Chapter 5

1. Chapter 5 Reading Strategies

2. Interacting with Texts • What kind of a process is reading? • Reading is a uniquely interactive process. • What are the factors that influence readers? • Readers are influenced by several things: • the nature of the text • the purpose of the author • the audience • the reason for reading

3. Interacting with Texts (con’t) • What kind of questions can readers ask about the subject? • What knowledge do I have about the subject? • Where did I acquire this knowledge? • Do I have a personal connection to the topic? • Do I have an opinion on the topic? Can my opinion be changed?

4. Interacting with Texts (con’t) • What kind of questions can be asked about the writer? • Is the author familiar? • What do I associate with the author? Why? • Is the author an authority on the subject? • How would others respond to this essay?

5. Interacting with Texts (con’t) • Define annotation • p. 49 • Annotation is an important reading strategy. • Annotate = ad (to) + nota (note) • Annotations are helpful. • They record your responses to an essay. • Written responses are more complete than thoughts. • “…translating abstract ideas and impressions into concrete language, solidifying ideas” (p. 49).

6. Pre-reading Strategies: Reading Purpose • What questions can be asked to understand the purpose of your reading assignment? • Are you satisfying a course requirement? • Are you trying to determine if it is related to your topic? • Are you looking for the main idea? • Do you want to use it as a secondary source? • Are you planning to write a critical response or a rhetorical analysis?

7. Pre-reading Strategies: Reading Purpose (con’t) • What are the techniques that can help you to determine if a reading is related to your topic? • Read the abstract, introduction, and headings. • Scan the reading. • Read the conclusion.

8. Pre-reading Strategies: Reading Purpose (con’t) • Extracting main ideas from a reading • Read the text through once. • Identify the main points (underline them). • Using a text as a secondary source • Read the text closely. • Take careful notes. • Relate each main point to your thesis.

9. Pre-reading Strategies: Reading Purpose (con’t) • Analyzing a text • Look for connections between the text and your own opinions. • Annotate liberally. • Refer to the text frequently. • What is rhetorical analysis? • p. 50

10. Reading Strategies: The Big Picture • What is selective reading? • Selective reading is planned and conscious reading. • What is scanning? • It allows you to determine main points by skipping details. • It relies on content markers, headings, etc. to determine main points.

11. Reading Strategies: The Big Picture (con’t) • Types of scanning • Targeted scan (aka simply SCAN) • looks for specific content • General scan (aka SKIM) • provides an overview of the entire text • After scanning, construct a reading hypothesis. • What is a reading hypothesis? • It is an answer to the question what the text is about.

12. Reading strategies: the big picture (con’t) • What is focused reading? • Focused reading • comes after scanning • is time consuming • involves reading the text closely and then analyzing it

13. Reading Strategies: The Big Picture (con’t) • Look for the following to determine important textual information: • rhetorical patterns (p. 54) • Transitions (p. 54) • repetition • topic sentences (p. 55) • What are deduction and induction? • Deduction: an inference in which the conclusion follows necessarily from general or universal premises. • Induction: an inference of a generalized conclusion from a particular instance.

14. http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/arguments/argument5.htm --- by IAN JOHNSTON • “…deduction begins with a general principle upon which we all agree and applies that to a specific case; induction, by contrast, starts with a collection of observations, measurements, research results (in short, collections of facts) and moves to a general conclusion from that collection of data.” • Deduction: All human beings must eventually die.Mr. Jones is a human being.Therefore, Mr. Jones will eventually die. • Induction: • The crow I saw on the street is black • The crow I saw on a picture. • All crows are black.

15. Reading Strategies: The Detail Work • Knowledge of grammar and sentence structure helps you read effectively. • What are connotations and denotations? • Connotations: implications / associations • Denotations: literal meaning (as found in the dictionary) • For example, slender and slim vs lean and skinny • Context clues can be more effective than dictionaries when interpreting meaning.

16. Linguistic Resources • What’s irony? • A rhetorical figure “in which there is a deliberate and obvious disparity or incongruity between the statement made and its intent, as when we say one thing, but mean the opposite of what we say. When somebody says, ‘lovely weather we're having’, and it is raining, they are being ironic” • Buchanan, I. (n.d.). irony. In Oxford University Press, A Dictionary of Critical Theory. Retrieved 21 Sep. 2012. Other examples: somebody makes a mistake and you say: “good job!”

17. Linguistic Resources • What’s allusion? • “An indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader's familiarity with what is thus mentioned.” • Baldick, C. (n.d.). allusion. In Oxford University Press, The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Retrieved 21 Sep. 2012. E.g. Explaining what a pun is, Roman alluded (i.e. made a reference) to The Big Bang Theory, particularly to Sheldon’s joke about the neutron not being charged for a drink in the bar.

18. Reading strategies: the detail work • Word resemblances help in the task of reading comprehension. • Look for familiar word roots. • Look at affixes. • Discipline specific resources can help interpret highly technical articles. • Define jargon • p. 64