I. INTRODUCTORY DEFINITIONS:
 

Interpretation: To Determine What Something Means.

Evaluation: To Assess What Something is Worth.

Criticism: To Evaluate on the Basis of an Interpretation.

Content: What Something Is About.

Form: How Something Is Gone About.

Purpose: Why Something is About What It Is and Why It is Gone About in the Way That It Is.

Text: Any Discrete Entity Which Constitutes a Site of Interpretation (of Meaning) and of Evaluation (of Worth).

Context: The Factors Which Influence, Shape, and Determine What a Text is About, How it is Gone About, and Why it is about what it is and Why it is gone about what it is as it is. 

Reading: Making sense of entities which possess or bear meaning. 

Writing: Creating entities which will possess or bear meaning. 
 
 

II. GENERAL FACTORS EFFECTING INTERPRETATION OF MEANING AND EVALUATION OF WORTH: 

A.

1. The Writer's Intention towards the Text.

2. The Writer's Execution of the Text.

B.

The Contexts in Which the Writer Writes, Including All of the Influences Effecting What, How, and Why the Writer Writes as She Does.

C.

1. The Text: Its Generic Form, Its Overall Structure or Pattern, Its Structural Parts and the Relations Among These Parts.
 

2. The Text: The Kinds of Words and the Kinds of Languages Used, and the Denotations and Connotations of these Words and these Languages.

D.

The Means by which the text is Transmitted from Writer to Reader, Including the Effects Upon its Form of the Ways in which It Circulates.

E.

1. The Reader's Orientation towards the Text.

2. The Reader's Reception of the Text.

F.

The Contexts in Which the Reader Reads, Including All of the Influences Effecting What, How, and Why the Reader Reads as He Does. 
 

III. HOW TO USE THESE QUESTIONS:

Ask these questions of yourself as you read -- and after you have finished reading. Use them as a means of stimulating and provoking ideas about what you read. There are no single right or wrong answers to these questions; they are meant as tools for helping thinking about reading -- and for helping writing about reading. You do not need to ask the questions in every set every time you read, although often asking as many questions as possible can be helpful. Nor do you need to follow these questions through in any particular order. Just ask as many as necessary to help yourself start to think more deeply and complexly about the meaning and value of what you read.
 

IV. QUESTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION:

QUESTION SET IV A: 

1. What is it?

2. How does it work?

3. What does it do?

4. For what does it do what it does? 

QUESTION SET IV B:

1. What is it about? 

2. How does it go about this?

3. What is its purpose or function (why is it about what it is and why does it go about this as it does)?

QUESTION SET IV C:

1. What does it appear or seem to mean? 

2. Is what it seems or appear to mean what it truly means? Or is this all of what it means? Or is the essence of what it means larger than or different from the appearance of what it means?

3. Why might there be a difference between the appearance and the reality or the appearance and the essence of what it means?

QUESTION SET IV D: 

1. What might people tend to think or feel that it means?

2. How and why might these thoughts and feelings vary and change?

3. Is what people think and feel that it means what it truly means? What else is there?

4. Why might there be a difference between what people tend to think or feel that it means and what it truly means?

QUESTION SET IV E: 

1. How does what it means change according to changes in the contexts or situations in which it is made sense? Why does this change as it does?

2. How does what it means change according to changes in the relations or processes of which it is a part? Why does this change as it does?

3. How does what it means change according to changes in the perspectives or vantage points of those who are attempting to make sense of what it means?

4. How does what it means change according to changes in the ends or interests of those who are attempting to make sense of what it means so as to make use of it?

QUESTION SET IV F:

1. What does it mean right here and now?

2. What does it mean elsewhere today?

3. What did it mean here or elsewhere in the past?

4. What might it mean here or elsewhere in the future?

5. Why does what it means change from time to time and place to place as it does?

QUESTION SET IV G: 

1. Does it mean multiple different things at once?

2. Are these contradictory with each other?

3. Does this create -- or potentially create -- tension, conflict, struggle, and even crisis? How and Why so?

QUESTION SET IV H:

1. What does it mean in relation to what its creators intended it to mean? Is it what its creators intended it to be? Does it do what it was intended to do? Does it do something different than what it was intended to do? Does it do something more or less? How do we know that what it means is or is not what its creators intended it to mean? 

2. What does it mean in relation to the contexts which shaped and influenced its creators in the process of creating it? 

3. What does it mean in relation to the tools and materials used to create it ? What does it mean in relation to the methods used to create it? What does it mean in relation to the parts and materials which make it up? What does it mean in relation to the form or structure which makes it up?

4. What does it mean in relation to similar or related kinds of things?

5. What does it mean in relation to the means by which it is conveyed from its point of production to its point of consumption -- its means of transmission or circulation or contact? 

