How Academic Reading is Important?
Academic reading a process of recognition of author’s purpose, differentiation between facts and opinions, integration of information, evaluation of evidences, and drawing conclusion of the academic text (A text which deals with the concepts and ideas related to the subjects that are studied at colleges or universities). Academic reading is a skill. Academic reading should be constructive, fluent, strategic, motivational and refined.
Some common reading strategies are given below:
- Previewing
It means revising and reviewing titles, headings and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection.
- Predicting
It means the use of knowledge about the subject matter which is under observations to make predictions about the content.
- Understanding multiple meaning
The content of academic text, which is under aim for understanding gives a lot of words reflecting two or three meanings at the same time. If we understand the multiple meanings of these words, we will be able to understand precisely and it will be very effective solution to our reading problems as well.
- Understanding of connotative and Denotative meanings
To know about the actual meaning or dictionary meaning of a certain difficult words and the alternative meaning of difficult words enables a good reader to understand effectively. It will be a good reading strategy in this respect. For example, the phrase “Be a lion” gives us two meanings. Connotatively, this phrase used as a metaphor which means courageous as a lion. Denotatively, meaning will be animal like. Such as a king.
- Etymology
It is the best strategy to know about the origin of the words in making true sense in understanding the whole idea of a text.
- Guessing meanings from context
Guessing meanings from context is an effective practice for our understanding. We have to draw meanings from context of the difficult paragraphs. It will be a good reading strategy. For example,
- The snake slithered through the grass. It was hunting.
With the use of guessing abilities, one good writer has to understand the meaning of “slither” with the help of its context “through the grass” means something is in state of moving. So with the help of guessing meaning, we come to know that slither means move.
- Skimming
It means to gain an overall impression of a text. This technique involves reading the title, the first paragraph, the first sentences of the body paragraphs and the last paragraph.
- Scanning
It means to look quickly at the important information, certain specific words or paragraphs in order to get the selected information only. For example, if we are going to see the meanings of a word then we quickly find out the dictionary and look for the only specific words, not reading the actual series or sequence of the words.
- SMRR reading strategy
It stands for S (skim), M (mark), R (read) and R (review).
- Skim means to read the name or title of a subject, outline or a content and the main objective of the given text.
- Mark refers to the marking of the imported lines. It will help the readers to understand the whole meaning of a text in effective way.
- Read means the actual reading of the text.
- Review means that having a comprehensive understanding after the actual reading to know and revive the whole read text.
- SQ3R reading strategy
It is a reading strategy designed to help the students to improve their comprehension, memory and efficiency in reading. In this way, the information we take is stored in our long term memory. SQ3R stands for survey, question, read, recite and review.
Survey:
The purpose of serving is to gain a quick overview of a chapter as a whole. This step involves following steps.
- Fix the name of the chapter into mind. It is an essence of the main idea you are trying to get from a chapter.
- Quickly read the introduction outlines and objectives of the chapter.
- Read heading and subheading.
- Look at other clues for important ideas.
- Read the summary.
- Look over the words in the list of important terms.
Question:
This phase focuses on making questions out of headings and subheadings.
For example first outline in the chapter is “The judiciary and constitutional courts”.
You can make questions
- What is judiciary?
- What is constitutional courts?
Read:
Reading the whole text will provide you answers of your questions. It will help you more in
- Creating a clearly defined purpose for reading
- Reducing the black mind syndrome
- Making questions and answers increase memory at the test time
Recite:
Reciting properly is an effective and most important step to learn more and prevent forgetting. It involves
- Look at the questions you have made
- Without looking, recite the answer aloud
- Check your answer from book or notes
Review:
It means regular and frequent recitation of the material to be learned. It also helps in making the whole account of mistakes both in reading and reciting. Hence, we can improve our reading skills by reviewing.
Here are the important links
How to understand English Literature?
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