Critical Reading & Creative Reading

Reading critically means to have a prior understanding or opinion on the subject first prior to reading, and then, as you are reading the document you compare what you are reading with your prior understanding of the subject.  If you don’t have a prior understanding or a prior opinion on the subject, then you cannot read critically. It is having this delta (Δ) between your prior understanding and the opinion of the author what makes the reading a critical reading.  And it is formulating this Δ that is very potent.  Because it either proves to you that you were right and the author is wrong, or that he is right and you are wrong, or you enrich your understanding, or you modify some of your understanding but not fully and you get into a constructive debate with the author.  This way you will get most of the reading, you will easily memorize the essentials of the document, and you will proactively participate with the writer of the document.

The best way for this purpose is to write on the subject yourself prior to reading the text.

Take for example this article that you are reading now.  The title says that it is about Critical Reading and Creative Reading.  It is best not to read the article right away.  It is best to formulate your understanding about this topic before reading it, then read this article.  You will get a Δ out of it.  That Δ will be what you have gained.  That Δ could be small or could be big.  And best of all, you may write a counter article on the same topic for the next edition.

The same could be done with lectures and presentations.  It is much better to formulate an opinion about the lecture topic and write a short text for yourself about the subject before going to the lecture.  That way, listening to the lecture does not turn to just an exercise of curiosity, but a debate with the lecturer.  This will result in the enrichment of the topic both for you, the lecturer, and the audience at large.

Now let’s move to Creative Reading.

Reading creatively is about closing the document that you are reading and re-writing it from scratch adding your thoughts on the subject.  It is about allowing your mind to veer off to other thoughts, new thoughts - other than what is in the text, as such making your writing an original document produced by you.  Not writing what you have read, not summarizing what you have read, but to veer off and write about the topic on your own.  So, here, creative reading produces creative writing.

When we put both together we get the below picture.  And this would be the most effective and productive reading.

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