Read with Skill and Comprehension
Learning to write depends largely on how well you've learned to
read. When readers read a story, they bring along their own
experiences and understanding. The author tries to guide the
responses, but inevitably each reader will perceive it in their
own individual way. Ethnic background, education and life
experience all contribute to the images they see and their
response to the story.
As readers, we can and should make an effort to
understand what an author seems to be getting at. Writers can
tell a great deal, but they cannot and should not tell us
everything. They write for an audience they assume will know at
least as much as they do about the topic; and they depend on
their critiquing readers to know how to read with a certain,
basic skill. Learning to read comprehensively and to make
reasonable inferences will pull the reader beyond his own
experience level and he will be better equipped to read with
understanding even those works out of his familiar genre. Read
with common sense and make notes. Ask yourself if that gap you
noticed is important to the story; if not, it isn't a mistake.
It's indeterminate and the reader is free to fill it with his
own images.
If a story is written of two women, one younger than the other,
will their ages matter? Are their physical looks relevant to the
story? It completely depends on the context. If the information
is needed, you should be able to draw it out by making a
reasonable inference. If it isn't needed it will only add to a
piece becoming wordy.
The younger calls the other "Aunt" and her parents are never
mentioned. We may wonder where her parents are, but it isn't
necessary to know. We can draw our own inferences. They are
possibly dead or on a long trip. It doesn't matter to the story.
Stories include indeterminacies (passages that are open
to interpretations) and gaps (things left unsaid, such as
why an aunt rather than the mother is caring for the young
woman). If the aunt is referred to as 'stately' at one point, we
should be able to comprehend she is from a well-off family.
As we read, we keep reevaluating what we have read, pulling the
details together to make sense of them. It's a process called
consistency building. By the dialog and action we will
be able to determine which woman is the older. Readers will see
their physical appearances through their personalities, dialogue
and emotion, and their own (readers) experiences. They want to
see themselves or someone they know. They want to put
themselves in the writers world.
Whatever the gaps, careful readers are able to draw many
reasonable inferences through the surrounding text - if it's
written well.
I wrote a simple 'slice of life' story that included a car and a
young child playing with a ball. These two things were not
relevant to the theme of embarrassment and obedience. They had
nothing to do with the Who? What? When? Where? and Why? rules -
still, I was asked by a reviewer to explain the type of ball
being bounced and the color of the car. The inference I drew of
the reader was of a young person trained to read word-by-word,
who is growing up in a different era than the story was set.
She's never known the experience of being embarrassed. Again,
readers bring their own background into the stories they read
and the way they respond. And, the writers being critiqued
can draw their own inferences by wondering if the reader
actually read the story.
Learning to read comprehensively and learning to draw reasonable
inferences from the text are basic reading skills that will make
reading more enjoyable for you and for the author you're
reviewing. Instead of asking 'What's the point of this piece?" -
read it again carefully, and use your comprehension skills.