Reading And Reading: Ways Of Reading By David Bartholomae

Reading is seen as a simple task that a person learns at a young age. This is not true. In the Introduction to the book called “Ways of Reading” by David Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky, and Stacey Waite explain that reading and writing is a complex process that may be difficult to understand. Two terms mentioned heavily in this book are reading against or with the grain. These being two complex terms when it comes down to reading. In most novels the author gives the reader the opportunity to agree or disagree with them. Reading with the grain is taking the author’s insight, while reading against the grain is not supporting the author’s view but your own. Both of these terms have different meanings but when it comes down to reading both of these

Some class for school might do a main idea reading form. Reading for the main idea will help the reader understand the book more clearly. The main idea of a novel mostly helps the reader be able to write about it with a certain theme. Though it has its upsides, reading for only the main idea will not help one to be able to write an essay using one’s own personal ideas and thoughts. While reading the reader usually looks for the author’s intended audience. In “Ways of Reading” most stories are not going to use everyday language and are going to challenge the reader. Reading against the grain is seen as the more difficult task Reading against the grain is stepping out of your boundaries and going against the majority. When reading against the grain the reader is taking his or her own personal view of the story. The reader in these situations has to analyze and critique the author’s work. Reading against the grain can be challenging due to that the reader does agree with the author on some points and not others. Reading against the grain in quote “asking questions that may be a surprise, looking for limits of the author’s vision, providing alternate readings of the examples, and finding examples that challenge the argument” (BPW p 10) means that the reader is looking for ways to argue the topic of the author. The reader is analyzing and inspect the work and revising it to give his or her point of view. As the reader we are also in a

In the quote “Our selections require more attention than a written summary, a reduction to gist, or a recitation of main ideas” (p9 BPW) This means that the stories at a college level will challenge the reader, therefore making them read against the grain. BPW is expressing here that reading against the grain is more commonly used and much more difficult than reading with the grain. In Alexandria Palmer’s paper “You are coming up with your own ideas and becoming engaged in that sense.” This quote compares well to what an engaged reader is. If the reader is engaged within the text he or she will be more likely to analyze it and critique the author’s