MODULE- III

Lecture 13 - Reading skills – Definition – Kinds of reading skills – Critical reading skills
– Reading readiness skills-Guidelines for effective reading- Extensive reading- Intensive
reading. Comprehension : Definition and meaning – Comprehension skills-Readability
Index
READING SKILLS
DEFINITION:
Reading skills is the ability of an individual to read, comprehend and interpret
written words on a page of an article or any other reading material. The possession of a
good reading skill will enable the individual to be able to assimilate a written work
within a short period while reading.
KINDS OF READING SKILLS:
1. Loud reading
2. Silent reading
3. Intensive reading
4. Extensive reading
5. Supplementary reading
LOUD READING:
This is also known as oral or aloud reading. Loud reading should be introduced
after the students have been given some training in two months on the points concerning
pronunciation, intonation, stress, pitch and other aspects of spoken English.
Following exercises will help students,
1. Exercise with pace and pause.
2. Correcting your pitch range.
3. Practice using pitch to reflect the emotional content of your speech.
SILENT READING:
Silent reading is considered to be the best kind of reading as the mind is fully
engaged in this act. The children should be initiated into reading silently as soon as they
have mastered some degree of fluency of reading aloud. Morrison has said, ― Loud
reading by students should be followed by silent reading.‖ Silent reading is a quick way of
reading through a passage. Silent reading saves time and energy. The students find it an
interesting way of reading.

INTENSIVE READING:
Intensive reading is a detailed study of the prescribed text in order to train the
students is an important aspect of language teaching, i.e. reading. According to
Jesperson,‖ To keep them occupied with the text repeatedly in such a way that they do not
lose sight in the meaning, so that they may thus become so familiar with it at last that
they know it almost or entirely by heart, without having been directly required to commit
it to memory.‖
EXTENSIVE READING:
Extensive reading is also known as rapid reading or independent reading. Extensive
reading to read silently and quickly in order to understand the subject matter and derive
the meaning as a whole without the help of the teacher and expand passive vocabulary.
Extensive reading: reading longer texts, usually for one‘s own pleasure. This is a fluency
activity, mainly involving global understanding.

SUPPLIMENTARY READING:
 Supplementary reading quite resembles intensive reading. It is carried out under
the direct control `and general supervision of the teacher. Extensive reading is the most
important aspect of supplementary reading, as such it is also called subsidiary reading.
The chief purpose of supplementary reading is to supplement intensive reading of a
detailed prose lesson.
CRITICAL READING SKILLS:
Critical reading is a more ACTIVE way of reading. It is a deeper and more
complex engagement with a text. Critical reading is a process of analyzing, interpreting
and, sometimes, evaluating. When we read critically, we use
our critical thinking skills to QUESTION both the text and our own reading of it.
Five critical reading skills were found to be very important forimprovement:
 Phonemic awareness.
 Phonics.
 Fluency.
 Vocabulary.
 Comprehension.
READINESS SKILLS:
 Print awareness: Print awareness is the understanding that the print on a page
represents words that have meaning and are related to spoken language.
 Letter knowledge.
 Phonological awareness.
 Listening comprehension.
 Motivation to read.
GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE READING:
 Read actively, using judgement to pay attention to what the author is
trying to convey through the printed text.
 Use ‗ eye – span‘ to read a group of words at one attempt instead of
focusing on each individual word.
 Avoid vocalizing, i.e. uttering the individual words either loudly or saying
them to yourself. This hampers the speed of reading to increase your
reading speed.
 Remember every kind of reading requires the same fast reading rate. Some
text need slow-in depth and intensive reading while others require a faster
rate.
 Develop the habit of reading everyday to increase your reading rate.
 Note down the unfamiliar words you find in the reading material in a
notebook.

