Basic Tools and Concepts

How to Be an Active Reader

• Read slowly and re-read when necessary
• Use a dictionary
• Use a pen, not a highlighter, and make marginal notes
• Reconstruct the rhetorical text by asking yourself questions as you read
• Mentally continue the conversation with the author after you have finished reading
• Translate difficult passages into your own words
• When reading arguments (including court opinions) read first as a believer, understand the author’s claim and support; then read as a skeptic, asking questions about the author’s argument and reasoning

For further explanation of these points see Ramage & Bean, Writing Arguments (4th Ed 1998).