How to Increase Your Reading Comprehension
Reading for pleasure or research is all but useless if you finish the material and find you have missed the point of the piece. Reading comprehension is a skill that takes time and practice to develop, but pays off in that it enriches your reading experience and helps you find information faster and easier. You can increase your reading comprehension by introducing a few new tactics to your reading approach and turning them into habits.
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Instructions
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Scan the material to establish an understanding of the structure and content. For books, read the table of contents and the introduction. For articles, both in print and online, look at titles, subtitles, bolded or italicized sections. Read the captions of any pictures, graphs or other visual aides.
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Look for how the material is organized. Pieces may be written in chronological order, serially or hierarchical. Understanding how the writer has presented the material will help you understand his main idea and the point he is trying to make.
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Take notes on which sections of the material will be most relevant for your needs. Particularly when you are reading for research, it is important to establish a definite purpose or goal in mind to help keep you on track as you read.
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Write down questions you have as you read. If you can predict answers to those questions, write those as well, then mark down whether or not you were correct when you find the answer. Adjust your questions and answers as you continue to read and further your understanding.
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Highlight key phrases, sentences or whole passages that are relevant to what you are researching or trying to understand.
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Re-read passages you find confusing. If you still do not understand the idea upon a second reading, read the passage aloud, which helps to slow your mind down. For troublesome passages, bookmark them, continue reading then visit the passage again upon completion of the material to see if the idea is now clear.
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Review your notes after reading all of the material and determine which questions you have answered, which predictions were correct and how the material met with your expectations.
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Tips & Warnings
Keep a dictionary nearby and immediately look up any words you come across that you do not know.
Read broadly. Reading different types of materials, such as books, magazines, newspapers, websites and blogs, will increase your understanding of different writing styles.
References
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