📖 Reading Skills Fast Reading Skills 1. Skimming: When to use: To identify the main ideas or general overview of a text. How to apply it: Read the title, subtitles and subheadings to find out what the text is about. Read the first (topic sentence) and last sentence of each paragraph. 2- Scanning: When to use: To search for particular details, dates, names, or definitions in a document. How to apply it: Get a keyword from the question. Move your eyes quickly down the page and look for this word. Context Clues Context Clues are the hints provided by content of the surrounding sentence or passage. Types of context clues: Example Clue Reading Skills 1 The context gives you an example for the meaning of a word. “Attorney Franco was a very altruistic person; he was forever taking on cases that paid him little or nothing.” Contrast Clue The context tells readers what a word does not mean. "Normally shy and withdrawn around people, the man became surprisingly gregarious after meeting his friends at the party." Restatement Clue The context offers a restatement or another way of saying a word. "In the nineteenth century, the Liberty Party called for the abolition, or complete elimination of slavery." General Knowledge Clue The context relies on the reader's background knowledge or common understanding to figure out word meaning. "The cuisine at the new Italian restaurant was authentic and delicious." Fact, opinion, or blend Reading Skills Fact Opinion Blend Fact is a piece of information that can be proved with concrete evidence Opinion is a view or judgment about something combination of both fact and opinion Can be proved or verified with evidence Cannot be proved by evidence Biased word + fact = blend Objective Personal & subjective Does not change May differ according to different people 2 Author’s Tone and Purpose • Purpose: the author’s reason for writing. • Tone: the expression of the author’s attitude and feeling about a subject. Purposes: 1- To inform: To give information about a subject. “Eating food between two slices of bread - a sandwich - is a practice that has its origins in eighteenth-century England.” 2- To persuade: To convince the reader to agree with the author’s point of view on a subject. “There are good reasons why every sandwich should be made with wholegrain bread.” 3- To entertain: To amuse and delight; to appeal to the reader’s senses and imagination. “What I wanted was a midnight snack, but what I got was better - the biggest, most magical sandwich in the entire world.” Tones: Reading Skills 3 The writer will use a certain voice to convey the main idea and purpose of a passage. That voice often reveals the author's attitude toward the subject. Below some words used to describe tones: Reading Skills 4 Reading Skills 5 How to identify the writer’s tone? 1. Read the text carefully 2. Underline all adjectives used to describe the message being delivered 3. Choose a tone word that matches these supporting details/adjectives/descriptions Making inferences Inference is making an educated guess about what is happening based on evidence How to Make Inferences? 1. Use word/text clues 2. Use picture clues 3. Define unknown words 4. Look for emotion (feelings) 5. Use what you already know 6. Look for explanations for events 7. Ask yourself questions Reading Skills 6
