Critical Thinking Skills in Reading, By Carla Woody

Finding the Facts, Main Idea and Details:

The main idea is the most important idea in a paragraph or passage; look for this in either the first or last sentence of the paragraph.
   
Supporting details give you more information about the main idea, such as who, what, when, where, how much and why.  They may include reasons, facts or statistics, examples, anecdotes, how-to steps and expert testimony.

Making Inferences:

This means using facts that are stated to figure out a meaning that is not stated directly.  To make inferences, look at the supporting details, then figure out what they all relate to.

Inferences are often found in fiction; rather than stating ideas about characters and events, authors often hint at them.  As a reader, you can piece clues together to make sense of characters and figure out the point of a story.

Drawing Conclusions:

In its simplest form, a conclusion is the logical outcome of a general statement, plus a specific example.  Both the general statement and the example must be true for the conclusion to be true.  If either one is false, then the conclusion is not true.  One reason general statements are often false is because they tend to start with all, every, or only.    

In a larger sense, drawing conclusions means combining what you read with what you already know to figure out the meaning of a piece of writing.  Drawing conclusions is similar to making inferences, but it adds another element.  If making inferences involves reading between the lines, drawing conclusions involves reading beyond the text, bringing in your own experience.  Drawing conclusions tests your ability to reason.

Recognizing Context Clues:

Context clues are the words and sentences around a word that provide clues to its meaning.  Even when you can figure out a word from its context, look it up in a dictionary to verify the meaning.  The dictionary will also give you information such as the origin of the word and its pronunciation.

Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Summarizing means providing the main idea and major points of a reading (examples: essays, articles, chapters). It will be always be briefer than the original.

Paraphrasing means restating, in your own words, a passage, a paragraph, or brief reading selection. It too is usually briefer than the original selection.

Identifying Facts and Opinions

A fact is a statement that can be proved.  An opinion is a statement that expresses feelings, beliefs or personal judgments.  A generalization is an opinion that allows for no exceptions.  Watch for words such as think, believe, best, worst, wonderful, should, always, never to identify opinions and generalizations.