Reading template for deciphering texts

Reading Template
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::READING PURPOSE STATEMENT::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: WHO IS READING THIS BOOK? AND WHAT FOR?
Reading Goal:  Why am I reading this?  What do I want to get from the book?  What are my goals for reading? What end is this text (possibly) a means for? Pre-knowledge:  What do you know about the subject already?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::STRUCTURAL OUTLINE:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: WHAT IS THE BOOK ABOUT AS A WHOLE?
Three Questions That Inspectional Reading Tries To Answer 1.      [Categorizing] What kind of book is it? 2.      [Summarizing] What is it about as a whole?             3.      [Outlining] What is the structural order of the work whereby the writer develops their conception or understanding of that general subject matter?	Inspectional #2 SUPERFICIAL READING – Read the book straight through without ever stopping to ponder a look up things you don’t immediately grasp or understand right away. 1.      What are the main points (propositions) that you immediately understand? 2.      What are the main (recurrent or important) terms (concepts) that you immediately understand? 3.      Summarize the main point(s) of the book that you immediately understand.
Inspectional #1 PRE-READING/SKIMMING [duration: a few minutes to an hour] Title Page & Preface; note subtitles or the aim of the book. What kind of book is it? ·         Is it theoretical or practical? ·         History, science, philosophy?             ·         What subject matter does the book treat of?             ·        How does it treat of this subject matter? What pigeonhole that already contains other books does this one belong in? What sort of things can you expect to find in this sort of work? What is the scope or aim of the book? What is the writer’s special angle on this subject? Table of Contents What is the book’s structure? What are the topics covered? Index:  note important terms (perhaps by the # of pg.#s) and read some of the passages cited [in index] What is the range of topics covered? What kinds of books and writers are referred to? What terms are referred to a lot and, therefore, might be important? [In passages] What points are contained in these passages? Publishers Blurb:  if puffery, then book might be shite. If there is a summary, then what main points does it contain? Do you still want to read this book? Pivotal Chapters: read summaries in opening or closing pages What summary statements do these passages contain? What are the main points? Sample/Dipping:  read a par. or 3; a pg. or 3 (xx+): last 2 or 3 pg.s of main part; lucky if you get some summaries. What are the main points? ______________________________________ Is it worth my time?  Is it worth a Swift Read?  Does the book deserve no more of your time and attention? Does the book still contain subject matter that you want to get out of it? – Can it still help you answer the questions or solve the problems that you have?	Analytical #1 CATEGORIZING Kinds of (approaches to) Texts:  theoretical, practical, fictional Is the book theoretical, practical, or fictional? Theoretical:  historical, scientific, mathematical, philosophical History.  The historian author writes about things or events that happened in the past, usually in a particular place & time.  These things underwent a change over a course of time.  The historian might ask, “How did some particular things happen at a given time and place in the past?” What is the historical scope of the book? Which events does it deal with? Science.  It usually treats matters that can happen at any place or time.  That is, the scientist seeks laws & generalize nations.  The scientific writer might ask, “How would things happen for the most part in every case?”  Science tends to appeal to special experience which can only be attained in a laboratory setting. Does the text refer to special experience? Does the text refer to matters that can happen at any time or place? Philosophy.  Philosophy is like science and unlike history and that it seeks general truths rather than an account of particular events.  However, unlike science, philosophy tends to deal with normal, routine, daily experience. Does the text refer to every day (armchair) experience? Practical books.  These books contain rules in the form of prescriptions, maxims, or any sort of general directions. Does the book say something about what should be done or made? Does the book talk about a right way of doing or making something? Does the book suggest that one thing is better than another as an end to be sought, or a means to be chosen? – The doing of the reader solves a practical problem.
Analytical #2 SUMMARIZE (synthesize):  State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity.  Summary should be brief, accurate, and comprehensive. ______________________________________ What is the book about as a whole? What is the principal emphasis of the book? What is the leading theme?  This resides ultimately in the main problem the author is trying to solve. What is the author up to?  What is he trying to do? What is it an inquiry into?  What is it an account of?  What does it examine?  What is it an analysis of? What topics does this book discuss?  And what does it indicate of its topic?  What does it show regarding its topic? What does it relate?  Which X to which Y, and what does it say about this relation? What is it a comparison of? What does the book argue for or against?  What evidence does it provide?	Analytical #3 OUTLINE (analysis): Mapping Divisions: Enumerate the major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.  Structural Outline Basics:  move from the major parts to the propositions 1) Count the parts. 2) Summarize the (affects of the) parts. 3) Count the sections. 4) Summarize the (affects of the) sections. 5) Count the points. 6) State the points. _____________________________________ How does the author divide the leading theme into subordinate themes?  What are the major parts, the major divisions of the book? What is the structure of this book?  What is the structural order of the work whereby the author develops his conception or understanding of that general subject matter? Partial Affects How does this part exemplify and develop the main theme?  What does this part do?  – [What] Does it...conclude, establish, describe, state, define, consider, inquire into, take account of, examine, analyze, discuss, indicate, show, relate, compare, argue?  – What does it have to do with?  What is it about?  – What does it treat of?  What does it deal with? – What does it discuss in relation to X?  Group the Parts:  Which categorical supra-part do these parts fall under? [you can group them according to the major problems that they deal with, in conjunction with their sequential order] How are these parts organized into a whole? ...by being ordered to one another? – Sequence:  Why did this part come after that part? ...by being ordered to the unity (the plan) of the whole? – Part-to-whole: What is the part’s relation to the summary?
