With the grain, or Not with the grain: that is the question.

When reading with the grain, I attempt to see the writing the way the author intended it to be seen. Most of the time I read with the grain when it comes to novels or stories because I want to understand what the author's intentions are when developing the text. One example of this is when I read the Harry Potter series. Instead of trying to question Rowling's storyline or her use of language I wanted to see what she saw when she wrote the novels; I wanted to see the world just as she created it. I also read with the grain when I try to interpret the author's meaning behind his or her words. For example, when I interpreted Kanye West's Power I read with the grain in order to find the meaning behind the lyrics. I attempted to view the words from his point of view and gather information from other components of his life along with the words themselves.

Reading against the grain is when the reader tries to find flaws in the writing as in unsupported ideas, assumptions or simply just reasons as to why the author's idea is not necessarily correct to the reader. I tend to read against the grain when I am reading texts that are more controversial such as newspaper articles or articles online. In my ENC1101 class the class was to separated into two groups which were either for BP or against BP after the oil spill incident earlier that year. I read many articles that were against BP for what had occurred and some that thought it was not necessarily their fault. I was to read through these articles and read against the grain in order to support my stance on the case. In class we presented each of our cases as a debate and were then supposed to pick apart each others arguments and find things which were unsupported or inaccurate; again I read against the grain.