Improve Your Reading by Ron Fry

Author:Ron Fry [Fry, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5525-3
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2012-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

If this were part of your assigned reading, you would be finished when you had answered the questions. “But I didn’t read it,” you protest. Can you write a one-sentence summary of the paragraph? If you can, and you answered the questions correctly, then you know all you need to.

Skimming, or prereading, is a valuable step even if you aren’t seeking specific facts. When skimming for a general overview, there’s a very simple procedure to follow:

1. If there is a title or heading, rephrase it as a question. This will be your purpose for reading.

2. Examine all the subheadings, illustrations, and graphics, as these will help you identify the significant matter within the text.

3. Read thoroughly the introductory paragraphs, the summary, and any questions at the chapter’s end.

4. Read the first sentence of every paragraph. As we found in Chapter 3, this is generally where the main idea of a text is found.

5. Evaluate what you have gained from this process: Can you answer the questions at the end of the chapter? Could you intelligently participate in a class discussion of the material?

6. Write a brief summary that encapsulates what you have learned from your skimming.

7. Based on this evaluation, decide whether a more thorough reading is required.

Exercise: Let’s see how well you can skim for an overview, rather than for specific facts. Read the following two passages, then follow the seven steps outlined previously for each. The first is from Hollywood Urban Legends (New Page Books, 2001) by movie reviewer Roger Ebert’s erstwhile partner, Richard Roeper. The second is from William’s Weir’s description of the battle of Hattin in 1187 A.D. in 50 Battles That Changed the World (New Page Books, 2001).

Passage One

What a group of misfit castaways they truly were, from the fat guy who always thought he was in charge to the old crank to the sexy young babes to the unathletic guy who couldn’t do anything right. No, I’m not talking about the first season of Survivor, I’m talking about Gilligan’s Island.

Now, you might think of G.I. (as Tina Louise has always insisted on calling it in interviews because she can’t bear to say the name “Gilligan” anymore) as nothing more than an astoundingly idiotic, stupid sitcom with no redeeming values—a brainless exercise in lamebrained humor that will play forever in Rerun Hell.

Well, you’re probably right. But there are those who believe that Gilligan’s Island is so much more complex than that. The show’s creator, Sherwood Schwartz, is a learned and sophisticated man who always felt guilty about going into television, because he knew his creative genius could have been put to better use in another field, like rocket science or plastics. Deep down, Schwartz wanted to give the world TV programs that would educate us, that would tell us something about the human condition, that would elevate the human spirit—but the powers-that-be at the network level didn’t want to hear that sort of nonsense. They wanted funny hits—commercially viable pap that could be used to sell dishwashing detergent and new cars to the masses.

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