As we continue through our time at CCU there are a number of writing skills presented in The Bedford Handbook(2014) by Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers that I have found helpful regardless of the style of paper we may be assigned to write. I believe that most of the skills go hand in hand with one another, but two I would like to work to improve on is active reading and annotating. I have chosen active reading as a skill to build on because although I read certain pieces of work as though I was reading a story to a child in order to retain the information better I have never thought of re-reading the work to work through the potential interpretation variations. I find that this skill would be particularly beneficial when you are struggling
This will give you the desire to want to learn and engage in the texts. Gerald Graff emphasized in his article the importance of patience. Even though Graff struggled with reading and with no desire to read he did not give up. He discovered a way that he found interest in, and He would debate among the authors. Graff looked at reading as by questioning the text and arguing over it, this helped Graff become more confident in his intellectual voice this caused him to be less
A problem I ran into a lot during this project was difficult vocabulary in the books I read. The main character of An Abundance of Katherines was a genius, so he used very large words and math formulas that were hard to understand. Because of this, I read slower and therefore a low reading rate at the beginning. In Midwives, many medical terms were used that I was not familiar, which led me to abandon it. Romeo and Juliet was definitely confusing for me at times because of the old language, but the translations made it much easier. From all of these books, I learned that a difficult vocabulary, although it is helping me learn, makes me read a lot slower.
I completely agree about annotating; it makes organizing your writing much simpler. The part of the reading about analyzing the elements of an argument really stood out to me. Making a diagram of the elements of an argument make it easier to analyze and view everything. It also ensures that you do not leave anything out. I also found the part about arguing for a purpose interesting and helpful. I had never thought about there being more than one reason to argue a point before. Knowing these things will certainly influence my writing and arguing, as well as my view on other peoples
"The more that you read the more you learn" said Dr. Seuss in his book "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut". Reading is the most efficient method for learning a new language. There are several stages of reading where each one has it's own significance and all these stages are repeated to create holistic knowledge on a book (Dr. Janet Swaffer p1).
Reading for me has been a big improvement since my high school years. Back then, I did not like to read and I would avoid it at all cause. Obviously it would affect my grade but I just could not pick up the book and read. Now a days, I actually enjoy reading, and it all started when my son was small I used to read to him every night before bed, now I read to my daughter (my son does his own reading now). Once I got in the habit of reading I traded the TV for a book. I was very proud of myself when I actually finished the book and it encouraged me to continue to read. So I started taking trips with my kids to the local library. (Funny thing we all have a library card). I have read books that I would have never thought I would actually read. My reading has improved and I don’t have a lot a difficulty concentrating, just yesterday I was reading my history book in the cafeteria at COC.
Think about the strategies you use to understand what you are reading. It is important to understand each line, paragraph, and chapter you are
Repeated Reading is a data-based strategy to increase students reading fluency. It helps build word recognition skills, and allow the reader to spend more of his or her energy on comprehension and less on decoding. Meanwhile, this builds fluency in how they can orally communicate the reading.
In my spare time, I used to read as a hobby. This year, I did not have as much time as I would have liked to read books for me due to having to read our class books at home. Previously studying literature, if I did not know a character, I would gloss over it and move on. After the first Are You Reading Quiz, I realized that I had not read carefully enough, and I told myself that I would begin to read more attentively. Now, I read slower and notice specific details about the text. I pay closer attention to the literary devices that are used and if I don't understand a part, I will go back and reread it. The book that was most difficult for me was Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men challenged me because I had to become accustomed to reading
Another strategy I have had a major strength in would be visualization. While reading most of the articles I would visualize what has been occurring throughout the readings to help me understand fully what has been happening. Same way as I had mastered the annotating strategy I have been able to adapt to visualization by reading and creating summaries of the texts I have been reading. The most long and intense readings has been able to put this strategy to work. Sometimes it is difficult to visualize what is going on in the text because you might not understand what is going on the passage but annotating really helps to understand the readings, and then when you have an idea of what the message is then you can visualize what is going on in the
Moreover, I have realized that I am already utilizing a few of them. Typically, skimming the text first and subsequently rereading the material is my standard practice. When I am ready to go back to reread, I am sure I have my pen in hand and notebook ready so that I can jot down notes. I also highlight the text I feel is important or that stands out. One method/strategy I feel will be especially useful moving forward is the SQ4R method. The first step is to review the frontmatter, ask myself what I believe the author is trying to explain and why the material was written, I’ll skim the text, re-read further in depth and create annotations and highlight as I read. Talking over the material out loud and in my own words, will be followed by reviewing the notes that were made. Using this process each time reading is assigned will assist in making me successful by helping to improve my understanding and retain what I have read. This method would be especially helpful when reading any textbook material in preparation for a writing assignment or a test. Another strategy I believe would be helpful, since I am a visual learner, is creating a concept map. Using a concept map will help to reflect on
My experience as a scientist and writing consultant has taught me that learning to become a good academic writer requires doing it, not just listening to an expert speak on how to write, as in traditional lectured-based classrooms. Active learning strategies are backed up by evidence from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and by my personal experience in helping non-native English physicians and scientists write more concisely and persuasively. In the context of academic writing, active learning gets students involved in discovering, interpreting, and explaining why selected examples of good writing are effective, and then applying what was learned through short, in-class writing and discussion exercises. Active learning works, because as with soccer players getting coached on the field during practice, students become better writers during class through writing and discussing, not just listening to the “coach” while sitting on the “bench” and then “working out” later at home.
The first thing that I have learned was to analyze what I have read to better understand and remember the context of that reading. In the past I have had a hard time reading a text and understanding it. I would be sitting there for hours reading and re-reading a text until I thought I knew what the text was about. However, now that I have taken this class I can honestly say that the skill of annotating or “active reading,” has greatly improved my reading skills and understanding of certain texts. With the class coming to an end I think I still have a hard time picking out what is a main point and what is a support for that main point. For example, I had a hard time with the outline of the article “Intelligence.” The hardest thing for me with this is picking out the support, but as a future nursing student I will most
Over the course of the year, I have annotated countless short stories, articles, reviews, and novels. Coming into the class in September, I had little to no knowledge of the numerous intricacies that contribute to effectively annotating a piece of written work. Over time, I have learned much more about how I like to read and write. The constant repetition of annotating articles has helped me to improve the quality of said annotations, to a point today where I can say I have found the best personal method for annotating so far. This did not come instantly, and was a learning process led by various assignments, essential questions, and complex articles.
It is important to make sure that one finds out the means of supplementing whatever one have read. For instance, in any case you are supposed to read a book, utilize some of the partinent methods for retention so that it is made worthwhile. In any case the book you are to read contains information of how-to read something, never read content unless it will be done afterwards by use of whatever you
Reading skill can be developed from reading literary work. Reading literary work is more beneficial than reading non-literary work. This is because the former shows specific forms, diction and collection of the given language; it also shows a kind of creative, emaginative and simbolic written work. Reading literary work is not meant to understand the denotative meaning but at the same time it is meant to find out the connotative meaning. This is to say, reading the literary work is meant to understand what is explicitely and implicitely stated in the work.