Leonard Hoy's List: EE Ways to Read

• More to the point here, how we read a text is shaped by how weexpectto discuss it.

  • Expectations for text help shape our understandings of the text.
• American soldiers in World War Icontracted venereal disease in far greater number than soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary force, who had condoms.

  • RESTATES the topic of the text. TALKS ABOUT THE TOPIC.
• The passage comparesthe prevention techniques and diseases of American and New Zealand soldiers in World War I. It notes that American soldiers contracted venereal disease in far greater numbers than soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary force, who had condoms.

  • DESCRIBES the presentation AND THEREFORE TALKS ABOUT THE TEXT
• By examining the outcomes of various approaches to condom use during World War I, the text makes a case for the need for honest and realistic approaches to health prevention in the future.

  • Describing the text can seem like restatement here

  • Talking about the text can take two forms or pursue two lines of analysis:
    1. What the text DOES
    2. What the text MEANS to imply or state boldly
  • 1 more sticky notes...

  • • INTERPRETS the text-TALKS ABOUT THE TEXT
• The nursery rhyme describes a pet that followed its mistress everywhere.

  • DESCRIPTION might involve some CLASSIFICATION, it seems. This step seems the most ambiguous.

  • Here the DESCRIPTION's distinction from mere RESTATEMENT seems clearer to me.
• An image of innocent devotion is conveyed by the story of a lamb’s devotion to its mistress. The devotion is emphasized by repetition that emphasizes the constancy of the lamb’s actions (“everywhere”…”sure to go.”) The notion of innocence is conveyed by the image of a young lamb, “white as snow.” By making it seem that this is natural and good, the nursery rhyme asserts innocent devotion as a positive relationship.

  • Note how closely interpretations connect to evidence from the text
• Readers read in a variety of ways for a variety of purposes.

  • The reader's PURPOSE drives what kind of 'reading' the reader does.

• To answer the question, How did the New Zealand army prevent its soldiers from contracting venereal disease during World War I? we read to see what the essay says.

  To answer the question, What issues does the text discuss? we read to see what the essay does.

  To answer the question, What concerns underlie the essay’s analysis of history? we read to see what the essay means.

  • The second question, involving 'DESCRIPTION", elicits a list of categories covered-again, this seems an act of CLASSIFICATION.

  • Three questions:
    1: Info-what does it say
    2: Ideas-what it does
    3: Motives-what it means
• As a reader, you must know what you intended to do, and whether or not you have accomplished it. You must adjust how you read to the nature of the reading material, the nature of the reading assignment, and the manner in which you will be held accountable for your reading.

7 more annotations...

• Reading what a text says is more notable for what it does not include than for what it does.

  Reading what a text says is concerned with basic comprehension, with simply following the thought of a discussion. We focus on understanding each sentence, sentence by sentence, and on following the thought from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. There is no attempt to assess the nature of the discussion and no concern for an overall motive or intent. Reading what a text says is involved with rote learning.

  • A carefully demarcated definition
    A: INCLUDES: Comprehension, understanding the thoughts as sentences, paragraphs etc and followign the train of thoughts as they parade in front of the reader's mind. ROTE LEARNING
    2: EXCLUDES: Any attempt to assess the nature of the discussion, no concern for motive or intent of application.
• Restatement generally takes the form of a summary, paraphrase, or précis

  • TIMES WHEN RESTATEMENT WORKS:
    1: Definitions and concepts
    2: When facts and interpretation find universal acceptance.
    3: When we trust the text to offer complete and objective presentation
    4: When the author is authoritative

  • FORMS: Summary, paraphrase or precis. AVOID PLAGARISMS
• Finally, remember that repeating the assertions of a text need not suggest a denial of critical thinking, merely a postponing of, or preparation for, critical thinking.

  • RESTATEMENT AND CR: Restatement does not deny CR-restatement PREPARES the reader for successful CR.

1 more annotation...

• They are not about AIDS, but aboutthe discussionof AIDS

  • Just revisited this phrase: I LOVE it as a descriptor. Asking what a text 'does' goes only part way to drive the student to an understanding of a text's performance. Add the qualifier "to the discussion of the topic" and a useful student response becomes a) more likely and b) more relevant

  • DESCRIPTION: Not about the topic but about the DISCUSSION of the topic.
• This level of reading looks at broad portions of the text to identify the structure of the discussion as a whole. On completion, we can not only repeat what the text says, but can also describe what the text does. We can identify how evidence is used and how the final points are reached.

