Read With Skill

Learning to review 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 reviewers, 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 critiquers to know how to read with a certain, basic skill. 

Learning to read comprehensively and to make reasonable inferences will pull the reviewer 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.

For example:

If a story is written of two women, one younger than the other, will not knowing 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. Listen to the sound of their voices. Their choice of words will help show personality and ages. You won't have to be told. If it isn’t needed it only adds wordiness to a story.

If one character calls the other “Aunt” and her parents are never mentioned, we may wonder where her parents are, but perhaps it isn’t any of our business. We can draw our own inferences. They are possibly dead or on a long trip. If not knowing doesn't interfere with the plot, there isn't a need to know. 

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, and probably past middle-age.

As we read, we keep re-evaluating 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 begin to see their physical appearances through their personalities, dialogue and emotion, and their personal (readers) experiences. They want to see themselves or someone they know. They want to put themselves in the writers world. Experiment by not describing the main character by specific physical attributes; use the personality - the attitude and voice. Give readers the opportunity to become the main character and they'll love your story.

Learning to read comprehensively and drawing reasonable inferences are skills that will make reading more enjoyable for you and the author you’re reviewing. If you finish the read with unanswered questions, mention them in your feedback. They may be intended 'indeterminate gaps', but the story should be understood. The reader needs to know as much as the main character knows, or some details are missing.

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