This chapter was all about reading and writing. It explained to the reader effective ways to get the most out of a document efficiently and effectively. Everywhere in the workplace reading can be categorized into four overlapping categories. These categories are reading to assess, reading to learn, reading to learn what to do, and reading what to do. As a writer one should imagine themselves as a member of the audience that will be reading the document you are creating. As a reader there are three things that need to be done before carefully reading a document. These three things are skim, scan, and predict. Skimming is reading through a document very quickly. This allows the reader to get a sense about what is most important in the document and where it is located. Scanning is running your eyes down a page to look for specific information. This allows you to identify key terms to you. Predicting takes place during the skimming and scanning process. In predicting you anticipate what the text will can contain and formulate questions that can be answered by more careful reading.
Abstracts are a document feature that is the most important part of a technical report. When looking at an abstract finding the objective, methodology, results, and conclusions can decrease your reading time, and increase your comprehension of the document.
Another way to get the most out of a document is for a reader to generate questions to help themselves understand a document. Knowledge questions emphasize the recall of specifics. Comprehension questions require responses that incorporate knowledge as well as understanding. Application questions require specific applications or principles of theories. Analysis questions emphasize the separation of objects, mechanisms, systems, organisms, operations, or ideas into constituent parts, clearly establishing the relationship between these parts. Finally, synthesis questions expect the reader to focus on organizing or structuring the parts to form a unique whole.
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During college I spend the majority of my time reading, as do many college students. All of the reading that I have to do falls into the four categories described in the chapter. The four categories are reading to learn, reading to learn what to do, reading what to do, and finally reading to assess. The majority of my reading falls into the category, reading to learn. When I read one of my automotive books, I am learning about different components and theory of the engine, compared reading a service book where I am learning how to repair components on the vehicle. Usually when I go back and skim my math book I am reading what to do. Finally, reading to assess can be as simple as critiquing a friends homework.
I thought that this chapter was very well summarized. When I read the chapter I thought that a lot of the information it contained
was information that I already knew and had previously learned in school. It was definitely worth reading though, because I realized that I don't always follow this advice when I'm reading or writing. The chapter was a good
refresher. Last semester I had to read a paper in one of my classes and I had no clue what the writer was writing about because he didn't make the main topic clear. Writers need to understand that some readers may not have much previous knowledge about their topics. If writers present their
information in a way that readers can easily skim and scan it to get a good overview of the topic, they will really help the reader understand what they are saying.
I agree with Julia -- a lot of this chapter was stuff that I had learned in other classes but it was definitely a good refresher. I have actually been practicing writing abstracts in a research class I am currently taking. It is a lot harder than it sounds. Having to summarize an entire piece of writing (its purpose, methodology, results and conclusion) in so many words can be difficult. It really is a good way to practice becoming a better and more concise writer though. Using the four categories discussed in this chapter when reading, make deciding what to put in an abstract and what to leave out easier.
The chapter talks about a very good subject that can not be emphasized enough. Reading is a part of everyday life and being able to do it effectively is a very important skill. The four reasons to read cover all the fields and can be from anything to skimming to find just certain information to reading a document to learn about a new procedure or product. The strategies are very useful to me because I am a reader that has a hard time comprehending what I read and a lot of times if I skim the article a few times it starts to make more sense.
Most, if not all, occupations require at least some amount of reading for different purposes. The text gives examples like reading to asses, to learn, to do, etc. Depending on the reason for reading, there are different methods of doing so(skimming, scanning, predicting, as the chapter summary describes.)As a college student, I've adapted to reading in different manners, depending on the purpose. I thought the text and the chapter summary both made appropriate points on discussing why or when a certain method is necessary. It can be important to know, for instance, when to skim and when to read in depth in order to save time and get the most out of a reading.
I thought this chapter did a very good job at reemphasizing some basic reading skills that we have all learned in the past. I feel that many of us don’t actually think about some of the basic skills such as skimming, scanning and predicting, that we were taught in grade school. Even after reading this chapter and then reading a chapter of a text book for another class, I found that I got much more out of it than I had been in the recent past. Also, other techniques such as asking yourself questions can seem pointless to do until after you try it and realize how helpful it is. I think this was a great chapter to read at the start of a semester, as it helps remind us of some very basic, yet important reading skills.
Reading has never really been my strong suit. I have always been slow at it, and the whole comprehending it after Im done, it dosnt alway work out. However, I have improved on reading through out my years and these guide lines will help me even further. When reading my mind tends to drift if I read too quickly, so asking questions and anaylizing what I read should help a great deal. The chapter and post really give good ways on how to make reading effective, which is extremly important in college. Also, reading is extremely helpful in the work feild. At my work, we reley on communicating through writing so reading and writing effectivly and efficently is very important.
Skim, scan and predict. I had a history professor who taught the class to read textbooks in this manner. He said that one cannot read textbooks to learn something like one would read a novel or story. Look for key terms and read through descriptions and definitions. Reading some text word for word can become tedious and somewhat boring. Sometimes I find myself losing focus and daydreaming when I should be concentrating. Using the skim, scan and predict method I can get a better feel for the text and actually remember what I read.
