Explain What Is Mean By Critical Reading - Essay Example

Explain What is Meant by “Critical Reading” in Academic Study in the UK and Evaluate its Importance in Relation to Master of Study Full University name Explain What is Meant by “Critical Reading” in Academic Study in the UK and Evaluate its Importance in Relation to Master Course of Study University life in the UK demands students to improve their own self studying activities such as conducting research studies and reading with critical analysis of literature. Practically, a master course of study demands more.

However, this should be viewed more positively rather than negatively. The important skill of academic study in information systems management is the critical reading that plays a central role in this subject. This essay will explain the definition of critical reading and also evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of reading critically in the master course. The vast majority of students in master course still do not understand the exact meaning of critical reading. It does not mean saying the same thing negative or finding mistake in a text or an article.

Critical reading means understanding the author’s argument, evaluating the support, and making decision about the information (……). It requires postgraduate students not just to read and understand but to actively respond to the written words. While students are reading in information systems management subject in master course, they process understanding and are having opinions about that, whether they agree or not. Therefore, critical reading goes two steps further.  They are recognizing what a text says and how it says it by making remarks (……).

All these stages lead to improve the critical reading in academic study of master courses. Critical reading is useful at all stages of academic study, but is particularly important in academic writing. This is true because a lot of assignments in information systems management courses need academic writing such as long essays that run to at least 5,000 words. As such, there are techniques students often employ to make their jobs easier. One strategy used in critical reading is writing in a margin that leads to help students and develop their skills to think and write more critically ().

Students in management courses are expected to use the writing in the margins strategies while reading academic texts. It leads to improve their marks of assignments. Some students may need to train on how to write in the margin to help them read more critically. Moreover, comprehension skills are developed during this process. While students read more and more, understanding reading materials can become easier. Furthermore, in critical reading there is a wide variety of topics that need to be considered.

Different authors with different writing styles help to improve the comprehension of graduate students in reading critically. If students cannot read critically, they cannot reach the ultimate goal of reading smoothly. In general, critical reading is like any other skill, for example, learning to ride a bike or drive a car, it takes practice. Another factor of importance to critical reading in academic study is analyzing and evaluating the main idea of text. In order to analyze ideas, good students in management courses first identify the main idea ().

Therefore, critical reading helps postgraduate students to find the main idea as a key to understanding the writers’ argument. Worthy students skim the reading and find the main idea before reading the article. The critical readers also evaluate the ideas by asking questions about the main ideas of the text which seem important and analyze whether they are logical or not (). If the main idea does not seem as important or logical, the students who are reading critically pay close attention to the detail the author uses to support it.

They always ask themselves questions about the text while they are reading. Furthermore, critical reading helps students in master courses not to automatically believe that everything they read is true. However, reliable evidences may change a students’ mind and help them to reconsider the things depending on what is strongly supported. This is how important are evidences gathered from sources through critical reading. Critical reading has a lot of benefits; however, it has some distinct cons.

Indeed, one of the drawbacks to critical reading is obviously the time spent in doing the activity. It may demand taking a lot of time and a student might need staying up late in the night to cover reading critically. Therefore, it is not only time consuming, it is also physically demanding. Another drawback is that, when new information is met in the reading process, one cannot help but become doubtful about this. Thus, it requires the postgraduate students to find more information and find more reliable authors who have well-founded information and ideas.

This also needs more time to be spent for the readings. On a general note, critical reading affects all other activities and schedules of postgraduate students in information systems management. In conclusion, it can be stated that university students cannot achieve commendable results in their academic lives if they do not have effective skills in critical reading. Critical reading is, as stated earlier, is a thought-provoking, time consuming and physically demanding activity. However, this benefits the graduate student by making him think about the impact of the information gathered in written works as opposed to or in agreement with what is observed in real life.

Aside from improving reading skills, critical reading also helps students to process information more productively in their educational, professional and personal lives. For instance, when a person reads critically, he is inclined to find sense not only through his own perspective but also through the writer’s perception. Critical reading sets a person’s mind to always think about and consider the truths or fallacies in the information he reads and not just ignore them. It is a mind-opener and as the words suggest, students are trained not only to read and critically consider the written words but also the information seen around them.

They are also trained to read their environment. Reference Smith-pinkeas, B., Croghan-ford, K.(2009). Key concepts 1. Heinle: USA.