Critical reading is the step of literature analysis preceding critical writing. It involves studying the facts and arguments in the text, their impact, examining the interpretations which may be conveyed, and forming your own opinion about the author’s views, ideas, or conclusions. (What is critical reading, 2016). Critical approach to reading is a significant part of academic research. No paper should be accepted blindly, each opinion must undergo examination and analysis. A critical reader must make his own opinion concerning the subject matter and his own attitude to the author’s ideas. To do that, you must treat any text not as a mere fact but as an argument which must withstand critics. It is done not to destroy the author’s work and prove his mistakes, but to check how strong and ground his evidence and his argument are. (What is critical reading, 2016).
Analyzing the critical approach from the diachronic perspective, I would say that it has always been an important part of academic work but at the same time it becomes more and more acute and essential as long as new perspectives are being opened and new opinions appear. On the one hand, without critical reading in past there would be much fewer inventions and discoveries today, without arguments criticized and reviewed. On the other hand, the more rapidly the scientific world is developing, the more controversial judgments and theories there appear every day. To my mind, critical reading is more important today because it also influences the future researches and opens new perspectives for scholars. Moreover, nowadays many spheres of science have reached an advanced level, and investigations have come much deeper than before – if some years ago a branch was only discovered and recognized, today it already includes a plenty of disputed approaches and opinions, each of which must be investigated thoroughly, from all possible critical viewpoints, in order to build up a veracious and working model of this or that scientific system. That’s why I believe that critical thinking has always been important in academic research and it is even more important for today’s scientists and students – future scholars.
References
What is critical reading. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/writing/writing-resources/critical-reading