  • An excellent summation: Now we can both restate and describe what the text does:
    1: What topics gets discussed
    2: What examples and evidence is presented
    3: What conclusions are reached

• Section headings may guide you, but critical readers verify that such headings adequately describe the text.

  • This is where marginal notes come in handy.
• • parts of a whole, one after another
  • steps in a sequence, such as large to small, major to minor
    
  • different time periods (chronological order)
    
  • steps in a logical argument
  • alternative conditions or circumstances
  • shifts in viewpoint or perspective

  • A Useful List of Ways in Which Topics Shift As They Develop
    1: Parts of a whole listed and examined
    2: Steps in a sequence (small to large, important to unimportant etc)
    3: Chronological Order
    4: Steps in a logical argument
    5: Presentation of alternative conditions or circumstances
    6 Shifts in viewpoint or perspective
• The activity of trying to divide the text into major parts may be the first step in seeing the content in detail.

  • Simply finding MAJOR PARTS begins the descriptive analysis of the text. USEFULLY begins the descriptive analysis
• These relationships are usually signaled by an appropriate term, such as one of the following:
  • sequence or series:
    next, also, finally, lastly, then, secondly, furthermore, moreover
  • time order/chronology :
    before, after, then, since, soon, until, when, finally
  • general/specific relationship:
    examples, such as, overall, for instance, in particular
  • comparison
    • similarities
      similarly, like, in the same way, likewise
    • differences (contrast):
      however, unlike, otherwise, whereas, although, however, nevertheless, still, yet
    logical relationships
    • indicating reason/conclusion, cause/effect, and/or a conditional relationship between factors:
      hence, because, if, therefore, so, since, as a consequence, in conclusion

  • THIS IS BEAUTIFUL: A list of five ways statements can be related AND a set of words that signal this or that way is about to follow in the reading! LEARN THIS, POSTERize it.
• An assertion isn't a reason, after all, until it is used as the basis for reaching a conclusion. An assertion doesn't necessarily specify a cause until you assert an effect resulting from it. And any single sentence can be, at once, both a conclusion for the preceding discussion and an assumption for the following one.

  • Oh, the sneaky, wily and wonderful ways by which an assertion takes on one of these way-roles!! UNTIL AN ASSERTION RELATES TO A PARTNER IN MEANING, it's just an assertion waiting to assume a role. An assertion cannot classify itself as a CAUSE until it connects to its logical EFFECT: An assertion cananot classify itself as a REASON until it connects to its logical CONCLUSION etc etc etc et al ad infinitum yeah, baby!
• • definition : indicating what a term means
  • explanation : discussing what an idea means
  • description : indicating qualities, ingredients, or appearance
  • narration : recounting events
  • elaboration : offering details
  • argumentation : reasoning, or otherwise defending an idea
  • evaluation : judging or rating

  • A working outline of the RHETORICAL MODEL of description. This model asks after which of SEVEN RHETORICAL ELEMENTS apear in the text
• n very general terms, we argue and evaluate positions, define and explain concepts, describe objects, and narrate events. Aspects of any or all may appear anywhere in a discussion.

  • IN GENERAL TERMS: A workup of the way the RHETORICAL MODEL works in actual practice.
    1: We ARGUE and EVALUATE positions
    2: We DEFINE and EXPLAIN concepts
    3. DESCRIBE and ELABORATE on the description of objects
    4. NARRATE events
    
    I LOVE THIS CHAPTER!!!!
• Recall the observation that relatively specific remarks tend to support other remarks by offering description, reasons, or examples. This model describes that process.

  • 'RECALL", he says. I do not recall where else this statement has played through. BUT here it is now!
    The RHETORICAL PROCESS dscribes the ways in which one specific statement supports another by offering description, reasons and examples.
• • Raise an initial idea, topic, or question
  • Shape the scope or direction of the discussion
  • Discuss and/or explain an idea
  • Conclude the idea or otherwise draw elements together
  • Add material for emphasis, clarification, or purposes of persuasion,

  • ROLE MODEL:
    Yet another SWEET way in which a topic's development through the length of a text may find description.
    Asks the QUESTION: What role does this or that part play in a discussion or presentation or piece of argumentative text.
• The final model presented here reflects tasks that different elements fulfill within a discussion.

