How to Successfully Read Text & Understand the Writer’s Craft

Deconstructing Text All texts are written with a specific audience and purpose in mind. The writer, therefore, has to make a series of decisions about their writing so that it successfully meets the needs of their audience. This will involve making decisions about word choice, sentence type and function, structure and graphology. You need to remember every word on every page of the text that you read is always there for a specific reason. The second element of being a successful reader is being able to deconstruct the work of the writer into its component parts so that you can identify how the overall meaning and tone of the text is achieved.

Reading is a complex process that has many different stages Reading is a complex process that has many different stages. If you think about the variety of different reasons that you might read different texts, you can begin to think about the different ways that you approach texts. For example, reading an ‘airport thriller’ on a beach in Spain makes totally different demands on you as a reader than reading a text in an examination in order to be able to answer a series of questions about it. Before you can be successful reader you need to be aware of the different ways a text can be read and how reading in different contexts makes different demands on you, the reader.

Equally, in some contexts, to fully understand a text you need to have a range of strategies for ‘deconstructing’ the text and deriving meaning from the component parts of the text. All texts, to varying degrees, are ‘constructs’ that have been designed by writers to achieve particular effects on their audience.

Strategies for Effective Reading There are four key ‘strategies’ for reading text and each one has a specific purpose SKIMMING – when we want to read a text rapidly in order to establish the main points. SCANNING – reading rapidly through a text to find specific information. EXTENSIVE – reading longer texts possibly for enjoyment or for overall understanding. INTENSIVE – reading shorter extracts of text for detailed information with an emphasis on precise understanding.

Think about the reading strategy that is required in each of the following situations. The TV Guide for Sunday evening An English Grammar Book An article in National Geographic about the Roman Empire An E-mail or from your best friend.

There are a series of strategies that you can use in order to deconstruct text systematically – by looking in turn, at each of the aspects of a text outlined in the following slides, you can break the text down into its components parts.

Vocabulary – Can you see patterns of word use in the text? For example, does the author use numerous words from the same semantic field? Or words that a particular age-group/sub-culture might use? Does the author use words from a particular cultural/geographical dialect? Or do they use archaic (old) vocabulary to achieve particular effects?

Syntax – You need to look at the text and identify the types of sentence structures that the writer employs. In all likelihood they use a combination of the three main types (simple, compound and complex) and you need to be able to think about what effect the combination of different types has on the overall text. So for example, to effectively identify what impact the complex sentences are having, look closely at the subordinate clauses and look at what information is placed in the clauses. Then think about how the complex sentences contrast with the use of simple sentences, for example. You should also look at the syntactical functions of the sentences. Are they declarative, imperative, interrogative or exclamatory?

Literary Devices – Has the writer used any literary devices for effect? For example, look closely at headings for alliteration or puns. Equally, in persuasive texts, writers will often use simile or metaphor to make dramatic comparisons. Try to identify what the devices are, and be prepared to comment on why they have been used by the writer.

Structure – How does the writer logically order information? Initially, you might want to think about whether the text is ordered into paragraphs/verses/bullet points etcetera. Once you have drawn some conclusions based on the physical structure of the text, you need to think about how the writer uses the content to structure the text. For example, the writer of a persuasive piece may well use paragraphs to structure his work, however, he will have thought more closely about how each individual argument builds towards a conclusion.

Layout – Perhaps the easiest of the elements to discuss, consider how the writer uses: headings, images, fonts and other presentational devices in order to enhance their ideas and make the text accessible to their audience.

ALWAYS LOOK FOR PATTERNS OF USAGE – THE MORE PATTERNS THAT YOU CAN FIND, THE MORE LIKELY IT IS YOU WILL HAVE SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE TO DISCUSS ABOUT HOW IT CONTRIBUTES TO THE OVERALL MEANING OF THE TEXT.