Reading Skills

RECOGNIZING ORGANIZATION OF A PASSAGE

DIRECTIONS: Read along silently while this passage is read aloud by your instructor or by your
partner. If there are words you do not know, underline each and add them to your vocabulary file. If
you have no difficulty understanding spoken English, try to complete the partial outline following
the passage as you hear it read.

Use of Academic Skills

A [1]
All students studying in a college or university need to develop several skills to be
able to do satisfactory academic work. [2]The acquisition of these skills, called academic or
study skills, will enable students to learn more, to learn more easily, and to do the work of
other courses more successfully.
B [1]
What are such skills? [2]First, students must be able to take notes in classroom
lectures. [3]This, of course, requires a high level of listening comprehension. [4]For students
doing their college study in a non-native language, understanding lectures may be very
difficult because they do not know all the vocabulary the lecturer uses. [5]Also, recognizing
the main ideas and points in the lecture may be difficult. [6]Still, it is necessary to develop
the skill of differentiating the important ideas from the supporting details because it is
possible to write only the main points and the major supporting facts while the lecture is
speaking. [7]Thus, students have to decide what to put in their written notes at the same time
they are listening. No wonder taking notes in lectures is difficult!
C [1]
Another skill college students need is the ability to take notes on assigned readings
in textbooks. [2]Taking such notes is usually easier for students to do than taking notes in
lectures because it is possible to read over the information several times. [3](Unfortunately, it
is usually not possible to hear a class lecture again.) [4]However, the skill of recognizing
important and less important facts and ideas, and their relationship, when taking notes on
textbook assignments is the same ability needed for taking notes in lectures. [5]As part of
acquiring this skill, learning to use the formal outline pattern is important.
D [1]
Finally, students need to learn to correlate the information given in class with their
out-of-class reading and homework assignments. [2]When students learn to do this, then they
can use all the information presented in class and in outside assignments to participate
actively in classroom work, to write satisfactory papers, and to do well in examinations.

Recognizing Organization: Outline of the Reading Passage

The following outline of the Reading Passage reduces the information contained in the four
paragraphs to three questions (A, B, C) with short phrase answers. The outline format makes it easy
to see the relationships among the ideas and to remember them later. Considering information and
recognizing how ideas are related are two important reasons for using outlines.

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES 49

 Reading Skills

Complete the outline with short phrases.

Use of Academic Skills

Outline of the Reading Text

Fill in the blanks of the following outline:

Topic: Need for university-level students to develop study or academic skills.

A. Study or academic skills are developed to.

1. ……………………………………………………………………………………

2. ……………………………………………………………………………………

3. ……………………………………………………………………………………

B. Academic skills are:

1. Taking notes in lectures, which involves:

2., which involves:

a. Recognizing main ideas or supporting ideas and lesser or supporting facts.

b. ………………………………………………………………………………

c. ………………………………………………………………………………
3) Correlating information given in class with outside reading.

C. The results of acquiring academic skills are:

1. ……………………………………………………………………………………

2…………………………………………………………………………………….

3. ……………………………………………………………………………………

The partial outline of the Reading Passage in this unit shows only how main ideas relate to the
general topic and how each main idea is developed. Some students prefer to use this simplified
format when analyzing an essay.

50 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES