Reading

Reading Skills
Reading is often referred to as a skill and contains several sub-skills, of which we may need to do one or several.


 * Read efficiently (quickly enough)
 * Understand or deal with unknown words including technical lexis
 * Cope with grammar complexity – long complex sentences
 * Read for overall comprehension – gist reading
 * Read for details – intensive reading
 * Understand main ideas and separate these from supporting detail
 * Understand how details, ideas, points made, relate to each other and the overall meaning
 * Understand nuances of meaning such as writer’s bias, implied meaning, or understanding non-literal meaning
 * Paraphrase and summarise
 * Think critically
 * Cope with affective issues – e.g. work under stress or pressure
 * Choose and apply appropriate strategies (meta-cognitive reading)

Reading Strategies
To help us read more effectively for our aims, e.g. to read efficiently when we want to very quickly get an idea what a text is about, we can employ a variety of approaches or strategies. This list includes some of the most well-known.

Pre-reading strategies

 * Previewing - what do you know already? Schema? Purpose of reading? Purpose of writer?

While-reading strategies

 * Repetition   - read several times; reading is not always linear i.e. start to finish
 * Complex sentences – break them down (where is main clause, subject and verb); linking words (how do these show relationships?); pay attention to referencing words e.g. this; it etc
 * Paraphrasing             - explain; summarise; re-word
 * Using prediction and contextual clues       -  be aware of text type, structure, paragraph topic and function; surrounding information in text
 * Skimming    - use headings; topic sentences; illustrations
 * Comparison and contrast to my domain - what do you know (in your language) about this (topic and genre)
 * Using external knowledge    -  what do you know about the topic? What else can help?
 * Picking out key words            - what words appear to be key to understanding? Are they repeated often?
 * Scanning      - look for words, phrases, numbers, that contain important information.
 * Self-questioning    - what have you just read? How does it relate to your purpose?
 * Reacting – do you agree? Is that surprising? Is that interesting? are there assumptions?
 * Looking for purposes and important information          - what is author’s purpose in various parts and overall? Focus on linkers and discourse markers?
 * Visualizing   - can you build up a picture of what is being described?
 * Translation - is this appropriate? Will this help?
 * Summarizing                                    - stop and summarise (in your head?) at the end of each section or at the end of the text

Post -reading strategies

 * Evaluation and personal response                    - how did I perform? Why?
 * Do something with the information you have gained – take notes or draw diagram; explain it; summarise it

Resources that provide practice of skills and strategies
Practise of a variety of skills including reading through Open University pages. These pages include reading critically. You can find more information on what critical thinking means here at University of Sussex.