, social, or ideological values do they reveal? descriptions?
- What other similar stories can be used to compare the construction of this story?
Once certain arguments have been extracted, it will be possible to quote fragments of the story to support what has been said and thus later deduce a series of possible conclusions about the author, the story or the tradition in which it is inscribed.
What is inference?
An inference is a deduction: a reasoning in which non-explicit conclusions are drawn from a set of premises, thus leading to a new result. All inference is based on a mental evaluation, in which various elements of the premises evaluated in the abstract are collated and a logical implication is drawn between them and a determined conclusion.
A traditional example of inference or deduction is the immediate inferences of the logic formal, like the following case:
If A = C and B = C, it is possible to deduce (infer) that A = B, a new conclusion that follows from the premises.