Outcome: Reading Strategies

Analyze general reading strategies

We know intuitively that reading is good for us, though sometimes it can feel like a chore–especially when it’s required for school.  The following video emphasizes the benefits that reading can bring, by literally changing the way our brain works.  While we won’t necessarily learn how to do Kung Fu just by studying a book, reading about an activity apparently makes the pathway towards acquiring that new skill much easier!

Reading for education is a bit of a different activity than reading for pleasure.  Effective reading for educational purposes doesn’t consist of just looking at a text once and then putting it away.  Instead, successful reading in education is a series of interrelated activities that involve interacting with a text several times, in differing ways.  The rest of this section walks through those activities, and how they will help you become a stronger student.

Learning Goals

In this chapter you will:

  • learn how to analyze the rhetorical context of a text (purpose, author, audience)
  • explore previewing as a pre-reading strategy
  • explore active reading as a  during-reading strategy
  • explore summarizing as a post-reading strategy
  • explore reviewing as a post-reading strategy