HowToRead.knit

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<span style="font-size: 50px;"> How To Read </span> <br>
<span style="font-size: 35px;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;(Like a Thinker) </span> <br>
<span style="font-size: 35px;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;(Like a Scientist) </span> <br>
<span style="font-size: 35px;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;(Like an Intellectual) </span>

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<td style="border: none; border-right: 1px solid #6ca3d9; padding: 2px 5px; background: transparent;"><strong>Ashley I Naimi, PhD</strong></td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 2px 5px; background: transparent;">Dept of Epidemiology</td>
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<td style="border: none; border-right: 1px solid #6ca3d9; padding: 2px 5px; background: transparent;">Professor</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 2px 5px; background: transparent;">Emory University</td>
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<svg aria-hidden="true" role="img" viewBox="0 0 512 512" style="height:1em;width:1em;vertical-align:-0.125em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-size:inherit;fill:currentColor;overflow:visible;position:relative;"><path d="M352 256c0 22.2-1.2 43.6-3.3 64H163.3c-2.2-20.4-3.3-41.8-3.3-64s1.2-43.6 3.3-64H348.7c2.2 20.4 3.3 41.8 3.3 64zm28.8-64H503.9c5.3 20.5 8.1 41.9 8.1 64s-2.8 43.5-8.1 64H380.8c2.1-20.6 3.2-42 3.2-64s-1.1-43.4-3.2-64zm112.6-32H376.7c-10-63.9-29.8-117.4-55.3-151.6c78.3 20.7 142 77.5 171.9 151.6zm-149.1 0H167.7c6.1-36.4 15.5-68.6 27-94.7c10.5-23.6 22.2-40.7 33.5-51.5C239.4 3.2 248.7 0 256 0s16.6 3.2 27.8 13.8c11.3 10.8 23 27.9 33.5 51.5c11.6 26 20.9 58.2 27 94.7zm-209 0H18.6C48.6 85.9 112.2 29.1 190.6 8.4C165.1 42.6 145.3 96.1 135.3 160zM8.1 192H131.2c-2.1 20.6-3.2 42-3.2 64s1.1 43.4 3.2 64H8.1C2.8 299.5 0 278.1 0 256s2.8-43.5 8.1-64zM194.7 446.6c-11.6-26-20.9-58.2-27-94.6H344.3c-6.1 36.4-15.5 68.6-27 94.6c-10.5 23.6-22.2 40.7-33.5 51.5C272.6 508.8 263.3 512 256 512s-16.6-3.2-27.8-13.8c-11.3-10.8-23-27.9-33.5-51.5zM135.3 352c10 63.9 29.8 117.4 55.3 151.6C112.2 482.9 48.6 426.1 18.6 352H135.3zm358.1 0c-30 74.1-93.6 130.9-171.9 151.6c25.5-34.2 45.2-87.7 55.3-151.6H493.4z"/></svg> &nbsp; <a href="https://ainaimi.github.io/">https://ainaimi.github.io/</a>
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> Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment.
                              
.right[— John Locke, *Of The Conduct Of The Understanding*]

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# Overview

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* Losing Our Ability to Read

* Some Tools to Become a Better Reader by Mortimer Adler
   - Elementary
   - Inspectional
   - Analytic
   - Syntopical
   
* Three Modes of Reading
   - Didactic
   - Dialectic
   - Hermeneutic
   
* Reading and AI: User Beware

* Summary and Useful Resources

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# Losing Our Ability to Read

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Reading is one of the most fundamental skills needed in the modern world.]

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But, signs suggest we are losing our capacity to read.

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* out of 85 college English majors, 58% of them (49 total) could not read it on their own

* these readers often described reading as skimming or relying on summaries (SparkNotes)

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# What About Graduate Students?

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* More Difficult to Gauge

* In my teaching I have noticed a theme
   - Graduate school students approach reading in much the same way as in high school and undergrad. 
   - Putting it bluntly: consuming words on a page for repetition later on. 
   - Though: this is more true for coursework than dissertation work.

