Chapter 2: Reading as Inquiry

Part 1: The Spirit of Inquiry

Chapter TwoReading as Inquiry

PowerPoint by Michelle Payne, PhDBoise State University

The Curious WriterFourth Edition

by Bruce Ballenger

Copyright © 2014 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter TwoReading as Inquiry

In this chapter, you will learn how to

Goal 1• Examine your existing beliefs about reading and how

they might be obstacles to reading effectively.

Goal 2 • Apply reading purposes relevant to reading in college.

Goal 3• Recognize reading situations and the choices about

approaches to reading they imply.

Goal 4• Understand the special demands of reading to write

and practice doing it.

Goal 5• Understand some conventions of academic writing

and recognize them in texts.


BELIEFS ABOUT READING

“Digging isn’t a bad thing, but reading can be so much more than laboring at the shovel and sifting through dirt.”


Examine your existing beliefs about reading and how they might be obstacles

to reading effectively.

Reading, like writing, is something you’ve done much of your life, and you’ve developed habits and beliefs

that govern how you approach reading. These can help you or they

can hurt you. But you can’t determine that until you know what they are.

Goal 1


One Major Obstacle to Reading

Belief: All meaning

resides in the text and the reader’s job its merely to

find it.

Reading is:A search for

hidden meaning

Reading is:An

archaeological expedition

Reading is:Like digging for bones in

the muck


PURPOSES FOR ACADEMIC READING

“The research on reading says that the best readers have conscious goals when they read.”


Purposes of Academic Reading

• What could I learn from this?• What does this make me think?Explore• What do I understand this to be saying?Explain• Is this persuasive?• How do I interpret this?Evaluate• How is this put together?• What do I notice about how I’m thinking about

this?ReflectCopyright © 2014 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

READING SITUATIONS AND RHETORICAL CHOICES

“To write effectively in a writing situation, you need to make appropriate rhetorical choices ... Similarly, in a reading situation, to read effectively you make choices based in part on your reading purpose.”


Recognize reading situations and the choices about approaches to reading they imply.

• Rhetorical context for reading similar to that for writing (Chapter 1).

• Understand WHY you are reading and then make conscious choices about HOW to read.

Goal 3


Four Frames for Reading

PurposeWhy are you reading this text?

SubjectWhat do you already know?What might be your biases?

Self-PerceptionHow good do you think you are at reading a text in this genre, on this subject?

Genre/ MediumWhat do you know about this kind of text? What do you expect? What is it trying to do, and to whom is it likely written?


A PROCESS FOR READING TO WRITE

“Reading to write is one of the most goal-oriented types of reading … What I’m proposing, quite simply, is that you write when you read.”


Understand the special demands of reading to write and practice doing it.

Questions for the Process of Reading to Write:

Goal 4


Reading Behaviors

Highlight-ing

Marginal notes

Journal writing

Talking to someone

RereadingSkimming

Taking breaks

Copying important

info

Under-lining


Having a Dialogue with What You Read

Double-Entry Journal• Focus on what the author or text actually says• Try to suspend judgment• Use questions• Read to write and write to read


Double-Entry Journal


WRESTLING WITH ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

“There isn’t a single academic discourse. There are discourses … Though all academic disciplines—from those in the humanities to those in the natural sciences—are dedicated to creating new knowledge, they each look at different aspects of the world.”


Understand some conventions of academic writing and recognize them

in texts.

• Question or problem• What has already been

said• Announcement of

hypothesis or claim

Beginning

• Method of testing or reasoning

• Examination of evidence

Middle • How does evidence support, complicate or undo hypothesis or claim?

• Questions that remain

End

How Academic Articles Are Organized

Goal 5


Features of Academic Discourse

Beginning of Article

What writer is going to do

What has already been said

Billboards

Reviews


Questions Question or problem being explored

Indicates focus, points to conclusions

Hedges Qualifying assertions “appear to be,” “ tend,” or “suggest”

Signposts Where argument is going

A turn (however), giving reasons (because) and evidence (for

example)

Throughout the Article


Reading Strategies for Challenging Texts

• Be clear about your goals in reading a text.• Use questions to drive the process.• See a text in its rhetorical context.• Understand that reading is a process.• Write as you read.• Understand the features of academic

discourse.
