Reading, whether it be for pleasure, for research, or for any of the idiosyncratic reasons that drive each of us, every day, to read the world around us, is one of the most foundational activities any writer can engage in. Reading enables us to enter conversations that have been carried on over millennia, to learn almost instantaneously of events as they occur on the other side of the globe, to gain expertise on nearly any topic, and to consider the world from another person's perspective.

Though skills in reading and writing are always inextricably connected, the rhetorical focus of PWR courses at Stanford encourages students to consider each text in terms of the dialectic relation between production and reception; writer and reader. To approach a text critically requires a willingness to read slowly, to be aware of ambiguities and multiplicities of meaning, to situate both yourself and the text in relation to the purpose and context of its production. As you read in preparation for your own writing assignments, try to approach each text as a document open to question, discussion, and doubt. Reading closely often means reading at least twice, and making notes, either in the margins or in a separate notebook, of your thoughts, questions, and responses. With this concrete record of your initial reading experience, you will find it much easier to re-enter the text and to recall the initial force of your own ideas when it comes time to organize your thoughts and begin to write.

Follow these annotated links to help you use reading as an effective part of your writing process.

Reading to Write

Patricia Kain, from the Writing Center at Harvard University, has prepared handout on How to do a Close Reading, which uses examples guide you through the process of close reading as a first step in the writing process. Amy Addison, at the University of Richmond's Writing Center, offers two excellent pages on the way in which good reading practices can produce better writing. See Effective Reading Strategies and Pre-Writing: Keeping a Journal for suggestions to help you before you begin to write.

Forum Analysis

Among the critical reading guides available online, Critically Analyzing Information Sources published by the Cornell Libraries provides a useful set of guidelines to follow in evaluating your sources. Note that this page is devoted mainly to the exploration of the source's credentials and validity, rather than to critical engagement with a text's content.