This strategy can and usually does work well in high school and undergrad.

Things should be different in graduate school.

(Actually, things should be different in high school and undergrad too).

Let's spend some time on what it means to read something deeply, and how we can do it better.

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# Some Tools to Become a Better Reader

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* There are a lot of resources. I'll list a few that I like at the end.

* Important: Mortimer Adler's "How to Read a Book": 
   - Four types of reading:
      - Elementary
      - Inspectional
      - Analytical
      - Syntopical
   
* Here: Three "Modes" of Reading:
   - Didactic
   - Dialectic
   - Hermeneutic

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# Adler's Framework

* First published in 1940, Adler sought to teach active, thoughtful reading, to foster the art of learning, to democratize conversation and the exchange of important ideas, and to enable people to become self-learners.

* reading &rarr; four levels:

- **Elementary reading**: grasp the superficial meaning of the words, follow grammar, understand basic ideas.

- **Inspectional reading**: is the book/article worthy of more time? Systematic inspection (table of contents, the index, the references), skimming chapters to gauge structure, tone, and main ideas.

- **Analytical reading**: harder work begins. An active "reading to understand". Assess whether and why content is valid, coming up with thoughtfully constructed reasons for or against.

- **Syntopical reading**: read multiple books and articles in a comparative, synthetic way. The word "syntopical" combines two Greek root words including "syn" meaning together, and "topos" meaning place or subject.

One mark of a good academic program is that it gives students the skills and strategies to be able to read analytically and syntopically in an efficient and effective way.

However, there are other dimensions to reading that are not entirely captured by Adler's distinctions.

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# Three Modes of Reading

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Generally, when one engages with a particular text, whether a book or article, one can approach reading in a number of ways. Three that we cover here include didactic reading, dialectic reading, and hermeneutic reading.

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# Didactic Reading

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* Goal &rarr; absorb material as is, usually to replicate or repeat.

* It is "instructional reception" of material.

* **Importantly:** Involves <u>accepting the authority of the material you are reading without much questioning</u>.

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# Didactic Reading: Example

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For example (in this case, from Wikipedia) on photosynthesis:

> Photosynthesis is a system of biological processes by which photopigment-bearing autotrophic organisms, such as most plants, algae and cyanobacteria, convert light energy — typically from sunlight — into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabolism. The term photosynthesis usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, a process that releases oxygen as a byproduct of water splitting. Photosynthetic organisms store the converted chemical energy within the bonds of intracellular organic compounds (complex compounds containing carbon), typically carbohydrates like sugars (mainly glucose, fructose and sucrose), starches, phytoglycogen and cellulose. When needing to use this stored energy, an organism's cells then metabolize the organic compounds through cellular respiration.

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# Didactic Reading: Example

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* Involves understanding the words, grammar, and immediate implications of the text.

* Internalizing the text without much added.

* Closely related to Adler's Elementary and Inspectional reading.

* An attempt to commit to memory key features of assigned reading material.

* "Depth" attained via note-taking, self-quizzing, and **repetition.**

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# Didactic Reading: Example

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Didactic reading is essential, and one cannot develop intellectually without it. However, to really develop an ability to understand and think, didactic reading is not enough.

As noted in the opening quote by the famous philosopher, John Locke, "We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment."

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# Dialectic Reading

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* Back and forth conversation with the text

* "Dialectic" derives from a Greek work connoting the "art of discussion, discourse, dialogue."

* Dialectic reading involves engaging in a specific "conversation" with the text so that a lack of clarity is resolved

For example, referring back to our passage above: "When needing to use this stored energy, an organism's cells then metabolize the organic compounds through cellular respiration," you may recognize that cellular respiration occurs in humans in an organelle called the mitochondria. This might lead to a question about whether plants have mitochondria, and where, exactly, the process of photosynthesis occurs in the plant cell?

