Reading Techniques
Throughout your career as a Curtin student you will be required to read a variety of texts and to gather material from them for assignments. Here are some guidelines for effective reading.| | A. prereading Reading is not just a matter of recognizing words on a page. It is a matter of what you do whit those words in your mind. It is a matter of connecting what you find on the page with what you know and what you think. Certainly you learn new things from your reading, but you only learn them by building on information and ideas you already have. Aware readers alwaysdraw on their prior knowledge, what they know about a topic before reading the selection. When you stop to think about what you know of a topic before you read, you almost always discover that you know much more than you think you know, no matter how difficult the subject matter. It is very important to connect what you are reading with the world you are familiar with. Prereading---thinking an advance about a topic before you read---helps you prepare for the words on the page. If you consider the topic beforehand, you’ll find the writer’s ideas a little more familiar than if you jumped into the reading without prior thought. Your own knowledge helps you understand what the writer is saying. B. Making a List The first exercise is simply to make a list of everything that comes to your mind when you think of the topic of the reading. C. Drawing a Word map A second exercise, drawing a word map, is like making a list, but it helps you organize your thoughts a bit more. In a word map you try to make some kind of visual relationship between the various thoughts you have. There is no single way to do this. Just start putting the ideas down on a piece of paper. Put related words close to each other; draw lines between connected ideas. Use boxes, circles, arrows, or any other visual symbol to show how ideas may be connected. D. Doing freewriting A third way to warm up your thinking on a subject is freewriting. In freewriting you simply start writing about a subject and write whatever comes into your mind. Do not stop. Don’t worry about complete sentences. Don’t correct words or revise what you say. Even if you can’t think of what to write, just keep your pen moving. You can even write things like “I don’t know what this topic is all about” or “I have forgotten everything I know about this.” Soon one statement will lead to the next, and you will be surprised by how much you find you know. Freewriting also allow you to explore you feelings and interest, so that you can find points of connection between the subject of the reading and those things you would like or need to know about. You may also find that certain parts of the subject don’t interest you. But don’t give up to easily. If you look deeply enough, you may be able to find some way of connecting with a subject, no matter how distant it may seem from your obvious interest. E. Raising Queations A fourth way to focus in advance on the topic of a reading selection is to write a list of questions that you would like to have answered about the subject. These questions will help you identify specific reading goals. Even if the selection does not answer your question specifically, you might start making connections between the information in the reading and the information you are looking for. Raising questions will help to stimulate your imagination and interest. F. Skimming Rapid reading for facts is called skimming. Whenever you have to find specific facts in a paragraph, look for sentences that offer the needed information. When you skim a paragraph or a page, you are searching quickly among sentences for the answer to some question you have. How to Skim : ü Make sure that you know what information you are looking for. Ask yourself a Question. Look for a key word. ü Move your eyes quickly from line to line and from sentence to sentence. ü When you think you have found what you are looking for, stop. ü Read slowly the part of the line or sentence that tells you what you want to know. ü Think about the question you were trying to answer. ü Does the information you found answer the question? If not, quickly read the passage again to look for the information you need. ü Jot down the answer to the question you have asked. Function: comprehending an article as fast as possible. Skimming is a reading technique used for covering the reading material in a hurry at the fastest speed. In doing it, the reader leaves out some sentences in a paragraph. G. ScanningFunction: finding or Locating the knowing facts. Scanning is a reading technique used to locate the fact or the specific information that the reader has already known without reading everything, such as, someone’s Telephone number that you have known his name and address; a particular word in a dictionary that you have known the alphabetical order in it; the newspaper headlines for some information that you have known; flight schedules for the ticket you have bought; television programs in the newspaper you have bought; and best seller lists in the supermarket you have visited. The teacher and the students can practice the scanning technique naturally by using real objects as mentioned above, then, discuss the results of the natural practice. For their homework, the students can apply the technique by using their own materials. They can write the thing to look for and note the time they spend for it. The homework is discussed in the following class. H. Sematic mapping Sematic mapping is a visual representation of knowledge, a picture of conceptual relationship”(antonacci, 1991:174); “graphic arrangement showing the major ideas and relationships in text or among word meaning” (Sinatra, Stahl-Gemake, and Berg, 1984:22) or “a categorical structuring of information in graphic form” (Johnson, pittelman, and Heimlich, 1986:779). |
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I. Preview
Preview the text to be read by skimming it. Skimming is the technique of allowing your eyes to travel rapidly over a page, stopping here and there to register the main idea. When skimming, you should follow the procedure below, adapting it to your purpose- Read the title.
- Note the writer's name.
- Note the date and place of publication.
- Read the first paragraph completely.
- Read sub-headings and first sentences of remaining paragraphs.
J. Question
Effective reading is active reading. To turn reading from a passive into an active exercise, always ask questions.To do this, you must be clear about the purpose of your reading. If you are reading a text which you will be critiquing in detail, your questions will be different from those you would ask if you were reading a number of texts for background information. If you are gathering material for an essay, formulate some tentative ideas about the approaches you might take, modifying them as you accumulate material.
During the preview, note as many questions as you can about the content. For instance, turn headings into questions and try to anticipate possible answers the writer may offer. Always actively look for connections and relationships. Look at the ways ideas are structured and developed.
The object of the preview and questioning steps is to determine the writer's thesis, that is, her/his main idea and purpose in writing.
As you read, list all the words about which you are uncertain; look them up in the dictionary and write down their definitions.
K. Take notes
Some reasons for taking notes are:- to maintain attentiveness as you read,
- to focus your attention,
- to familiarise yourself with primary and secondary material on a given subject,
- to analyse the assumptions and rhetorical strategies of the writer,
- to provide you with a summary of the material.
- Always record bibliographical details of the text from which you are taking notes.
- Write on one side of the paper only.
- Leave a wide margin for comments and cross-references.
- Use headings, subheadings, and diagrams.
- Keep notes brief but full enough to still make sense to you in six months' time. Make sure they're legible.
L. Summarise
A summary is a collation of your notes, recording the main points the writer makes. Making a summary from your notes has two main benefits.- It allows you to test yourself on your understanding of the material you have been reading - sometimes it is only when you try to put the writer's ideas into your own words that you uncover difficulties.
- It provides you with a compact account of the text for further reference.
M. Review and reflect
To capitalise fully on the time you've spent reading an article or chapter, it's important to review and reflect upon what you've read. This enhances your understanding and helps you to commit important facts and ideas to your long-term memory.Here are some review and reflection exercises you may find useful:
- Test your understanding of the material by trying to answer your preview questions without referring to your notes.
- Write down the meaning and usefulness the material has for understanding other concepts and principles. Indicate what other ideas the material substantiates, contradicts, or amplifies.
- Evaluate the text in terms of its informativeness, soundness of argument, relevance, and so on. If you are gathering material for an essay or report, decide which points you want to use and think about how you can use them.
- Start a reading journal in which you keep all reading, review, and reflection notes.