This chapter was really useful for me on how to read a lot more efficiently and effectively. Usually when I’m reading to learn it will take a long time for me to finish reading a paragraph and have it process clearly in to my mind. I would have to read the document over again repeatedly until finally understanding it. Also the time I’ve spent on it was too long. I love it when there is an abstract available to help me understand the full documents a lot better. Knowing the objective, methodology, results, and conclusion of an abstract would save me a lot of time for me to easily go through the skimming and scanning process. Also my knowledge of the document would be increased a lot more.
I took the ACTs my junior and my senior year of high school. I never was a very good reader, and the reading part of the ACTs terrified me. I finally got to the reading part, and didn't know how I was going to read it all. I started to skim the information provided. When i got done with the first reading, I looked at the clock, and over half of the time had gone by. I still had three readings left. At the end of the ACTs, I was just about done with two of the readings and had to guess on the others. I didn't end up doing that good on the test.
I found this chapter to be very helpful for me, because it had a lot of new information in it. I thought the group summarized it well by including all the key concepts in their summary. My first two years of college I did a lot of text book reading. At first I would skim the documents, but soon found that I didn't process enough information that way. I now scan my books, I look for the information I need and then thoroughly read that section. Generating questions has also helped me understand and remamber the information that I read. Knowledge questions can be helpful at times, but I find that comprehensive wuestions are most beneficial because they require responses. This forces me to look back at the chapter and truly think about what it all means.
Reading is one of those tasks that are a very crucial aspect of our lives. Everyone reads to some extent and many read articles or books for fun. This chapter explains the different types of reading styles that are commonly used by readers to effectively and efficiently absorb what the author is saying through reading. Skim, Scan and Predict refers to the practice of first skimming the article then scanning for key terms and finally predicting what the author will bring up next. This technique is good for when reading technical or informative documents because it helps the reader remember what they have learned through reading and to finish reading in a timely matter. I have used this technique before and have found that it works quite well. I can not only finish an article in much less time, because I don’t stop and start daydreaming, but also I remember what it is I read because I was thinking about what I was reading the whole time.
I generally skim chapters and books alot because I find that alot of the information isn't very pertinent or doesn't really matter concerning what I'm actually trying to learn. However, if I'm reading to assess or for recreation I will obviously read the entire document. I tend to automatically think of questions and answers when I read without conciously thinking, hey, I need to ask myself some questions. So I thinkn alot of these points in this chapter are just natural things people do anyway. Regardless, knowing the difference between the four categories of reading helps to tell the difference between reading a math book versus reading a poem or novel.
I think the chapter three summary is well written and covers some good points. Most of my experience from reading in the workplace would probably be from working at my dad’s auto shop and reading repair manuals. If it is poorly written it can be very difficult to read and understand. Everything must be in order or the material is completely useless. I will often scan through material too if I am just looking for one piece of information so being able to predict the order that the material is covered makes it much easier to find what I am looking for.
They did a very good job summarizing and explaining the main point of the chapter.
Reading has become such a mechanical thing at this point in our lives; we dont really think about when were doing it. This chapter took time to point out the different styles that we can read in. I think if we took more time when reading to scan the page first and use the other techniques mentioned we could really get more out of our text books. Another way that we can get more out if the things we read is by taking time to ask questions. Doing this will give us the oppurtinity to look deeper into the material.
This chapter had a great example of how we should evaluate ourselves as students every time we read and prep for tests. The categories were reading to asses, reading to learn, reading to learn what to do, and reading what to do. In my college English course I took in high school we learned the basics to evaluate someone’s report we did the basic procedures of skimming, scanning, and predicting. We also had to go more I dept with each step and we added a few more. I did learn a new concept of abstracts which are an abbreviated overview of a report. Overall they did a good job summarizing this chapter.
The summary of this chapter was written very well. It reminded me tricks that I had learned in high school to remember what I read but have forgotten so haven't used in a long time. After I read the chapter I was reading a Geography chapter for my class and while reading I was going through the steps and ways to remember what I read in my head. Thirty pages later when the chapter about rocks was over I realized the tips really worked because normally I can't remember a thing about what I just read, especially when it comes to geography. From now on I will take this chapter into consideration when I am reading something that doesn't interest me.
Chapter 3 was a good source of information. Reading and writing are very important in the business world. A lot of the material is review but is a good refresher. I tend to do a lot of scaning and skimming while reading an article. It is easier the second time around to pick out the important parts to read in depth.
The chapter was summed up pretty well. They brought up the important topics and clearified the material well.
from reading this chapter i realized that i have learned a majority of this information already. although this is nothing new its very important information to know, or atleast to relaize. when reading i always ask my self questions about what i read to help my self understand it and remember it later on. the one thing about reading is the more you read the better you get at it. ya i dunno,
from reading this chapter i realized that i have learned a majority of this information already. although this is nothing new its very important information to know, or atleast to relaize. when reading i always ask my self questions about what i read to help my self understand it and remember it later on. the one thing about reading is the more you read the better you get at it. ya i dunno,
I agree with the four categories about how to get best out of reading and writing explained in this chapter. I used to be a biology student and had to read and understand the materials of the text for the labs. It was very necessary to understand how things were to be preceded. So, I used to skim read the text first trying to understand the overall content and also highlight the important fragments so I could easily go back and read them to get a spontaneous understanding of what the text covered and what I need to understand. As a last step I used to note down the parts and questions I was confused in so I could ask my instructor to help me out on those. All this ideas of keeping abstract, short notes are always helpful and saves us time.
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