Taking a critical approach to reading involves asking yourself questions, and the two questions you should start with when engaging a text are "what is the purpose of this essay, article, etc" and "who is the intended audience"?
Purpose
Knowing a writer's purpose is essential in order to evaluate the effectiveness of a reading.
- Why was this text written?
- What is the author trying to achieve?
- Is he or she writing to entertain, to inform, to persuade, to explain, to express, etc?
Audience
The purpose and audience of a text are intrinsically linked and both help the reader understand how to approach a text.
- For whom was the text written?
- Is the writer targeting a specific type or group, for example, teenagers, industry professionals, shareholders, parents, etc?
Exercise
Follow the links below to five websites. Read the first two or three paragraphs of each and determine its purpose and intended audience. Open the link to the exercise.