Practical Criticism by I.A. Richards
Published 1929 · 75,000 words · about 6 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction
How hard is Practical Criticism to read?
Practical Criticism scores 59 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 60 out of 100
- Clear academic English. Richards writes accessibly, and the student responses he quotes are informal.
- Sentence structure: 55 out of 100
- Straightforward expository prose. Richards is a clear writer.
- Abstraction: 65 out of 100
- Theoretical framework (the four meanings) applied to concrete cases of misreading. The balance between theory and example is well-maintained.
- Information density: 70 out of 100
- Dense with examples and analysis. Each student response is dissected for what it reveals about reading habits.
- Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100
- Direct analysis. Richards states what went wrong in each reading and why.
- Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
- Analytical rather than symbolic. Richards argues through evidence.
- Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
- Gentle amusement at student errors, but Richards is sympathetic rather than mocking.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- Richards provides clear diagnoses and prescriptions for better reading.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- Part analysis of student protocols, part theoretical framework. Well-organized but the sheer volume of examples can be challenging.
How Practical Criticism is regarded
Practical Criticism holds a literary regard score of 84 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.