  • TASK MODEL is the most ambiguous. Seems a lot like ROLE MODEL, at first, but more finely focused. This ia a TACTICAL MODEL rather than a STRATEGIC MODEL like the author's so-called ROLE MODEL.

8 more annotations...

• Just as a tennis match involves more than exchanging serves, a text consists of more than simply a series of assertions. The notion of discussion, itself, suggests a starting point and a journey to other ideas.

  • From looking at the discussion as a SERIES OF ASSERTIONS to looking at the discussion as a whole.
• Where could the discussion go from here

  • Key question in studying the forest's spread.
• To fully understand the discussion as a whole, to understand the remarks within the context and in relationship to each other, we must be aware of the direction the discussion takes.

  • Our READER'S CHALLENGE: To anticipate, determine, follow, make sense of, resist the DIRECTIN IN WHICH THE AUTHOR WANTS TO GO.
• Whatever a text may say, however a text may be organized, readers assume that the material upon the page is the realization of a plan. If a text is well written, there is a logical structure to the argument.

  • Or a LOGICAL STRUCTURE

  • If the text is well written, we may anticipate the existence of a plan!

• To recognize a plan we must possess a double awareness:
  

  • what the essay asserts about people and the world—what the text says
    
  • how the discussion within the essay is structured—what the text does

  • Essentials for RECOGNIZING A PLAN:
    1: Awareness of WHAT THE ESSAY ASSERTS about the world. (WHAT TEXT SAYS)
    2: Awareness of how the author STRUCTURED the text. (WHAT THE TEXT DOES
• We want to recognize an underlying strategy to the remarks, a sequence by which remarks play different roles in the development of the final thought. As with the tennis match, we anticipate a conclusion and try to recognize where we are at any step along the way.

  • There is a key role for READER ANTICIPATION-we want to have the security of a well-informed IDEATIONAL GPS indicator
    1: Some of this is the writer's responsibility
    2: Some of this is the reader's responsibility
• All of these models have a common purpose: to describe the flow of discussion and/or indicate how arguments are advanced. In practice, you should draw on as many models as you can to describe the structure of a presentation.

  • Here the reader uses the models to create an OVERALL MAP of the text. Same elements, but this time in service of a large goal than merely identifying the contribution that this or that assertion makes to the discussion.

  • THE ROLE OF THE FIVE MODELS: To describe the flow of the discussion through the text, to locate the reader within the text's development.
• A sentence may be a reason, an explanation, or a description in relationship to different remarks. This is one reason for having a number of descriptive models. To truly describe something we often have to describe if from a variety of perspectives and in a variety of different relationships to other things.

  • Using a VARIETY OF MODELS helps spot the VARIETY OF ROLES an assertion may play in a discussion.

  • CAVEAR LECTOR:
    Just as a person can play a variety of roles (mom, daughter, friend, sister etc), one assertion can play a number of different roles, indicate a number of different TOPIC SHIFTS.
• The goal of each is the same: to isolate elements that shape how ideas are portrayed within the discussion. We can ask why a statement is included in a text— which is like asking why a speaker would bother saying it. What does it help accomplish? What purpose does it serve? How does it lead into or follow from other remarks? How are the ideas connected?

  • Do the same darn thing with a poem, a newspaper article, a . . a . . a anything!!!!!

  • Oh yeah: Take a bluegrass song or any song and analyze that as a piece of construction, a written discussion.
  • 1 more sticky notes...

  • • Here's a great idea for classwork-
      SAME PASSAGE, DIFFERENT STUDENTS APPLYING SEPARATE MODELS
      
      FIRST AS INDIVIDUALS, THEN AS TEAMS
      
      SHARE
• "What to say...what to say." It's the traditional writer's lament. "Where do I start?" "What should I say?" But writing is more than saying. Writing a text--producing a completed text, not just writing sentence after sentence--involves constructing a discussion.

  • WRITING:
    More than what to say
    How do I CONSTRUCT a discussion/presentation
• As we've seen above, many ideas are conveyed not by stating them so much as by the reader inferring them from the relationships of ideas within the discussion.

  • Go for a Leonard Pitts column, or any column at all.
    
