We use the model of spoken communication as the basis for much of our inferences when we read. Critical reading thus relies on an analysis of choices of content, language, and structure. Probably the single greatest key to critical reading is the realization that critical reading is not concerned with what the examples are , as with what the examples are examples of. Just as authors must choose what to say, they must choose how to say it To make sense of the whole, we try to break it into more manageable, and hopefully more meaningful, parts. Much of what we understand whether when listening or reading we understand indirectly, by inference.
All communication is based on shared knowledge.
Writers rely on their readers to recall information and ideas and to draw on that knowledge to infer unstated meanings. Reading is an act of inquiry, a search for meaning. Each reader is the author, in the sense of creator, of his or her own understanding of a text. Readers draw on prior knowledge and past experience to infer the appropriate meaning. How we discuss a text is directly related to how we read that text.