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# Dialectic Reading

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Personalized is important here, as this makes the dialogue you have with the text your own.

There are a number of guidelines on what kind of questions to ask while you're reading a text. For instance, "what is the central point of this passage?" or "what are the symbols and metaphors used?" or "how do the findings of this scientific study relate to existing knowledge?" These are all important questions in their own contexts, but they are too generic to be of use to you, specifically.

The key here is that YOU are having a dialogue with the text. To do this well, you need to use the text to develop **your own** line of questioning, your own views, and balance how and whether you will use the text to re-evaluate and update your own understanding of the world.

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# Hermeneutic Reading

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* "Hermeneutics" is derived from the Greek word for "translate" or "interpret".

* Forces the reader to ask about the *conditions* under which a text is produced and the *broader meanings* it carries.

* The art of interpretation, where the context, intentions, and consequences of a text are examined alongside its content.

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# Chocolate and Weight Loss: Bohannon et al 2015 International Archives of Medicine

ABSTRACT:
Background: Although the focus of scientific studies on the beneficial properties of chocolate with a high cocoa content has increased in recent years, studies determining its importance for weight regulation, in particular within the context of a controlled dietary measure, have rarely been conducted. ... Conclusion: Consumption of chocolate with a high cocoa content can significantly increase the success of weight-loss diets. The weight-loss effect of this diet occurs with a certain delay. Long-term weight loss, however, seems to occur easier and more successfully by adding chocolate. The effect of the chocolate, the so-called "weight loss turbo," seems to go hand in hand with personal well-being, which was significantly higher than in the control groups.

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If read didactively, one might simply absorb the claim: "eating dark chocolate helps with weight loss."

If read dialectically, one might analyze the paper on its more general scientific merits

A hermeneutic reading goes deeper still: *why* was this study published at all?, *what* were the motivations of the authors, editorial team, funders, etc? and *how* did it become international news?

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# Eat Dark Chocolate and Lose Weight

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* Looking at the broader context: deliberate hoax, orchestrated to expose flaws in scientific journalism ([see this blog post for more](https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2015/05/29/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-loss-heres-how/)).

* The journal that accepted the paper had low standards and little peer review.

* Media outlets amplified the claim without skepticism: catchy headline.

* General public, accustomed to dramatic health claims, spread the story widely.

Hermeneutically, then, the text is not just about chocolate and weight loss—it is about the structures of modern science, media, and culture that allowed a flimsy claim to travel far and wide. The lesson is that reading carefully requires us not only to evaluate *what* is said, but also to interpret *why* it is said, *who benefits*, and *what the surrounding context reveals* about knowledge itself.

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# SSRIs During Pregnancy and Autism Risk
 
Brown et al JAMA 2017;317;(15):1544-1552. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.3415

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* Roughly 36,000 singleton pregnancies documented in administrative health claims data in Ontario, Canada.

* "Exposure" to SSRIs was defined as two or more consecutive prescriptions to SSRIs between conception and delivery.

* Hazard ratio of 1.59 with 95% confidence intervals of 1.17 to 2.17 after adjustment.

* Second analysis with IPW, with weights constructed via HDPS with roughly 500 covariates.

* Second hazard ratio: 1.61, with 95% confidence intervals of 0.997 to 2.59.

* **Conclusion**: "In children born to mothers receiving public drug coverage in Ontario, Canada, in utero serotonergic antidepressant exposure compared with no exposure *was not* \[emphasis added\] associated with autism spectrum disorder in the child."

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# SSRIs During Pregnancy and Autism Risk

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* Why interpret hazard ratios of 1.6 as "no association"?

* Main justification: 95% CIs for the HDPS analysis barely included the null value.

* Well known mis-use of tools for statistical inference (dichotomania)

* particularly relevant in this case: IPW with HDPS methods yields conservative (larger) standard errors

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the entire weight of the conclusion of "no association" is based on a known weakness in methodology. Why? How? [Sander Greenland](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB4fGwYgb-c) (minute 38) has suggested that this interpretation may have been forced onto the authors by the editorial team at JAMA.