    Resort to blogs, "Infidels Are Cool", for instance, and the replies of Solkhar. Analyze them!!!!

  • BIG IDEA. HUGE IDEA:
    Many ideas are conveyed not by stating them so much as BY THE READER INFERRING THEM FROM THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF THE IDEAS WITHIN DISCUSSION.
• This process is facilitated by two concepts: the notion of structure, and the notion of doing as well as saying.

  • Writing more than a simple assertion of fact involves persuasion and explication requires an AWARENESS OF TWO CONCEPTS
    1: Notion of Structure
    2: Notion that writing is DOING as well as SAYING

• The models for describing texts suggest other ways of outlining a text. We can outline not only shifts in topic, but also shifts in tactics, as when we shift from introduction to explanation to argument as with the rhetorical model. We can outline in terms of tactics of enticing, addressing, and convincing the reader as with the role model. We can outline in terms of similarities, differences, and logical implications as with the relationships model. And we can mix the various models.

  Finally, we can outline not only from beginning to end, but also in terms of patterns running throughout a text. We can outline the various viewpoints to be evaluated or the various participants to be discussed to make sure we hit all the required bases throughout the discussion.

  • Here's where GOATLY can come in handy-he has a page or two on various paragraph constructions that might be worth a look.

  • Good Writing:
    1: Sentences follow FROM and lead TO one another
    2: Include: TRANSITION WORDS
    3: Use: RELATIONSHIP MARKERS
    4: Offer assertions not only relationship with the text as a whole but SUPPORT from details reasons, examples, illustrations and the like
  • 1 more sticky notes...

  • • With liberal and mixed application of the models at hand,
      1: We can outline SHIFTS IN TOPIC
      2: SHIFTS IN TACTIC
      3: Outline in terms of EMERGENCE OF PATTERNS
      4: LIST participants, viewpoints, examples whatever

11 more annotations...

• This final level of reading infers an overall meaning. We examine features running throughout the text to see how the discussion shapes our perception of reality. We examine what a text does to convey meaning: how patterns of content and language shape the portrayal of the topic and how relationships between those patterns convey underlying meaning

  • THe concept of UNDERLYING meanings raises its weasely head. At the deepest level of interpretation, we must be aware of the extent to which the author SUBLIMINALLY MANIPULATES OUR THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS.

  • 1. We examine FEATURES running throughout the text–please develop the idea of FEATURES.
    2. We examine WHAT A TEXT DOES in an attempt to CONVEY MEANING-how is the topic PORTRAYED by patterns of content and language and how RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PATTERNS convey UNDERLYING meanings.
• For many, the shift to description and interpretation is particularly hard. They are reluctant to trade the safety of repeating an author's remarks for responsibility fortheir ownassertions. They will freely infer the purpose of an action, the essence of a behavior, or the intent of a political decision. But they will hesitate to go beyond what they take a text to "say" on its own. They are afraid to take responsibility for their own understanding. Others are so attuned to accepting the written word that they fail to see the text as a viable topic of conversation.

  • Interpretation vs personal responses
    The LAST PARAGRAPH challenges the student to stay within the bounds of the focus of the class. We are not here to give our own ideas on a topic but to thoroughly comprehend what an author has to say about a topic, how that author says it and what the resulting text ATTEMPTS TO MEAN.
    
    Then, after that, one may seek to create assertions about meaning he or she derives from a text or how he or she perceive the author's honesty, intelligence or etc. ard line to toe!

  • INFERRING SAFELY: Making inferences that can be tied directly to the text or its author feels safe. INFERRING DANGEROUSLY means taking responsibility for the assertions that the reader may make as a result of considering the text.
  • 2 more sticky notes...

  • • But what they WILL NOT DO beyond those inferences if take the topic at hand as a viable opportunity for discussion which involves related assertions of their own.

    • IMPORTANT NOTICE: The SAFETY that many people feel with mere restatement locks some readers into that low mode of reading. Others will infer no more than a) purpose of an action read about b)the essence of a behavior in a text or c) the intent of a political decision.
• The more features of the painting that you recognize, the more powerful your interpretation will be.

  • GOT AN IDEA: This should be an exercise. DISCUSS a text amongst the class. HAve students COLLECT ideas and feature identifications from one another and do a composite essay in which they credit one another for observations and etc.

