College Writing

College Writing Study Guide Page 37 of 42 • Subject – Connected to the thesis, the subject is more general. Broadly speaking, what is the author writing about? What conversation is the author entering with this text? • TONE – Tone is subjective. What you consider informal or inappropriate could strike some- one else differently. Nevertheless, you can attempt to understand the author’s attitude toward a subject by questioning the author’s tone. A third method of critical analysis is outlined by Peter Elbow in his essay “Embracing Contraries.” What sparked Elbow’s interest was that academic readers often confused “critical reading” with “neg- ative reading;” they would confuse analysis with tearing down an author’s life’s work. To resolve this problem and give readers a more nuanced and full-bodied understanding of written work, he sug- gested that readers play three “games,” reading the full text three times and challenging themselves with different modes of thinking each time. • The “What” Game – The �irst time you read a text, you should ask yourself, “What is this about? What is going on? What are the steps in the argument?” These are similar questions to the ones that are answered in the SQ3R method, and you can use SQ3R as you’re playing the “What” Game in your initial read-through. • The “Believing” Game – Now that you have a good understanding of the author’s thesis and support, rather than focusing your energies on disagreeing with the text, you should re-read it and try to think of as many reasons why the author is correct. After each paragraph, you should say to yourself, “Yes, and …” �illing in the blanks with reasons why the author is c orrect. By the time you’re through with your second reading of the text, you should have a good list of reasons why you agree with the author’s point of view. • The “Doubting” Game – While the “Believing” Game helps us recognize that every argument might make some good points along the way, not every argument is strong, and even argu- ments that we agree with can have their faults. As you’re reading the text a third time, you should play the “Doubting” Game. After each paragraph, you should say to yourself, “No, but …” �illing in the blanks with reasons why the author is wrong. After you’ve read the text three times, you will have a complete understanding of the argument: you will know what it says and wholly understand its strengths and weaknesses. This way, you will resist the well-practiced urge to simply tear everything down or the uncritical tendency to accept what you’re presented with. Regardless of which method you use – whether it’s the SQ3R method, the SOAPSTONE method, or Elbow’s Three Games – you should be able to understand what the issue is, what stances the authors take on the issue, and their support for those stances. ©2020 Achieve