Contextualizing Critical reading refers to interpreting any written text with both a literal and figurative perspective. If you are not reading critically, you are simply able to repeat obvious facts that are presented on the surface. Critical reading, however, requires you to dig much deeper than surface meaning in order to find key elements of the text. In so doing, you have to apply certain processes, models, questions, and theories that result in enhanced clarity and comprehension. For instance, as a non-critical reader, you might read a history book merely to learn the facts of the situation or to discover an accepted interpretation of those events. As a critical reader, you might read the same work to appreciate how a particular perspective on the events and a particular selection of facts can lead to particular understanding. Critical reading means reading with the goal of finding deep understanding of a material, whether it is fiction or nonfiction. It is a skill whereby you consume information or literature in a more conscientious and analytical fashion. When reading in this manner, you are not simply trying to understand and memorize what is written. Instead, you draw understanding of writings from factors such as tone, intention, and logic in addition to the words. Critical reading is, therefore, an act of analyzing and evaluating what you are reading. More often than not, when you read a text, you read it through the lens of your own experience. Your understanding of the text and its significance is informed by your values and attitudes which are conditioned by your experience. However, the text that you read was written in the past or the culture which is radically different from your situation. For this reason, you have to contextualize it and recognize the difference between your values and attitudes and those represented in the text. Contextualizing requires you to locate the text in its social, political, or historical context for clues that you can use to interpret it. This means looking not only at the words, but at the attitude and background of the person who wrote them, as well as the attitude of society at the time. Rather than something like a preliminary reading, contextualizing is a reading strategy which helps you throughout the whole process of reading. It is suggested that you do the following things for contextualizing: 1. Identify the time of its production. 2. Read relevant material for information about the author's values and attitudes. 3. Read the text and find out how it echoes and represents the values and attitudes of the time. 4. Consider your historical and cultural distance from the text while reading. 5. Make judgment as to how the distance can influence your understanding of the text.