Reading Techniques

• Reading Techniques: Styles, systems, or practices in decoding symbols for better

comprehension, communication, and sharing of information and ideas.
• Cognitive Process: The operation that affects mental content, involving thinking,
remembering, and obtaining and storing knowledge.
• Decoding: The process of finding or understanding the meaning of something,
recognizing and interpreting something, or translating a printed word into a sound.
• Derive: To take, receive, or obtain something, especially from a specified source.
• Language acquisition: The process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive,
comprehend, produce, and use language to communicate.

Skimming

• Skimming: Rapidly moving the eyes over text to get the main ideas and a general
overview of the content.
• Pre-reading: Using skimming to obtain a more accurate picture of text to be read later.
• Reviewing: Applying skimming to review text that has already been read.
• Reading: Utilizing skimming to quickly read material that does not require detailed
information.

Steps in Skimming an Article

• Title: Read the title of the article.

• Introduction/Lead-in paragraph: Read the introduction or lead-in paragraph.
• First paragraph: Read the first paragraph completely.
• Subheadings: Read each subheading, looking for relationships among them.
• First sentence of remaining paragraphs: Read the first sentence of each remaining
paragraph, as it often contains the main idea. The last sentence may be valuable if the
author begins with a question or anecdote.

Scanning

• Scanning: Rapidly covering a large amount of material to locate a specific fact or piece of
information.
• Specific information: Name, date, statistic, or fact that can be found without reading the
entire article.
Steps in Scanning an Article:

 Clear image: Hold the word or idea clearly in mind to make it more visible among the
surrounding words.
 Anticipate information form: Determine the likely form in which the information will
appear, such as numbers or proper nouns.
 Analyze content organization: Assess the organization of the content to decide how to
approach scanning.
 Rapidly scan lines: Let your eyes quickly move over several lines at a time and read the
entire sentence when you find the desired information.

Phrase Reading:

 Phrase: A group of words that go together to convey meaning.

 Clustering: A powerful and simple exercise to develop the necessary skills for phrase
reading.
 Muscle training: The eyes can be trained relatively quickly and easily to focus on phrases.
 Discipline and practice: Consistently practicing for 10-20 minutes a day can lead to
mastering phrase reading in approximately three weeks.

Non-Prose Reading: Non-prose materials: Illustrated visual forms that use words, symbols,
pictures, and drawings to summarize information and ideas.

 Graphs: Visual representations of quantitative information to show the relationships

between data, such as bar graphs, pie graphs, line graphs, and pictographs.
 Diagrams: Visual representations consisting of lines and symbols to illustrate
interrelationships, process steps, or key features, such as tree charts, timelines, technical
diagrams, and process diagrams.
 Charts: Visuals that summarize data, explain processes, or describe relationships, such as
tabular charts, outline charts, flow charts, and organizational charts.
 Maps: Flat representations of geographical areas using scales and models to depict the
Earth's features and locations.
 Identifying the Main Idea and Summarizing

I. Summarizing
a. Summarizing is a way of briefly explaining important information from a text using
your own words, focusing on the main idea and leaving out less important details.

b. Strategies for summarizing

i. Divide and conquer – skim the text and divide
ii. Read
iii. Reread and underline key points
iv. Write main ideas for each section
v. Craft a thesis statement
vi. Write the summary using transition words
vii. Check for accuracy and revise
viii. Revise

c. Assessing the efficiency of written summaries

I. Does the summary accurately present the gist of the reading passage?
II. Is the main idea stated in the first sentence of the summary?
III. Are all of the major supporting details represented?
IV. Is any non-essential or repetitive information included?
V. Are appropriate transitional words or phrases used?
VI. Is the summary written in paragraph form?
VII. Does the summary read smoothly, and is the information clear and balanced?

II. Identifying Main Idea

a. Topic - The subject matter
Main idea - Complete statement about the topic
b. The main idea is the most important point of a paragraph or text that tells you
what it's about in a short sentence.
c. Useful places to look for the main idea (beginning, middle, and end of a paragraph)