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Relevant but not Popular: Critical Reading


 "Oh come to me, my precious", howled the phony search button.

These days people are been hypnotized by fancy and incoherent information.

Run! for you shall not be subjected.

When you're looking to curate for your audience, you should go the extra mile. The likes, shares, and comments from your audience are symbols of trust and if they trust you, you owe them authenticity and valuable information.

Information is everywhere, don't go giving them just about anything because it ranks high on search engines.

Authenticity isn't a buzzword for the socially unclad, it's quite different for some of us. As a creator, being authentic is about doing intense research to find what would uniquely serve the audience. Not just creatives now but people who genuinely want to help other people.

One important skill that will help you maximize available information is critical reading.

What is critical reading?

Critical reading is reading attentively and thoughtfully in order to understand the implicit and explicit ideas of a text, assess its merits and consider the context and how it can be interpreted by different audiences.

If you're reading for personal consumption, you might not likely want to 'waste your time' but if you're responsible for a group of people, you will have to learn how to read critically.

Critical reading is necessary for success because it allows you access to information to be able to make informed decisions. It frees you from the gullibility offered by free information.


Strategies for critical reading

1. Reading between the lines to examine and infer implicit meaning.

2. Outlining concepts and how they work and don't work together.

3. Journaling as you evaluate the text and for reflection after reading.

4. Marking and highlighting key ideas

5. Rereading

6. Adopting a more critical friendly reading rate

7. Monitoring and mapping understanding

8. Use the Stop, Paraphrase, and Question technique (SPQ).

9. Assume contrarian that is, reviewing the text from a different perspective.

10. Use critical lenses such as gender, historical, race, socioeconomic, political, or other concepts. This will help you sieve prejudice, open new perspectives, and help you understand the purpose of the text outside of personal bias.


Information overload and its availability have caused misunderstanding and flawed perspectives. As a creative custodian, you owe your tribe authenticity. Do it right.

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