After all, SSRIs are an extremely common medication prescribed to roughly 15% of the US population, and are thought to generate billions in revenue every year. Having a paper published in a prestigious journal like JAMA stating that taking SSRIs during pregnancy increases autism risk in children based on an observational study might have led to attention that the editorial team was simply not interested in.

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# SSRIs During Pregnancy and Autism Risk

There may be a number of reasons as to why Brown et al interpreted this 60% elevated risk in those taking SSRIs as "no association"

One should not take this interpretation at face value.

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# Hermeneutic Reading

Hermeneutic reading can be thought of as the attempt to try to understand the (implicit or explicit) perspectives, assumptions, motivations, and frameworks that the author of what you are reading is using or forced to reckon with.

Reading something hermeneutically involves trying to understand the motivations of the author, and how the author's context is framing the arguments they are making. Effectively, the goal here is to try and understand the factors and forces outside of the authors that led them to their arguments and conclusions.

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# Hermeneutic Reading: A More Philosophical Angle

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Consider Wittgenstein's Ladder:

> My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.)  
> He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the world aright.

— Ludwig Wittgenstein, _Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus_[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittgenstein%27s_ladder#cite_note-umass-4)

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# Hermeneutic Reading: A More Philosophical Angle

Wittgenstein's ladder: "language" constrains thought, and thus our ability to understand reality. We should (at the very least) recognize this can be the case.

This is everywhere:

Einstein's "space-time" continuum: we simply cannot "visualize" four dimensions.

Quantum mechanics: [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wzc0rCniHag](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wzc0rCniHag)

Try explaining the color red to someone born blind. Try describing what music sounds like to someone born deaf.

No amount of clever metaphor fully bridges the gap because the concepts rely on experiences that cannot be translated into other terms.

Most of the major, earth shattering breakthroughs in science (at least that I can think of) were characterized by these challenges.

In each case, the breakthrough required not just new information but new ways of structuring thought itself. The concepts we have available to us act like the bars of a cage: they give us a place to stand and think, but they also limit where we can go.

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# Hermeneutic Reading: A More Philosophical Angle

Hermeneutic reading, from this philosophical perspective, means recognizing that every text is written from within a conceptual cage that is almost impossible to escape.

This is why Wittgenstein suggested his propositions should be discarded like a ladder after climbing—they point toward something that cannot be directly stated within the system of language itself.

As we seek to move further and further into the vanguard of modern thought and knowledge, we inevitably run into the barriers of our own tools (consciousness, language, methods, frameworks, etc).

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# Wrapping Up

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Reading is one of the most fundamental skills for intellectual work, yet evidence suggests we are losing our capacity for deep, critical reading. Moving beyond passive consumption of text requires mastering multiple modes of engagement with written material.

Adler's Foundation: Elementary, Inspectional, Analytical, Syntopical

Three Essential Reading Modes: 
1. Didactic Reading: The absorption of information as presented. 
2. Dialectic Reading: Engaging in active personalized dialogue with the text. 
3. Hermeneutic Reading: Considering context, constraints, and frameworks that shaped the text. Two levels:
   - Sociocultural hermeneutics
   - Philosophical hermeneutics

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# Some Additional Resources

**Young SH (2019) Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career. Harper Collins Publishers; New York, NY.**

**Ahrens S (2017) How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers. Independently Published by Sonke Ahrens; Hamburg, Germany.**

**Halpbern DF (2014) Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking. Fifth Edition. Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis Group; New York and London.**

YouTube videos related topics:

How to Read Better, by Jared Henderson
https://is.gd/hivTrO

How to Read and Understand Hard Books, by Jared Henderson
https://is.gd/FZQCMn

Why We Can't Focus, by Jared Henderson
https://is.gd/L2qZLJ

Why Everyone Stopped Reading, by Jared Henderson
https://is.gd/mOzJ5z

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