TEXTUAL

CRITICAL EVIDENCE
READING

REASONING
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
 TEXTUAL
CRITICAL EVIDENCE
READING

REASONING
Introduction
 CRITICAL READING

means engaging in what you read by asking yourself questions

such as, ‘ what is the author trying to say?’ or ‘ what is the main
argument being presented?’… Critical Reading involves
presenting a reasoned argument that evaluates and analyses
what you have read.

Being critical, therefore in an academic sense means advancing

your understanding, not dismissing and therefore closing of
learning

To read critically is to exercise your judgement about what you are

reading that is, not taking anything you read at face value
 When reading academic material you will be faced
with the author’s interpretation and opinion.
Different authors will, naturally, have different
slants. You should always examine what you are
reading critically and look for limitations, omissions,
inconsistencies, oversights and arguments against
what you are reading.
AS A CRITICAL READER YOU SHOULD
REFLECT ON:

1. What the text says – after critically reading a piece

you should be able to take notes, paraphrasing (in your
own words).

2. What the text describes – you should be confident that

you have understood the text sufficiently to be able to
use your own examples and compare and contrast with other
writing on the subject in hand.

3. Interpretation of the text – this means that you

should be able to fully analyze the text and state a
meaning for the text as a whole.
 Critical reading means being able to
reflect on what the text says, describes
and what it means by scrutinizing the style
and structure of the writing, the language
used as well as the content
 TEXTUAL
CRITICAL EVIDENCE
READING

REASONING
Introduction
Reasoning

is an act of giving statement for

justification and explanation. It is
the ability of someone to defend
something by giving out reasons.
E V A L U A T I V E S T A T E M E N T S
Evaluative Statements
• It is a way of giving better explanation to show the
strength and the weakness of something.

• Evaluative Statements are the writer’s way of

explaining why by its strength and a weakness based on
the evidences gathered.
How to formulate an Evaluative
Statement?

Evaluative Statements is about a text which is formulated

after having read the text carefully, grasping the essence
of the of the text and checking for possible fallacies in
the argument.

The formulation of the evaluative statements is done in

the same way you do any other writing except that the
statement is about your judgement of the text’s content ad
property.
You may compose your evaluative
statements in two steps:
STEP 1: FORMULATING ASSERTIONS ABOUT THE
CONTENT AND THE PROPERTIES OF THE TEXT READ.

In this step, you have to examine which ideas are facts

of opinions, make inferences or conclusions, and assess the
overall quality of the text. This assertion usually language
such as useful, significant, important, insightful, detailed,
up-to-date, comprehensive and practical.
STEP 2: FORMULATING A MEANINGFUL COUNTERCLAIM
IN RESPONSE TO A CLAIM MADE IN THE TEXT READ:
Counterclaim is the opposition you make about the
claim of writer.
You must recognize the value if hedges when you state
your counterclaims

Words or phrases that minimize negative impact of

criticism
When you are presenting your counterclaims, you are
providing criticism since you are starting that the
claim is not true .
Hedge is used to give a courteous tone in your writing.
Hedges could come in different forms
such as:

Modals - may, could, would, etc.

Frequency Adverbs – usually, generally, commonly

Probability Adverbs – probably, possibly,

presumably
EXAMPLE:

“Obesity is cause by bad food choice being offered

by the food industry.”

“Obesity is probably caused by the bad food

choices being offered by the food industry.”
 TEXTUAL
CRITICAL EVIDENCE
READING

REASONING
Introduction
 T E X T U A L
E V I D E N C E
TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
Imagine presenting the court case of the century, a trial
whose outcome will impact people for decades to come…
without any evidence. The prosecutor will call to
approach the bench and present your case, and you have no
forensic data, no eye witness accounts, nothing. Sound
ridiculous? So should writing an essay without textual
evidence.
You can’t handle the truth without textual evidence!
No matter how eloquent, no matter how
grammatically sound, no matter how
organized, no matter how correct if it
doesn’t contains evidence, any
argumentation will fall flat.

Textual evidence is an evidence gathered

from the original source or other texts,
that supports an argument or thesis. Such
evidence can be found in the form of
quotation, paraphrase material, and
descriptions of the text.