6. What does it mean in relation to how it is made use of, by whom, and for what? 

7. What does it mean in terms of what kinds of influences and impacts it exerts, upon whom, and for what?

8. What does it mean in terms of what kinds of ends it advances and what kinds of interests it serves?

9. What does it mean in relation to what its consumers understand it to mean? Does it mean something other or different than what they understand it to mean? Does it mean something more or less than what they understand it to mean? How do we know that it means what its consumers understand it to mean or that it means something else? 

10. What does it mean in relation to the contexts in which its consumers make sense and use of it?

QUESTION SET IV I: 

1. How does understanding what it means change according to how much or what one knows? What kinds of knowledge are important to understanding what it means?

2. Can it be understood at -- and across -- multiple different levels of meaning? What are these levels and what does it mean at -- and across -- each?

QUESTION SET IV J:

1. Does it refer to something else? Does it represent something else? How so? How well so?

2. Does what it refers to and/or what it represents change? How and why so?

QUESTION SET IV K:

1. What kinds of thoughts and feelings does it provoke? How do these change, among whom, and why?

2. What is the relation between what kinds of thoughts and feelings it provokes and what it truly or in essence means?

QUESTION SET IV L:

1. What kinds of ideologies does it exhibit? does it support? does it oppose? does it represent in contest with each other? and to what end? How? Why? When? Where? Among Whom? How do we know?

2. What kinds of ways of thinking does it support/encourage? oppose/discourage? How? Why? When? Where? Among Whom? How do we know?

3. What kinds of ways of understanding does it support/encourage? oppose/discourage? How? Why? When? Where? Among Whom? How do we know?

4. What kinds of ways of feeling does it support/encourage? oppose/discourage? How? Why? When? Where? Among Whom? How do we know?

5. What kinds of ways of believing does it support/encourage? oppose/discourage? How? Why? When? Where? Among Whom? How do we know?

6. What kinds of ways of communicating does it support/encourage? oppose/discourage? How? Why? When? Where? Among Whom? How do we know?

7. What kinds of ways of interacting does it support/encourage? oppose/discourage? How? Why? When? Where? Among Whom? How do we know?

8. What kinds of ways of acting does it support/encourage? oppose/discourage? How? Why? When? Where? Among Whom? How do we know?

9. What kinds of ways of behaving does it support/encourage? oppose/discourage? How? Why? When? Where? Among Whom? How do we know?

V. QUESTIONS FOR EVALUATION:

QUESTION SET V A:

1. What is it worth? What is its value?

2. According to what standards of worth or value? 

3. According to what methods or criteria for assessing worth or value?

4. Does this worth or value vary and change? How so? Why so?

5. According to what kinds of variations and changes in standards of worth or value? 

6. According to what kinds of variations and changes in methods or criteria for assessing worth or value?

QUESTION SET V B:

1. What is its significance? 

2. Does this vary and change? How so? Why so?

3. According to what methods or criteria for assessing significance? 

4. Does this significance vary and change? How so? Why so?

5. According to what kinds of variations and changes in standards of significance? 

6. According to what kinds of variations and changes in methods or criteria for assessing significance?

QUESTION SET V C: 

1. What is its effectivity?

2. Does this vary and change? How so? Why so?

3. According to what methods or criteria for assessing effectivity?

4. Does this effectivity vary and change? How so? Why so?

5. According to what kinds of variations and changes in standards of effectivity? 

6. According to what kinds of variations and changes in methods or criteria for assessing effectivity?

QUESTION SET V D:

1. What are its successes? its failures? Versus what else/what other? According to what standards for judging success and failure?

2. How and why might this judgement vary or change? According to what kinds of changes in standards for judging success or failure?

3. What are it strengths? its weaknesses? Versus what else/other? According to what standards for judging strength and weakness?

4. How and why might this judgement vary or change? According to what kinds of changes in standards for judging strength and weakness?

QUESTION SET V E:

1. What are its contradictions? What resolutions -- or dissolutions -- of what contradictions does it achieve or enable? What kinds of resolutions -- or dissolutions -- are these?

2. What are its problems? What kinds of problems does it overcome or does it make it possible to overcome? 

3. What are its limitations? What kinds of limitations does it overcome or does it make it possible to overcome?

4. What kinds of promises does it offer? What kinds of possibilities does it create?

5. How and why might these judgements vary or change? According to what kinds of changes in standards for judging contradictions, problems, limitations, promises, and possibilities? 

QUESTION SET V F:

1. What ends does it advance? What interests does it serve? How worthwhile are these? According to what standards of worth?

2. How and why might the ends it advances and the interests it serves vary and change? According to what kinds of changes in standards of worth?
 
 

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