  • And the more features about which we are aware in a text, the richer and more interesting our own discussion of the text will be.
• Texts do differ from art insofar as they actually seem to come out and say something. There are assertions "in black and white" to fall back on. We can restate a text; we cannot restate a painting or action.

  • TEXTS vs PAINTINGS
    1. You can RESTATE A TEXT
    2. Texts actually SAY SOMETHING
• The key thing is to know which style of reading you want to do at any time, how to do it, and how to tell whether you are actually doing it successfully.

  • 1. Which one do you want
    2. How do I do it
    3. Criteria for success
• The divisions between the three modes of reading are, to some extent, artificial.  Dividing reading into reading what a text says, does, and means is somewhat like dividing bicycle riding into concern for balance, speed, and direction.  They are all necessary and affect one another. Speed and direction both affect balance; we will fall off, or crash, without all three.  And yet we may focus on one or another at any particular time. We can parse each out for analysis.

  • Beautiful analogy: Bike riding with its concern for balance, speed and direction, reading with its need for what a text says, deas and means, restatement, description and interpretation
• Readers can obviously offer their own ideas on a topic—but that does not fall under the topic of discussing a text. Readers can criticize an author's handling of a topic based on their own knowledge or views, evaluate the writing style, or attack the honesty of the author. These too are legitimate forms of response, but they require a critical reading of the text first if they are to be meaningful. 

  • CR focuses on what the TEXT SAYS, DOES and MEANS. A good reading of the text to generate RESTATEMENT, DESCRIPTION and INTERPRETATION of the TEXT does, certainly, generate responses to topic, assertions of reader value and perceptions on how the topic was handled etc. ALL THESE READER REACTIONS ARE SECONDARY IN IMPORTANCE TO THE CLASS AND IN APPEARANCE.
    
    DISCUSSIONS should focus on what the TEXT says, does and means, not what the READER thinks about a topic.
    
    A vigorous discussion around issues of TEXT DESCRIPTION might legitimately stray into an evaluation of how appropriately the text does this or that, how disingenuously or honestly the text's structure and examples and illustrations have been crafted by the wrtiter. Nevertheless, the discussion must focus on the text!!
    The danger point comes in interpretation. To ask what the TEXT MEANS may generate a response of what the TOPIC MEANS to the reader. What the TEXT MEANS may be restated, "WHAT MEANINGS WOULD THE TEXT PERSUADE THE READER TO ADOPT?" or investigate "HOW SUCCESSFULLY DOES THE TEXT HIT ITS TARGET?" but still must focus on the text. "What groups might be persuaded here? True believers? Those antagonistic to the beliefs and values of the author? Neutral parties seeking understanding? The ignorant and foolish?

  • Book Reviews notoriously respond beyond the bounds of a mere critical reading
    1. Discuss feeling of the writing style
    2. Compare to other works
    3. Declare reader's emotional response
    4. Give history of publication
    
    TAKING OFF POINTS FOR A DISCUSSION OF THE TOPIC ITSELF-beyond the bounds of critical reading class.
  • 1 more sticky notes...

  • • List of things other modes of response to a text that may FOLLOW A CRITICAL READING OF THE TEXT
      1. Reader's own ideas on a topic
      2. Evaluation of writing style
      3. Criticism of author's handling of the topic based on reader's own knowledge or views
      4. Attack the honesty of the author

5 more annotations...

• Non-critical (or pre-critical) reading is concerned with recognizing what a text says about the topic. The goal is to make sense of the presentation as a sequence of thoughts, to understand the information, ideas, and opinions stated within the text from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. This is a linear acitivity.  

   Critical reading is an analytic activity. The reader rereads a text to identify patterns of elements -- information, values, assumptions, and language usage-- throughout the discussion. These elements are tied together in an interpretation, an assertion of an underlying meaing of the text as a whole.  

    Critical thinking involves bringing outside knowledge, biases, and values to bear to evaluate the presentation and decide what ultimately to accept as true.  

  • ELEMENTS
    PATTERNS OF ELEMENTS
    1. Information data
    2. Values
    3. Assumptions
    4. Language Usage (words, fig lang, metaphors, allusions,
    5. Examples, illustrations, details

  • I just noticed the term PRECRITICAL READING. I like that!!! Puts the lower voltage reading in its proper and quite useful place.
  • 1 more sticky notes...

