Summary of the book by Mortimer J. Adler
Structure
Three steps in reading
Syntopical reading
Three steps in reading
Elementary reading
- Ready yourself to understand the grammar and vocabulary level used in the book
- All books depend on the basic vocabulary and grammar mastery of the language in which it is written.
Inspectional reading
- Pre-reading
- Read the introduction page and preface
- Cursorily go through
- Table of contents
- Index
- Read the blurb
- Skim the pivotal chapters
- Stop and read a few random paragraphs or a few pages
- Superficial reading
- Skim through the whole book as quickly as you can even if you understand only 50% of the content.
Analytical reading
- First stage
- Before reading, know what you are reading
- State the unifying concept of the book in a few sentences
- Sketch the outline of how the book is organized
- Find out why the author wrote this book. (His problems)
- Second stage
- Come to terms with the author by understanding the keywords he uses
- From the important sentences, grasp the author's propositions
- Find how the author argues and constructs his arguments
- Analyze what solutions the author gives or if he gives any?
- Third stage
- Hold your criticism until you understand the arguments of the author
- Do not disagree without rigorous logic
- Be objective and provide logical reasons for the critical judgments that you make
- Additional stage
- Show what the author did not know
- Show where he was misinformed
- Show where he is illogical
- Show where he is incomplete
Syntopical reading
- Create a bibliography of your subject
- Inspect all the books and choose the ones you read deeply
- Inspect the chosen books to find the relevant passages
- Build the authors to term by building a neutral vocabulary of the domain
- Establish a neutral proposition
- Define the issues and opposing views of the authors in your reading list
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