 Consult a good dictionary to find the meaning and usage of new words
you have come across reading. This will help you increase your
vocabulary.
EXTENSIVE READING:
Extensive reading has been strongly recommended by Indian Education
Commission (1964-66). This type of reading is also known as rapid reading or
independent reading. The teacher plays the role of the supervisor while the students carry
it out independently. Extensive reading to read silently and quickly in order to understand
the subject matter and derive the meaning as a whole without the help of the teacher and
expand passive vocabulary. According to Thompson and Wyatt,‖ The main purpose of
extensive reading is the cultivation of taste for reading and it seeks by encouraging the
habit of visualizing what is read to make reading a form of visual instruction.‖
Extensive reading: reading longer texts, usually for one‘s own pleasure. This is a
fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding.
Objectives of extensive reading
The objectives of extensive reading are:
1. To develop the habit of self-study in the students.
2. To develop the taste for reading in the students.
3. To enable the students to understand the meaning of the given passage
as early as possible.
4. To increase the passive vocabulary of the students.
5. To develop the power of concentration.
6. To read for pleasure and recreation.

INTENSIVE READING:
Intensive reading is a detailed study of the prescribed text in order to train the
students is an important aspect of language teaching, i.e. reading. According to
Jesperson,‖ To keep them occupied with the text repeatedly in such a way that they do not
lose sight in the meaning, so that they may thus become so familiar with it at last that
they know it almost or entirely by heart, without having been directly required to commit
it to memory.‖
Intensive reading: reading shorter texts, to extract specific information. This is
more an accuracy activity involving reading for detail.
Objectives of intensive reading
The objectives of intensive reading are:
1. The aim is to make a detailed study of words, phrases, word order and expressions,
thus entirely dealing with the sentence structure.
2. The aim is to enable the students to comprehend the text, its sense and meaning.
3. The aim is to enable the students to improve and command over English and increase
comprehension of the texts that they come across with expanding vocabulary.
4. It encourages the students to gather information from the text.
COMPREHENSION:
DEFINITION:
Durkins’s definition:
―Intentional thinking during which meaning is constructed through interactions between
text and reader‖
MEANING:
 Comprehension is the complex cognitive process involving the intentional
interaction between reader and text to extract meaning. It is the ability to construct
meaning and learn from text using a variety of applied strategies.
COMPREHENSION SKILLS:
Examples of comprehension skills that can be taught and applied to all reading situation
are as follows,
 Summarizing
 Sequencing
 Inferencing
 Comparing and contrasting
 Drawing conclusions
 Self – questioning
 Problem solving
 Relating background knowledge
 Distinguishing between fact and opinion
 Finding the main idea, important Facts and supporting details.

These skills are particularly important for comprehending what is generally known as
information reading or expository reading.
READABILITY INDEX:
The automated readability index (ARI) is a readability test for English texts,
designed to gauge the understandability of a text.
Formula for readability index is as follows,
ARI = 4.71(characters /words) + (words/sentences) – 21.43
In fact, this index was designed for real-time monitoring of readability on electric
typewriters.
S.No AGE GRADE LEVEL
1 5-6 Kindergarden
2 6-7 First/Second grade
3 7-9 Third grade
4 9-10 Fourth grade
5 10-11 Fifth grade
6 11-12 Sixth grade
7 12-13 Seventh grade
8 13-14 Eighth grade

9 14-15 Ninth grade

10 15-16 Tenth grade
11 16-17 Eleventh grade
12 17-18 Twelfth grade
13 18-24 College student
14 24+ Professor
Lecture 14 - Precise writing – Derivation and Meaning – Skills required – Method or
procedure – Guidelines; Summarising – Meaning- Steps to write a summary

