A SIMPLE APPROACH TO DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE READING SKILLS PART 3

SUITING READING STYLE TO READING NEEDS

You possibly have learnt from the previous discussions that good readers vary their styles depending on materials. Thus, as soon as you set out to read, you should decide the rate you would adopt. This decision may be made more effective if you study the structure of the material and the relationship as well as the relevance of the topics and sub-topics involved.
Such a step would help you to determine the complexity of the text and apply the right reading rate.

The rate at which you will read the novel, newspaper or magazine is different from that you will a scientific text with mathematical contents. Reading speed matters, and you must be able to bring it under control if you wish to make an efficient reader. As already hinted, an adult (particularly you the student of the university) should be able to read about 250 words per minute with adequate comprehension of the text.

Knight (1993) suggests that the human eye can take as many as 500 to 600 words per minute. He identifies three rates of reading, slow (75-125), medium (150-250) and fast (200-400) words per minute. As we also counselled earlier in this chapter, now that you are in the university, your reading should be relatively fast.

Through regular practice, you can improve your reading speed without losing comprehension. Note that how fast you read is not as important as how well you suit your reading rate to the texture of a material and your purpose of reading it. An active reading of a text should enable you to ask yourself , and correctly answer, questions about its structure, main and supportive details, the interrelatedness of the details, underlying principles, and the truthfulness of the facts it contains.

Look at the steps below very well, when you are able to take them, it would be assumed that you are a reader who manages text processing time well by extracting relevant information efficiently, one that suits reading style to reading needs.

1.Identify the main point in a paragraph or section of the text you are reading.

2.Finding out the supporting details.

3.Locating the example provided by the author and linking them with the main and supportive details.

4.Locating counter examples.

5.Identifying the evidence that the writer has adduced.

6.Finding the underlying principle /pattern in the text.

7.Determining the truth about or logic in the ideas the author has expressed.

8.Relating the experience to yourself or a known person/situation.

9.Assessing the structure of the text in terms of how the different component fit into the entire text.

10.Deciding what concepts, facts, or illustrations to remember and utilise.

TWO VERY FAST METHODS TO ATTAIN READING EFFICIENCY

1.SKIMMING: It is carried out in order to gain insight into the structure and get the gist of a text, or have general information about its subject matter. It is good for the newspaper where the reader reads only the portions that interests him. This skill is similar to extensive reading where the reader's intention is to cover much ground within a short time.

2.SCANNING: This is fairly slow, steady and purposeful reading which the reader quickly locates specific information and takes note of striking and novel expressions; he makes cross references in order to gain total comprehension of the desired aspect of the text.