The Elements of Critical Reading

This book is a gentle introduction to literary analysis without all the wacky jargon of literary theory that makes students hate literary studies--and for good reason. This is a great guide for those who have no background in critical thinking or literary analysis. The chapter on the "Four Stages of Critical Reading" looks very much like something you'd find in Mortimer J. Adler's How To Read a Book, as do Peters's "Rules of Elementary Reading"--and they are just as useful. But what is so extraordinary about this unassuming book is the framework it sets up for the reader to interpret texts: the Rhetorical, Ethical, Emotional (psychological), Logical, and Socal perspectives. Peters clearly explains each perspective, gives examples, and lists a few questions for one to ask about the text. For example, for the Ethical Perspective one would ask, "What highest good does the text envision?" (duty? happiness? perfection?) and "What ethical convictions are revealed?" (altruistic? egoistic? political?). Each perspective applies equally to texts across the curriculum. I have seen students go from being hopelessly lost and not having a clue how to approach a text for a literary analysis paper to having a clear idea of what to write the paper about just after reading the chapter "Five Ways of Interpreting a Text" in this book. This simple and practical book is dynamite for beginning or struggling students who aren't ready for the heavy stuff, and it gives you some great tools to reach them. Equally useful is the critical reading bibliography in the back, which rates books by difficulty with stars. Bravo, Peters! I give this book six stars.

THE ELEMENTS OF CRITICAL READING are often thought of as judging or praising, but it is really applying personal values. Bringing different personal interests and views into criticism starts with reading to understand what is going on: recognizing the main points, and remembering the essential content. It goes on to taking any one or more of five perspectives for making clear what the reading means: emotional, ethical, logical, rhetorical or social. John Peters writes well, with good examples and helpful explanations. His book is a reader-friendly, straightforward way of putting into practice Christopher M. Anson's THE LONGMAN HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS AND READERS, Steve Lynn's TEXTS AND CONTEXTS, and Stephen Minot's THREE GENRES.