Module II

Reading Skills

Lesson – 2

Sub-skills of Reading
 The skills, that are used to understand a
reading text , are known as -
Sub-skills of Reading
They are…
Understanding the main idea and supporting details
Reading between the lines: inferential reading
Understanding the writer’s point of view
Referential skills; making predictions
Evaluative skills; guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words
Skimming and scanning
Note-making(Transferring information from graph to
paragraph)
Before learning these sub-skills of reading, we must
know the Types of Writing we may come across
in the scientific and business fields.
Deductive

Scientific Writing Inductive

Descriptive Writing

Description of Description of
Objects processes
 Deductive writing
A style of writing in which we go from general
ideas to particular and then we state a conclusion.

Match the following.

Ex: Students like study tours. a) Particular

Sushant is a student. b) Conclusion

Sushant likes study tours. c) General

 Read the text.
Inductive Writing

Yesterday Manas was punished by the principal as

he had not come with proper dress code. Students
without dress code are punished in our college. So
he was not an exception.

Is this piece of writing different from

the earlier one? How?

Here the writer goes from

particular to general and then to
conclusion.
 Descriptive Writing

• If we describe a place, a person, a

thing, a process etc. in our writing
it is called descriptive writing.

• In technical fields,
description of objects and processes
are common.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that
follow the text.

Matter may exist in three states: solid, liquid and gas.

All substances, except those which decompose when
heated, like wood, may be changed from one state into
another. A substance in the solid state may be changed
into a liquid substance, and one in the liquid state may
be changed into a gaseous substance. Conversely,
changes can take place in the reverse order: gases
may be changed into liquids and liquids into solids. A
solid substance such as ice may be changed into the
liquid state, or liquefied, to become water; and this may
be changed into the gaseous state, or evaporated, to
become steam. Steam may also be converted into
water and water into ice.
“Matter may exist in three states: solid, liquid and gas.”
Look at the first sentence of the passage. The word
‘matter’ here refers to ________ (all matters / a
particular matter).
Solid
General

States of
Liquid Particular
Matter

‘States’ refers to all states which is

general. But ‘liquid’ is a particular Gas
state.
 Understanding the main idea and
supporting details:
Every piece of writing incorporates –
a) Central Idea b) Main Ideas c) supporting details
Example:
Pollution Central Idea

Air Pollution Water Pollution Soil Pollution Noise Pollution

Main Ideas

Causes, Effects, Remedies, Examples, Facts , Figures etc.

Supporting Details
To understand main ideas we need …

Global Comprehension
 Getting overall meaning of the text through a
high speed reading(skimming)by understanding
the main ideas and the supporting details

Understanding the plan of the text

 Like the plan of a building every text has an

underlying plan or structure
 A good reader always tries to find out that plan
for a complete understanding
 It needs thorough and meticulous reading
Read the following passage carefully and match the columns in the next
slide.

Matter may exist in three states: solid, liquid and gas.

All substances, except those which decompose when
heated, like wood, may be changed from one state into
another. A substance in the solid state may be changed
into a liquid substance, and one in the liquid state may
be changed into a gaseous substance. Conversely,
changes can take place in the reverse order: gases
may be changed into liquids and liquids into solids. A
solid substance such as ice may be changed into the
liquid state, or liquefied, to become water; and this may
be changed into the gaseous state, or evaporated, to
become steam. Steam may also be converted into
water and water into ice.
 Take the previous passage on ‘States of Mater’ into
account and match the columns below.

i) Solid, liquid and gaseous state a) Facts

ii) States of Mater b) Example

iii) Wood, water, steam c) Main Ideas

iv) Change in the states d) Central Idea

 Summary of the discussion
To understand a text well one must know the types
of writing like; deductive, inductive, descriptive etc.

Every text includes one central idea, some main ideas

and supporting details

Global comprehension and understanding the plan

of the text are important to get main ideas and
supporting details

For global comprehension one needs to read the text

very fast using the process of skimming

For understanding the plan of the text one needs to

read carefully and thoroughly