READING FOR MAIN POINTS

R5

If this is the first advice sheet you use, you may also want to look at Improving your reading speed (R4). When you read for main points only, of course, you will increase your reading speed naturally. It would be easier to locate main points in a reading article if you know what they are. A simple way is look at the title of the article. A good title should be able to summarize the theme of the article. When you read, try to identify all the points related to the theme or the title. If the title does not tell explicitly what the content or theme is, then try to predict. This leaflet will give you some tips on helping you to locate main points, and the materials that you may use for practice.

Tips on locating main points

Identify a purpose for your reading. List out several points you want to get from the article, and look for those points when you read. Look for any signposts in the article. They are hints to let you know whether the nearby text contains important information. When you see signposts such as "in other words", you may automatically skip this part since it is a paraphrase of a previously-mentioned point. Other signposts such as "another important point", "what is important is...", etc. are signals that tell you to read on. It's WRONG to assume that the first sentence of each paragraph summarizes the main idea of that paragraph. It's also WRONG to assume that each paragraph should contain one main idea. Some paragraphs may contain more than one main point. And in other cases, one main point is expressed in several paragraphs. (See Improving your reading speed R4.) Take graphics and layout as hints. Important words may be in bold or larger font size.

READING FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION

R6

The technique scanning or looking for specific information is very useful when you know exactly what you are looking for in a text. Since you have a very specific goal in mind, when you read, you only read the relevant part(s) and ignore the irrelevant. Very much similar to reading for main points (R5), you could start by making a list of points you would like to locate in a text. The list will help you find the relevant points in the text. Now, before you do some practice, read the tips in the following section. You could use the list as an exercise for scanning. To do this, please follow the steps below: 1. Predict one or two tips that you think are relevant to scanning. You could either write them down or remember them. 2. Read and see if the following list contains your prediction. 3. Read the tip(s) that you have predicted correctly, and ignore the rest. 4. If you have done all of the above steps in 30 seconds, congratulations! You should be quite skillful in scanning and need not read on.

Tips on locating specific information

Keep in mind what you want to locate in a text. Jot down on a piece of paper a few key words that are related to the topic you want to explore in a text. When you read, look for those key words. Slow down when you see them. After some practice, you could perform this 'anticipation-confirmation of anticipation' process mentally instead of actually writing the key words.

DON'T read every word. Make use of headings. If you read a book, use the contents page or the index. If you read an article, make use of the headings and sub-headings to help you locate the information you want. Set a time limit for yourself. If you cannot find anything relevant after the set time, the text probably does not provide what you want. DON'T use a dictionary unless you are very sure the word in doubt is related to the information you are looking for.

Reading skills for academic study

Advice You need to learn to read efficiently - you cannot read every word of every book. You need to:

scan the library to find the correct shelves, scan the shelf to find useful books, use the contents pages, indexes to find the relevant parts, skim the chapters to find out if they are useful and finally read in detail.

Learning about how texts in your subject are structured will help you to read more efficiently. But most importantly, you need to read.

Efficient reading skills

Reading involves the use of the eyes and the brain. In order to read fast, you need to use more of your brain. Reading fast means reading efficiently. This means not wasting time and using your eyes and brain together well. To do this, you need to read purposefully and interactively. Purposeful Reading is purposeful. The way you read something will depend on your purpose. You read different texts in different ways. In everyday life, you usually know why you are reading, you have a question and you read to find the answer. You usually know your way around your favourite newspaper, so if you want to know the sports results, you go straight to the correct page, or if you want to know what is on television tonight, you go straight to the television page. You do not start on the first page. When you read a novel, it is different. You start at the beginning and slowly move towards the end. In academic reading, you need to be flexible when you read - you may need to read quickly to find relevant sections, then read carefully when you have found what you want. General efficient reading

strategies such as scanning to find the book or chapter, skimming to get the gist and careful reading of important passages are necessary as well as learning about how texts are structured in your subject. Interactive Reading is an interactive process - it is a two-way process. As a reader you are not passive but active. This means you have to work at constructing the meaning from the marks on the paper, which you use as necessary. You construct the meaning using your knowledge of the language, your subject and the world, continually predicting and assessing. MacLachlan & Reid (1994, pp. 3-4) talk about interpretive framing, which is essential in order to understand what you are reading. They discuss four types of framing:

Extratextual framing - using information outside the text, your background knowledge and experience, to understand texts. Intratextual framing - making use of cues from the text, such as headings and sub-headings and referential words such as "this" and "that" to understand texts. Intertextual framing - making connections with other texts you are reading to help to understand your text. Circumtextual framing - using information from the cover of the book, title, abstract, references etc. to understand the text.

You need to be active all the time when you are reading and use all the information that is available. It is useful, therefore, before you start reading to try to actively remember what you know, and do not know, about the subject and as you are reading to formulate questions based on the information you have. All the information given above can be used to help you formulate question to keep you interacting. Useful skills are:

Scanning to locate specifically required information. Surveying a text. Using the title. Sometimes you have to make quick decisions based on the title. Skimming a text to get an overall impression. Skimming is useful when you want to survey a text to get a general idea of what it is about.

Strategies for reading academic texts

Try this with any text you need to read:

Before reading 1. Think about your reasons for reading the text: you are interested because it is about your subject, or it is related to your subject you want background information, or detailed information you want to know what the writer's views are you are going to have a discussion you are going to write an essay on this subject later Each reason will influence the way you read e.g. quickly or slowly, looking for fact or opinion. 2. Look at the title, headline, any sub-headings, photos or illustrations. Use these to predict what the text will be about - the topic. 3. Think about what you already know on this topic. 4. Write down what you would like to find out from the text. You could write actual questions you would like answers to. 5. Make a note of words or phrases connected with the topic that you may find in the text.

Reading 1. Survey the text: read the first and last paragraphs and the beginning and final sentences of the other paragraphs. How close were your predictions? Do you have a very general idea of the structure of the text, what the different parts are about? 2. Identify your purpose for reading. a. If you are looking for specific information, read the part where you think the information will be. b. If you want a general idea of the whole text, read the whole text. In both cases ignore words or sections you don't immediately understand.

You should now have a general idea of what the text is about and if it is going to be useful for you. Does it answer the question(s) you asked? 3. Write down in 1 or 2 sentences:

what you think the main ideas are what your first reaction to the text is. Do you find it interesting, informative, well-argued, boring, illogical, inaccurate?

4. Do a second more careful reading, marking any new words that are important for your understanding. Check on the main idea and revise what you wrote if necessary. Decide what the subsidiary ideas are. How do they relate to the main idea? Put all the ideas together in linear notes, or as a mind map. Vocabulary With the new words which you think are important: if an approximate meaning is enough,

try to guess the meaning using word function, context (immediate and wider) and word form

if the exact meaning is needed,

use a dictionary ask another student, or your tutor

Difficult sentences Divide the sentences where there are connectives or markers.

What do the connectives mean? Underline reference words. What do they refer to? Identify complex noun phrases. Expand them using verbs and/or relative clauses so that they are easy to understand. Find the subjects, verbs and objects which go together, and, if necessary, write the whole sentence out in several sentences to show the meaning.

After reading 1. Make a list of the new words which you think will be useful for you in the future. Give:

definitions of the words indication of whether they are nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. phrases in which the word occurs other words with the same meaning other forms of the words

e.g. counsellor (noun)=a person who gives help and support to people who have problems, an adviser [counsel (noun), to counsel] 2. Evaluate what you have read:

How does it fit into what you already think and know? Does it confirm your ideas, add to them, conflict with them? If there are opinions, do you agree or disagree with them?