Submitted to: Sahar Javaid

Submitted by: Huzaifa Nadeem

Roll no: 222742

Subject: English Comprehension and

Composition

Semester: BBA 3rd

Department: LBS

GCUF
 Reading Techniques
Skimming
Skimming is a method of rapid reading which helps you understand the overall
theme or general meaning of the text.

Skimming refers to the process of reading a text or passage in order to

get a rough idea of what the text or passage is all about. It is a rapid
reading technique that prepares the reader for detailed reading.. As the
main objective of skimming is to understand the central and the main
points of the text, the reader needs to use a reading strategy that
involves fast reading and quick analysis
Skimming also involves discovering the purpose and organization of a
text.
One of the most important purpose of reading for academic and
professional purposes is obtaining information for various purposes.
This involves not only the ability to recognize the main ideas and
supporting details but also the ability to identify different writing
patterns used to develop these ideas.
Skimming is essential for better understanding of a text. Skimming
should answer the following questions about a text:
1. What is the overall purpose of the text?
2. What is the central idea or theme?
3. What is the logical organization? (general to specific, specific to
general, chronological, more important to less important, less
important to more important, and so on).
4. What does the author intend to do? (describe, instruct, report,
narrate, explain, argue, persuade, illustrate, and so on).
 5. What are the main points of the text?

How to Skim?
The first step of skimming is to identify the central idea. Every essay,
article, passage or textbook chapter deals with a theme or central idea:
All the other ideas, points, examples, illustrations in the text support
and expand this central. idea. This central idea is also called thesis.
The thesis answers the following three questions:

What is the subject?

What does the author want to say about the subject?

What is the author's point of view?.

Procedure for Skimming / Steps in Skimming

1. Read titles, headings, sub-headings and any other typographical
indicators of important ideas (such as words in italics or in darken print).
Look for highlighted or bold type, headings and topic sentences.
2. Read the opening paragraph. Does the first paragraph include a previous
or an organizational structure for the information that is to follow? If it
does, read it.
3. Read the first sentences of paragraphs. A text usually consists of a
number of paragraphs. Each paragraph contains one main idea or topic.
Search for the topic sentence which is often the first or the last in the
paragraph.
 4. Read the last paragraph. The opening and the last paragraphs generally
sum up the subject and the author's point of view.
5. Look at illustrations and read captions under pictures.
6. Note numbers, dates and words that seem to stand out.
7. Note any organizational ur structural clue words such as first, second, in
addition and finally

When is Skimming Useful?

Use skimming to preview, review and locate information.
1- Pre-reading: Before making a thorough reading of a text, skimming

can give an accurate picture of text to read later.

2- Reviewing: Skimming is useful in order to review the text which you

have already read.

3- Reading: Skimming is useful for quickly reading material which does

not need detailed attention for certain reasons.

Skimming means allowing your eyes to move rapidly across the text, ignoring
minor details such as punctuation etc., but letting your eyes focus on larger words
and phrases which are related to the theme of the text. Skimming is a fast reading
technique that helps readers to identify the main ideas of a text quickly. People
skim when they have lots of material to read in a limited time. Skimming is done
at a fast speed with less than normal comprehension, you should not skim all the
time. There are many times, however, when skimming is very useful. When you
read the newspaper, you are probably not reading it word-by-word, you are
actually skimming. Skimming technique is used to obtain the gist or the overall
sense of a text. So skimming is a reading technique that can help you to:-

Read more quickly to obtain the gist or general idea of a text.

Decide if the text is interesting and whether you should read it in more
detail.

Scanning
Scanning is reading rapidly in order to find specific facts.

Scanning is similar to skimming in approach. It also involves going

through a chunk of text quickly without any care for comprehension.
The difference between skimming and scanning is on purpose. While
skimming is done to get the main idea of the whole material, scanning
is done to find specific information in the material.
Scanning is a reading technique that you’ll find useful in many
situations. One of such situations is reviewing a reading material to
revive understanding of what was read. In reviewing, you move your
eyes quickly over the text, searching for keywords or key phrases that’ll
refresh your memory.
example of scanning
when we are searching for a telephone number in a directory, we scan the page
for the name of the specific person we are looking for.
 SQ3R Technique
SQ3R is named after its 5 steps – Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review.
The reading technique is great for comprehension and memory.
Survey
This first step in the SQ3R technique is preparing your mind to receive the
material. Surveying involves getting a quick idea of the whole material.
Different ways to survey a reading material include:
• Reading the introduction

• Looking at the chapters/ headings and subheadings

• Looking at the pictures or charts

• Reading the summary

• Looking up the study questions

Question
This step is about preparing questions that you will find answers to in the material
as you read.
You can easily create questions from headings and subheadings. For example, if a
heading in a chapter is “Drinking alcohol before a workout,” you can ask yourself
a question like “does drinking alcohol before a workout have any adverse
effect?”.
Creating questions automatically gives you a purpose as you read. It’ll then make
you pay more attention to what you read.
Read
Reading as the third step of the SQ3R model is more productive than reading the
material straight-up. This is because you’ll already have an idea of the material
and questions in mind that you seek answers to.
To help you in this step, make notes as you read. Also, after reading a section,
highlight the most important points.

Recite
This is where you answer the questions that you’d created before starting to read.
Reciting aids comprehension as you digest what you’d read, make sense of it, and
get answers to your questions.

Review
This is simply making mental notes of what you’d read to see how much of it you
remember. Thus, this step is all about retention.

SPRE
situation

We now accept that grammar i not restricted to writing but is present in speech

problem

This can lead to assumptions that there is one kind of grammar for writing and
once for speech.

response

A large scale corpus survey of English has been undertaken .

evaluation

Result show the same system is valid for both writing and speech.
 PRE-WRITING TECHNIQUES
Brainstorming

To brainstorm, start with a word or phrase or the topic of your essay. While
brainstorming, write down all the ideas that come to mind about the topic.

For example, if you are asked to write an essay on cellular service providers your
ideas could be:

Cellular Service Providers in Pakistan

• Many service providers

• Mobile number portability

• Users switching

• Pre-paid vs. post-paid

• Problems of credit loss for pre-paid users

• Availability all over the country

• SMS popular among youngsters

• Affordability

• Free services to attract users

Now you can further develop these points according to the main idea of your
essay.
 Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is a tool for generating ideas and creating links between
them. To use this technique, write the topic in the middle of a paper.
Then draw a circle around it. Now draw lines from the circle and write
your ideas. 'When you have finished writing ideas and establishing
connections between them. look at the map once again to create new
links between ideas.
 Making a List
ORGANIZING: OUTLINING
Before starting to write your essay. develop an outline for your essay. A well
developed outline helps you 10 keep your writing focused and organized. It also
helps you to separate your main idea from the supporting details.
In an outline you do not write complete sentences. You only write phrases or
words to determine the structure of the essay.
Let us choose a point from the brainstorming example given above to develop
into an essay. We will first write our thesis statement:
Two key reasons for the popularity of mobile phones in Pakistan are easy access
and convenience
To build the above thesis statement, the following outline is developed
INTRODUCTION
Thesis statement
a) Popularity of mobile phones across the country
1. Data from PTCL and cellular service providers
Supporting details
b) Reasons for popularity
1. Easy access
2. . Convenience
Paragraph-1
2. Easy access
A) What is meant by it?
B)Two examples to illustrate the point

Paragraph-2
3. Convenience "
a) What is meant by it?-
b) Two examples to illustrate the point

4. Conclusion
a) Popularity of cell phones throughout the country due to easy access and
convenience.
b) Implications for other services and technologies