Guide to Critical Reading for Grad Students

1.  What problem or puzzle generated the book or article?  What, specifically, started the author on his/her investigation?

2.  How does the author conceive his/her project(s)?  If there are several projects involved, what is the relationship among them?  Does the author privilege one over the others?  Why?

3.  Who is the author in dialogue with?  Who is s/he quarreling with?  Who is s/he writing for or to?

4.  What does the author believe is at stake in this project?

5.  What are the theoretical concepts, ideas, or propositions that make this study possible?  What other writers or schools of writing enabled this author to write her/his book? 

6.  What are the social and historical conditions of possibility for this study?  For instance, who is the author, what is her/his background, how might this account for the point of view taken?  How does the study fit within the larger social and intellectual setting in which it appeared?

7.  Is it possible to summarize the thesis (theses) of the project?  What, precisely, has the author demonstrated?

8.  What intellectual, social, theoretical, and/or political effects might follow from this project?  What additional work could/should it give rise to?