PRECISE WRITING:
DERIVATION:
‗Precis‘ is a latin word derived from the french word ‗Praecissus‘ which means
cut off, to be brief and is connected with the English word ‗Precis‘.
MEANING:
A precis is a summary or the list of the main ideas of written matter. Thus, precis
writing means summarizing. It is an exercise in concentration, comprehension and
condensation. In order to make a summary of an article, a speech or a story, one has to
read it carefully and grasp its meaning.
SKILLS REQUIRED FOR PRECISE WRITING:
1)Clarity: A précis is a crisp formation of information of the passage and it
should be as crisp as possible.It should convey what the writer is trying to say. Clarity
is essentially getting your ideas loud and clear.
2)Coherence:
It clearly means that ideas and views that you have presented should be logical and the
interconnections of the ideas should be proper.
3)Correctness:
Although your précis is a short information, it is equally important that you do not
make any mistakes while writing it.
4)Conciseness:
Conciseness means that the précis should contain all the information required while not
mentioning it in depth. It should not be too long either too short and both of these
should not have any impact while writing a précis.
5)Completeness:
A good précis should be able to produce all the facts while being short. The important
thing you should remember is it be a summary and not a short description of the
passage.
METHODS OF PRECIS WRITING:
1) First of all, one should read the passage two or three times carefully to
understand clearly its general theme. In short, comprehension of the passage is the first
step in precis-writing .
2) Secondly, it is necessary to write down the main points of the passage by
picking out the essential ideas and leaving out the unimportant details. Repetitions,
illustrations and examples can be eliminated. Sentences and clauses may also be
compressed into shorter by using, for instance, a word for a phrase, a phrase for a
 clause and so on. In compressing a passage, selection, rejection and generalisation are
often useful.
3) Next, write down a preliminary or a rough draft, keeping in mind the length of
the precis.
4) If it is necessary to provide a title to the summary, a short title may be given
which will express the ideas in the passage.
5) While making the final draft, one should make sure that all the main points are
included in the precis. One should also check whether the precis reads well and is
within the length prescribed.
PROCEDURE :
 Start your précis with the main idea so that the reader can quickly understand the essence
of the précis.
 One should know beforehand as to what should they expect in the written précis.
 While writing a précis, make a suitable environment where all the points can be
described and discussed equally.
 As the main idea or the essence is established , you can follow it up with some methods,
facts, points, etc.
 Removing the irrelevant data or sentence is as important as writing the relevant points.
 Identify the superfluous data and facts and keep the core idea of the work only in
the précis.
 Also, remember to put the purpose as to why you are writing a précis in the writing piece.
 This will help the reader understand what you wrote in the précis.

GUIDELINES FOR PRECISE WRITING:

 Decide theme of the passage.
 No reproduction of important sentences.
 Have brevity and clarity.
 Reflects the intelligence of the précis-writer.
 Use own language.
 Avoid direct speech and use indirect speech.
 Inclusion of statistical information.
 Observe proportion.
 No comments but conclusion.
 One third of the original passage.

SUMMARISING:
MEANING:
Summarising is an important skill that is often used when researching, gathering
or presenting information. A summary is a shortened version of a longer text. It should
not contain unnecessary detail or be written like an essay.
 A good example of summarizing is preparing a curriculum vitae (CV).The person
reading your CV should be able to make a decision about whether or not you have the
necessary skills and experience for the job.
STEPS TO WRITE SUMMARY:
 Read the article to be summarized and be sure you understand it.
 Outline the article. Note the major points.
 Write a first draft of the summary without looking at the article.
 Always use paraphrase when writing a summary. If you do copy a phrase from
the original be sure it is a very important phrase that is necessary and cannot be
paraphrased. In this case put ―quotation marks‖ around the phrase.
 Target your first draft for approximately ¼ the length of the original.
Lecture 15 - Abstracting : Definition - Purpose of abstract – Types of abstract - Abstract
Styles – Steps for Writing Effective Abstracts- Some Do‘s Don‘ts in preparing abstracts
An abstract is a self-contained, short, and powerful statement that describes
a larger work. Components vary according to discipline. An abstract of a social
science or scientific work may contain the scope, purpose, results, and contents of
the work. An abstract of a humanities work may contain the thesis, background,
and conclusion of the larger work. An abstract is not a review, nor does it evaluate
the work being abstracted. While it contains key words found in the larger work,
the abstract is an original document rather than an excerpted passage.

Purposes for Abstracts:

Abstracts typically serve five main goals:

Help readers decide if they should read an entire article

Readers use abstracts to see if a piece of writing interests them or relates to a topic they're
working on. Rather than tracking down hundreds of articles, readers rely on abstracts to
decide quickly if an article is pertinent. Equally important, readers use abstracts to help
them gauge the sophistication or complexity of a piece of writing. If the abstract is too
technical or too simplistic, readers know that the article will also be too technical or too
simplistic.

Help readers and researchers remember key findings on a topic

Even after reading an article, readers often keep abstracts to remind them of which
sources support conclusions. Because abstracts include complete bibliographic citations,
they are helpful when readers begin writing up their research and citing sources.

Help readers understand a text by acting as a pre-reading outline of key points

Like other pre-reading strategies, reading an abstract before reading an article helps
readers anticipate what's coming in the text itself. Using an abstract to get an overview of
the text makes reading the text easier and more efficient.

