Critical Reading Summary

When reading, there are important steps one must make to make sure that one fully grasps and comprehends the information. The title can sometimes give hints to the tone or subject of the work. Any background information can give clues of what was going on their mind when they wrote it. The location and time of the piece is also crucial information. If a political essay was written by someone living in America during the Civil War, it may influence some of the things that the author says.
During your reading of the piece it is beneficial to take notes of what you're reading and write a summary after you have finished.
After reading the piece it is important to analyze or break down the information and topics the author has laid out and look for the main idea. After that you can now draw conclusions with the knowledge of the author's background and bias, and your analysis. After one draws conclusions, one can now link ideas of the work to make better sense of it and reconstruct ones conclusion. This critical thinking strategy is will help one understand literature better and reach logical conclusions faster.