  • • CRITICAL READING NOT AN END IN ITSELF: => CRITICAL THINKING
      
      Bring outside knowledge, biases, knowledge, biases and values to bear on what you read.
• • The existence of a beginning,middle, and end 
  • The use of illustrations to explicate remarks 
  • The use of evidence to support remarks 
  • The use of stylish language to portray topics 
  • Organization, or a method of sequencing remarks – such as whether chronological, different aspects of the topic, steps in a logical sequence

  • CR:
    structure
    tone
    persuasive elements
    supportive elements
    style options
    organizational principles
• The next step involves describing the nature of these aspects of the text, of classifying the nature of the material within the text

  • SECOND STEP: Identifying the NATURE of the aspects of the text
• The final step involves inferring the underlying assumptions and perspectives of the discussion, taking into account of all of the elements of the text being as they are throughout the text as a whole. This step is concerned less with sequential development and more with recognizing patterns of elements interwoven throughout the presentation as a whole.

  • STEPS IN CR: A process of classifying
    1: IDENTIFY the elements in the text, viewing that text as a presentation in its own right
    2: DESCRIBE those elements to determine the NATURE of the elements
    3: DERIVE patterns from the element collections
    3: EVALUATE the patterns to determine WHAT IS ACHIEVED through the use of such patterns
• Throughout, critical reading relies on abstracting, on classsifying the nature of things,

  • The reader creates patterns from the elements of structure, tone and style IN ORDER TO identify the UNDERLYING perspectives, biases, assumptions and weasely conclusions that the author would foist on the ususpecting reader.

  • CR: determining the nature of things through abstracting rom the text and classifying those elements so abstracted.

3 more annotations...

• We can distinguish between critical reading and critical thinking in the  following way: 
   
  •   Critical    reading     is a technique for    discovering     information and ideas within a text. 
  •   Critical    thinking     is a technique for    evaluating     information and ideas, for deciding what to accept and believe. 
    Critical  reading refers to a careful,  active, reflective, analytic reading. Critical thinking involves reflecting on  the validity of what you have  read in light of our prior knowledge and understanding of the world.  

  • The discovery that CR involves does involve INTERPRETATION, but INTERPRETATION of the author's intent, not a subjective response by the reader as to how he or she may interpret the assertions and conclusions associated with the topic in the text.
• We can distinguish between critical reading and critical thinking in the  following way: 
   
  •   Critical    reading     is a technique for    discovering     information and ideas within a text. 
  •   Critical    thinking     is a technique for    evaluating     information and ideas, for deciding what to accept and believe. 
• Critical  reading refers to a careful,  active, reflective, analytic reading. Critical thinking involves reflecting on  the validity of what you have  read in light of our prior knowledge and understanding of the world.

  • Role of prior knowledge: the gauge against which we measure the worth of a statement.

• For example, consider the following (somewhat humorous) sentence from a student  essay:  
   

      Parents are buying expensive cars for their kids to destroy them.   

      As the terms are used here,     critical reading    is concerned with figuring out whether, within the context of the text as a  whole, "    them    " refers to the parents, the kids, or the cars, and whether the text supports  that practice.     Critical thinking    would come into play when deciding whether the chosen meaning was indeed true,  and whether or not you, as the reader, should support that practice.

  • BEST CLEAREST DISTINCTION DRAWN BETWEEN CRITICAL READING AND CRITICAL THINKING.
• In actual practice, critical reading and critical thinking work together.

  • I want to segment the study; it seems that I have to have all oars in the water and use them with increasing compexity????

• If critical thinking and critical reading are so closely linked, why is this  still a useful distinction? 

    The usefulness of the distinction lies in its reminder that we must read  each text on its own merits, not imposing our  prior knowledge or views on it. While we must evaluate ideas as we read, we  must not distort the meaning within a text. We must not allow ourselves to  force a text to say what we  would otherwise like it to say—or we will never learn anything new!

  • Absolutely critical statement:
    Let a text say what it means to say without imposing our prior knowledge or views on it.
    Evaluate the ideas we read, read between the lines (inference) but DOT NOT DISTORT THE TEXT TO FORCE IT TO SAY WHAT WE'D LIKE IT TO SAY.