Index articles for quick recovery and cross-referencing

Even before computers made indexing easier, abstracts helped librarians and researchers
find information more easily. With so many indexes now available electronically,
abstracts with their keywords are even more important because readers can review
hundreds of abstracts quickly to find the ones most useful for their research. Moreover,
cross-referencing through abstracts opens up new areas of research that readers might not
have known about when they started researching a topic.
Allow supervisors to review technical work without becoming bogged down in
details

Although many managers and supervisors will prefer the less technical executive
summary, some managers need to keep abreast of technical work. Research shows that
only 15% of managers read the complete text of reports or articles. Most managers, then,
rely on the executive summary or abstract as the clearest overview of employees' work.

Types of Abstracts

Although you'll see two types of abstracts—informative and descriptive—most

writers now provide informative abstracts of their work.

Descriptive Abstract

A descriptive abstract outlines the topics covered in a piece of writing so the

reader can decide whether to read the entire document. In many ways, the descriptive
abstract is like a table of contents in paragraph form. Unlike reading an informative
abstract, reading a descriptive abstract cannot substitute for reading the document
because it does not capture the content of the piece. Nor does a descriptive abstract fulfill
the other main goals of abstracts as well as informative abstracts do. For all these reasons,
descriptive abstracts are less and less common. Check with your instructor or the editor
of the journal to which you are submitting a paper for details on the appropriate type of
abstract for your audience.

Informative Abstract

An informative abstract provides detail about the substance of a piece of writing

because readers will sometimes rely on the abstract alone for information. Informative
abstracts typically follow this format:

1. Identifying information (bibliographic citation or other identification of

the document)
2. Concise restatement of the main point, including the initial problem or other
background
3. Methodology (for experimental work) and key findings
4. Major conclusions

Informative abstracts usually appear in indexes like Dissertation Abstracts

International; however, your instructor may ask you to write one as a cover sheet to a
paper as well.

A More Detailed Comparison of Descriptive vs. Informative

The typical distinction between descriptive and informative is that the descriptive
abstract is like a table of contents whereas the informative abstract lays out the content of
the document. To show the differences as clearly as possible, we compare a shortened
Table of Contents for a 100-page legal argument presented by the FDA and an
informative abstract of the judge's decision in the case.

Steps for writing effective abstracts:

Writing an effective abstracts involves a whole manuscript providing as much as new

information as possible.The best way to write an effective abstract is to start with a draft
of the complete manuscript and follow these 10 steps:

1. Identify the major objectives and coclusions.

2. Identify phrases with keywords in the methoda section.
3. Identify the major results from the discussion or results section.
4. Assemble the above information into a single paragraph.
5. State your hypothesis or method used in the first sentence.
6. Omit background information, literature review, and detailed description of methods.
7. Remove extra words and phrases.
8. Revise the paragraph so that the abstract conveys only the essential information.
9. Check to see if it meets the guidelines of the targeted journal.
10. Give the abstract to a colleague(preferably one who is not familiar with your
work) and ask him/her whether it makes a sense.

Writing an effective abstracts involves will improve the chances of your

manuscript being accepted, encourage people to read it, and increase its impact.

A number of studies have indicated that a badly written manuscript with poor use of
english, even with good science, has less chance of being accepted and published.

Abstracts Do‘s and Dont‘s:

Do:

 Create a concise title that is interesting and descriptive of the technical paper or
research.
 Limit use of abbreviation.Define them on their first use.
 State the paper or research objective clearly in the introduction/background.
 Make sure the result or conclusion relates to an argument presented or explaination
provided.
 Relate the conclusion to the study objective
 Include scientific units, when appropriate.
 Read and follow all abstract specifications.
 Use clear and concise wording.
 Use the active voice rather than the passive voice.
 Have a colleague proofread your abstract.
Don‘t:

 Repeat the title (or paraphase the title) in the abstract‘s objective.
 Include abbreviations in the abstract title.
 Use personal pronouns (I, We, Our, etc.)
 Overuse terms, acronyms, or professional ―lingo‖.
 Have a conclusion that is unsubstantiated.
 Include reference citations.
 Include authors who have not not contributed significantly to the study.
 Include figures or tables.
 Exceed the alloted word count.