Analytical #4 DEFINE THE PROBLEM: or problems the author is trying to solve. ________________________________________ Main Question What were the author's problems that they were trying to solve?  What problem is the writer responding to?  What is the main question that the book tries to answer?  What of the author trying to do?  Why does the book have the unity it has (… Because the authors trying to answer a certain problem)?  [Summary question] Subordinate Questions What are the subordinate questions (if the main question is complex and has many parts)? Put the questions in an intelligible order. Which are primary and which secondary? Which questions have to be answered first if others have to be answered later? What end does the skeletal structure of the book serve?  [Outlining questions]	Analytical #4 (con’t.) A List of Generic Q.s to Help Detect an Author's Problems: Theoretical Q.s: Does something exist?  What kind of thing is it?  What caused it to exist, or under what conditions can it exist, or why does it exist?  What purpose does it serve?  What are the consequences of its existence?  What are its characteristic properties, its typical traits?  What are its relations to other things of a similar sort, or of a different sort?  How does it behave? Practical Q.s: What ends should be sought?  What means should be chosen to a given end?  What things must one do to gain a certain objective, and in what order should?  Under these conditions, what is the right thing to do, or the better rather than the worse?  Under what conditions would it be better to do this rather than that?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::INTERPRETATION OF CONTENTS:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: WHAT IS THE AUTHOR SAYING IN DETAIL & HOW?  WHAT DOES THE AUTHOR MEAN?
Analytical #5 COME TO TERMS: with the author by interpreting his key words. ______________________________________ 1) Which words trouble or puzzle you? 2) What are the important words? 3) What are their meanings (terms)? 4) Does the word have one or many meanings? 5) If it has many, then how are these meanings related? 6) Meanings Instantiated:  Does this word in this particular instance mean just one meaning, a few, or all of the possible meanings at once? 7) In what places is the word used in this sense and in that sense?  Does the context give you any clue to the reason for the shift in meaning? Finding the words meaning::  What are the meanings of the other words in this context? Types of context clues 1.      substitution 2.      appositive (specifier/comma description) 3.      description (definition) 4.      contrast, opposite, antonym 5.      synonym 6.      example-illustration 7.      comparison 8.      explanation/definition 9.      root words and affixes 10. grammar (part of speech)	Analytical #6 GRASP THE AUTHOR'S LEADING PROPOSITIONS: by dealing with his most important sentences. _____________________________________ What are the most important sentences? ...What propositions do they contain? ...What does this sentence mean (given these propositions)? --Separate out the propositions contained in the sentence. ...state them in your own words ...Number them. ...Relate them. ...In this (structural) part of the book, which proposition is being proposed? -- Context: What meaning does this sentence have in relation to the surrounding sentences?
Analytical #7 KNOW THE AUTHOR'S ARGUMENTS, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.  ______________________________________ Reason/Premises Why does he think we should believe his propositions?  What reasons does he offer?  What are the premises? What does the author say needs to be... ...assumed? ...proven? ...taken as self-evident? Conclusions What are the conclusions? Argument Type Is this an inductive or deductive arg.?	Analytical #8 SOLUTIONS:  Determine which of their problems the author has solved, and which he has not; and as to the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve. _____________________________________ Q & A Which of the problems that the author tried to solve did he succeed in solving?  – What are the author's solutions? New Qs In the course of solving these, did he raise any new problems?  Knowledge of Failure Of the problems that he failed to solve, old or new, which did the author himself know he had failed on?
::::::::::Criticizing a Book for its Communication of Knowledge:::::::::: IS THE BOOK TRUE IN WHOLE OR IN PART?
General Maxims of Intellectual Etiquette Analytical #9 1.      UNDERSTAND BEFORE CRITICIZE:  Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book.  (Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgment, until you can say "I understand.") Analytical #10 2.      DISAGREE REASONABLY:  Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously. Analytical #11 3.      PROVIDE REASONS:  Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgment you make. If you disagree with the author, what reasons do you have for disagreeing? Relevant Disagreement – to understand & hold the contrary position Irrelevant Disagreement –to misunderstand & hold the contrary position	Special Criteria for Points of Criticism Of DEFECTS DEFECTS IN PREMISES Analytical #12 [lack of knowledge] Is the author UNINFORMED?  If so, where? – What knowledge does the writer lack? – How does this knowledge make a difference to their conclusions? Analytical #13 [erroneous suppositions] Is the author MISINFORMED?  If so, where? – What does the writer assert is true, but is not the case? [Error in facts] – If so, what is actually the case? DEFECTS IN REASONING Analytical #14 Is the author ILLOGICAL?  If so, where? – Non sequitur:  Does the author draw a conclusion that simply does not follow from the reasons offered? – Inconsistency:  Are two (or more) things that the author has said incompatible? DEFECTS IN STRUCTURE: What Are the Limitations of the Authors Achievements Analytical #15 Is the author's analysis INCOMPLETE?  If so, where? – What materials did the writer not make as good a use as possible of? – What implications or ramifications don’t they see? – What relevant distinctions (terms) has the writer failed to make?  What relevant topics or realities have they failed to consider? – How adequately has the writer stated their problems? – How satisfactorily has the writer solved their problems?
WHAT OF IT?
What is the significance of the book? Why does the author think this is important? Why do you think it is significant? What is further implied by this enlightenment?	Responses: Personal Reactions, Plans to Put into Practice & Ideas-responses::::::: ::What about this text intrigues me?:: ::WHAT might I need this information for?:: ::In what ways is the author's problem still with us today?  Has it evolved?:: ::How could this author's problem or solution help us with problems they never addressed?::
GENERIC QUESTIONS:
	Q.s to Ask After Reading Philosophy: ·         Is this true? ·         Have I felt this? ·         Have I always thought this without realizing it? ·         Is this obvious now, though it was not previously? ·         Complicated as the author's theory or explanation may be, is it actually simpler than the chaotic ideas and opinions I had about this subject before?