• We can  think of a writer as having taken on a job.   No matter what the topic, certain tasks must be done:  

   
  •   a specific topic must be addressed 
  •   terms must be clearly defined 
  •   evidence must be presented 
  •   common knowledge must be accounted for 
  •   exceptions must be explained 
  •   causes must be shown to precede effects and to be capable of the effect 
  •   conclusions must be shown to follow logically from earlier arguments and  evidence

  • This list would make a great rubric for writing as well as a great check list for describing a piece of writing we're reading as readers of some author who's written the writing for us to read as readers and stuff. Sorry . . . . Verbal torrent there.

  • Definition of a writer's job.
• As critical readers and writers, we  want to assure ourselves that these tasks have been completed in a complete,  comprehensive, and consistent manner. Only once we have determined that a text  is consistent and coherent can we then begin to evaluate whether or not to  accept the assertions and conclusions.

  • Reader's Job: See if the writer has made a consistent, coherent text for us to consider. THEN we can evaluate the conclusions and accept or reject them.
• To assess  the validity of remarks within a text, we must go outside a text and bring to  bear outside knowledge and standards.

  • EVALUATING THE VALIDITY OF IDEAS within a text is the province of CRITICAL THINKING

  • To evaluate the truthfulness and usefulness of a text WE MUST GO OUTSIDE THE TEXT, to our own understandings, values and observations of reality.
    
    We must already HAVE a value system, a notion of whether or not truth exists and whether or not we value it BEFORE we can evaluate anything.

7 more annotations...

• Inference: Denotation

  • I would put this up near the beginning of the series on INFERENCES.
• Whether we think of these various meanings of "ate" as different meanings of the same word or as the meanings of four different words, we still have to recognize the appropriate meaning in any given context. As we read, our brain calls up possible meanings. With barely a pause, we infer an appropriate meaning in each of the remarks.

  • Words have different meanings in different contexts.
    
    Our brain, as we read, constantly seeks appropriate meanings for individual words in context.
• table n 1thin piece of flat wood, stone, etc. 2 article of furniture with a flat top and legs 3 the food served on a table 4 the persons seated at a table 5 arrangement of words, facts, figures, etc., often in columns,  for reference 6 index or summary  vt 7 to lay aside, as a proposal 8 to postpone indefinitely
• From a variety of possible meanings, we infer the meaning appropriate for the given  context. We read ideas, not words.

  • We READ IDEAS, not WORDS
    
    We INFER the meaning of IDEAS from words in context.
• Readers draw on prior knowledge and past experience to infer the appropriate meaning.

  • Lexical ambiguity= word meaning issues

  • INference makes use of reader's priod knowledge and experiences.

• They at once "read" both the language and their knowledge of the world.  Some of the most striking examples of ambiguity of word meaning can be seen in headlines.

  Bundy Beats Date With Chair

  At first glance, this headline refers to an attack by an irate suitor.             

  date = person of opposite sex with whom one has a social engagement             chair = household furniture

  In the context of the news at the time, the headline referred to a convicted killer's scheduled execution.
              date = appointment
              chair = electric chair
• Readers infer word meanings consistent with the surrounding discussion.

  • Readers infer meanings from surrounding discussion

•   In many, if not most, instances, one meanings is obviously the intended meaning within the given context, the other meaning a somewhat funny alternative meaning.             

  The painting was found by the tree.

  By can mean "near," or "through the agency of."  It is unlikely the tree did the finding.  This example, however, involves more than simple lexical ambiguity. We also parse the sentence differently to see the different meanings, as the following suggests.

  The painting was     found by the tree.            It was next to the tree.   The painting    was found        by the tree        The tree found it.

  When the ambiguity lies in how we analyze a sentence, rather than in deciding the meaning of a word, we have syntactic ambiguity. We saw a clear case of syntactic ambiguity in Chapter One:

  He did not marry her because he loved her.

  • Syntactical ambiguity-sentence analysis necessary to decide which is which. Structural problem.
• • 1.  Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case
  • 2.  Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
  • 3.  Prostitutes Appeal to Pope
  • 4.  Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
  • 5.  New Vaccine May Contain Rabies
  • 6.  New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
  • 7.  Include your Children when Baking Cookies
  • 8.  Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
  • 9.  Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge
  • 10. Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half

  • The book of language bloopers I have will work great here.

  • Examples of lexical ambiguity

7 more annotations...