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"No sooner do we come into this world than bits of us start to drop off." -- Gustave Flaubert
Developing levels of thinking
So far in your educational career, your primary reading task has probably been to understand and recall information. As a result, you may not be prepared when your instructors ask you to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information.
This table shows you a progression of thinking skills required for success in reading that moves from basic literal understanding to more complex skills that involve synthesis and evaluation. Most college instructors assume that you can think at each of these levels and expect you to do so.
Level |
Descriptions | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Knowledge |
Recalling information; repeating information with no change | Recalling dates; memorizing definitions |
Comprehension |
Understanding ideas; using rules and following directions | Explaining a law; recognizing what is important |
Application |
Applying knowledge to a new situation | Using knowledge of formulas to solve a new physics problem |
Analysis |
Seeing relationships; breaking information into parts; analyzing how things work | Comparing two poems by the same author |
Synthesis |
Putting ideas and information together in a unique way; creating something new | Designing a new computer program |
Evaluation |
Making judgments; assessing value or worth of information | Evaluating the effectiveness of an argument opposing the death penalty |
Adapted from: McWhorter, K.T. (1998). Academic Reading, Third Edition. New York: Longman. (Thanks to C. Crum for use of this handout)