Reading Strategies: Getting to Know the Text
In order to write an effective rhetorical evaluation, you’ll first need to demonstrate that you have a strong understanding of your text’s original argument. Here are several active reading strategies to use to help you become a better critical reader, both for this particular assignment and for any other complex texts.
Says & Does Statements. One way to get to know a text is to generate “says” and “does” statements for paragraphs that you find especially challenging.
“Says” statements answer the question: what is the paragraph saying? What is its main point?
What is the gist of the paragraph?
Chapter 1 Evaluating Arguments Designing Arguments
34 and accurately understand the text. Use the steps below to guide your reading and to identify the relationships between ideas in the argument.
1. Identify the main idea of the article by reading it through once.
2. Then, read the paragraphs more closely and carefully, and identify the main idea of
each.
3. Next, identify key words that provide structure and reveal how ideas relate to each
other, such as:
• Linking relationships: So, therefore, also, as well as, too, and, additionally,
similarly
• Contrasting relationships: But, however, on the other hand, whereas, nor
• Conditional relationships: If, then, in that case, consequently, resulting in
4. Finally, compare the main points of each paragraph to the known central claim. Where does the writer make connection?
