15. Recognizing Main Ideas+Advanced Reading Skills Flashcards
Key to academic success
Reading
When reading a work of literature
Student must read on an interpretive or analytic level
Basic purpose of writing
Communication
Journalists often use a _____ type of organization in news stories
Inverted pyramid; main idea is presented in title
To master skill of reading
You must first become an expert in identifying the main idea
Often a short story, play, or poem will need to be read more than once
First reading reveals story line
Subsequent readings should uncover the theme; often author’s insight or statement about truth and life
What constitutes main idea of a literary piece?
Theme
Main ideas in an expository writing is ____ to find
Easy
Typically, and expository paragraph contains?
A topic sentence at the beginning of paragraph, and all other sentences support that sentence
The most important facts of a newspaper article are located in?
The headline and the first paragraph
A priori knowledge
Knowledge acquired prior to examination of the facts (Latin: from what it is before)
Deductive
Arriving at inferences derived from the examination of general principles
Inductive
arriving at a particular conclusion from the examination of facts
Inference
The act of or process of arriving at a conclusion from facts or a premise
Premise
A presupposition from which a conclusion is drawn
A well-organized paragraph is made up of?
Ideas and supporting details
Common details found in expository writing?
Facts, dates, names, places, quotations, anecdotes, and illustrations
Things to look at when unraveling difficult texts?
Audience and purpose; who is author, who is he writing to and why?
Social/historical context
When a text was written and under what circumstances
Biographical information
Vocabulary
Using context clues
Author may inject hints about word meaning either consciously or unconsciously
One context clue is the use of?
Definition immediately after a word
Author may use an appositive or a clause or phrase set off by commas; often a synonym will be employed
Two clauses are joined together by
A semicolon or a colon
indicate that a list, summary, or restatement will follow main clause
Example: Mary sat quietly reminiscing, remembering former joyous times.
May sat quietly reminiscing; in her thoughts she was again sledding with her brothers and skating with her friends
Sometimes the use of ____ will reveal the meaning of a word
Contrast; although, nevertheless
Examples and comparisons may also help?
Reveal the meaning of a word
If none of the devices for determining the meaning of a word appear?
Look at the sentence as a whole
Textbook writing is usually?
Clearly structured
Author states main thesis for a chapter?
In first paragraph or two; remaining paragraphs will support thesis; summary or conclusion will restate it
6 types of structure to look for in expository writing:?
Cause/ effect: history and sociology Extended definition:all subjects Classification/ division: sciences Illustration/ example Process analysis: describes any process Comparison/ contrast
Reader will often be able to see the structure and intent of a textbook in its?
Table of contents
Style
Customary habit of speech or word usage a person employs
No two people use?
Identical word order, illustrations, or ways of proving points
To imply
To hint at something
To infer
To make an educated guess
Writer does ____ while reader does ___
Implying, inferring
Inductive reasoning
Inferring of a genealogy from particular instances
Deductive reasoning
The reverse process drawing a conclusion about a particular instance from general premises
Inferences are
Conclusions or conjures
