Spring 2026 Class: Critical Reading

Basis for Rating: I very much enjoyed this course, but I honestly wish I took it in Freshmen year, only because it is so helpful in studying and reading. I also sometimes was overwhelmed by the amount of grammar on top of my other studies.Critical Reading taught me how to read books in a different way than I had ever considered. How to Read a Book, by Adler and Van Doren, gave practical rules and advice for how to understand the book and learn as much as possible about it. It led me through concrete steps of note taking and application of the book's elements. I feel truly confident in reading any kind of book after reading this book. I especially enjoyed the section on beginning to read and the process of understanding a book (Adler and Van Doren 32-35). I loved the idea that you can have a full scope of the book without actually reading it, and you should before you start, as the authors state, "You must know what kind of book you are reading, and you should know this as early in the process as possible, preferably before you begin to read" (60).