1. Uwb 10101 English for academic purposes CHAPTER 1 READING SKILLS
11/16/2018
Uwb English for academic purposes CHAPTER 1 READING SKILLS
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza
November 18

2. Main idea, Topic Sentence & Supporting details Summarizing Information
Skimming
Scanning
Contextual Clues
Main idea, Topic Sentence & Supporting details
Text Cohesion
Summarizing Information
November 18
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza

3. How to skim a short passage?
SKIMMING…
Definition:
A reading technique that helps you to read quickly to
get the general idea of a passage without reading
every word.
How to skim a short passage?
Move your eyes quickly across each line of text.
Do not let your eyes stop on every word.
Do not say the words to yourself.
Look at just a few key words or phrases in each line
When you finish, ask yourself what the general idea
of the passage is.
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza
November 18

4. Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza
Passage 1
Many everyday products were discovered by accident, and Coca-Cola is a good example. This famous soft drink began as a tonic for curing headaches. An American pharmacist brewed it from leaves and kola nuts. The story goes that one morning a customer came into the pharmacy and asked for a Cola-Cola tonic. The assistant was too lazy to go to the back of the store to get some plain water to dilute the concentrated tonic, so he mixed it with soda water instead. The customer liked the fizzy drink and it quickly became popular. Its originator surely never dreamt that his accidental mixture would become the world’s best-selling soft drink.
November 18
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza

5. What is the main idea of this passage?
Working in a small group, without looking at the passage again,
Take a pen and jot down the words/phrases that your
eyes rested on as you read the passage.
Ask each other questions about the facts from the
passage that you can remember.
What is the main idea of this passage?
November 18
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza

6. Specific information can be obtained from:
SCANNING…
Definition:
Looking for specific information without reading the
whole text. It is a searching technique.
More practical to scan for information than to read
the whole text
Try to locate answers or facts quickly by reading
selectively.
Specific information can be obtained from:
Titles of articles, headings or subheadings
Keywords and phrases
Words in italics and in bold
Visual aids such as charts, tables, diagrams etc.
Dates, names of people, definition and statistics.
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza
November 18

7. How to scan the information?
SCANNING…
How to scan the information?
Determine what specific information you are looking for.
Let your eyes move quickly across the page.
Make use of titles or subheadings provided.
Make use of ‘header’ words which are in bold type at
the top each page in a dictionary or phone book.
Make use of the alphabet as a guide as most of texts
are organized alphabetically from A-Z.
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza
November 18

8. Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza
CONTEXTUAL CLUES…
Definition:
When you read a passage, you will find words that you
do not understand. However, you can actually guess the
meaning of those difficult words such as;
Looking at the other words in the same sentence
Looking at the sentences that come before and after
Looking for the word stated in another way in the
passage.
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza
November 18

9. Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza
CONTEXTUAL CLUES…
Examples:
General Meaning
He gingerly walked across the room as there was broken glass all over the place.
Contrast/Opposite
Razak is fat and sluggish but Johan is slim and quick.
Illustration
Susan is amicable person. For example, she is friendly with everyone in school and she never argues with anyone.
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza
November 18

10. TIPS ON HOW TO BE A GOOD READER
Be purposeful.
What are you reading for?
Be active as you read.
What do you know about the text?
Be conscious of your own level of understanding.
Identify where the difficulty occurs and restate the
difficult sentence or passage in your own words.
Ask questions.
Think actively.
Try to recognize the story structure.
The way of content and events of a story are
organized into a plot.
Summarising.
Identify what is important such as main ideas and
recall what you have read.
November 18
Ms Siti Fatimah Murtaza

11. MAIN IDEA OF A TEXT General idea or main point of a passage
Ask yourself what the passage is about.
Usually can be found in introductory paragraph.
For an example:

13. EXERCISE ON MAIN IDEA

14. TOPIC SENTENCE & SUPPORTING DETAILS
A topic sentence: A sentence within a paragraph that has general main ideas of the whole paragraph.
It appears at the beginning, the middle or at the end of the paragraph.
Supporting details: Reasons, examples or explanation that support the topic sentence of the paragraph.
For an example:

16. Identify the topic sentence and the supporting details of the paragraph below.
EXERCISE 2

19. UNDERSTANDING SENSE RELATIONSHIP- TEXT COHESION
It is a must for a writer to make sure that the text he writes makes sense to the reader
The sentences must well connected and related to the main topic.
Linking word or discourse markers are cohesive devices. With these, sentences can be put together for easy comprehension.

20. Types of Cohesive Devices

21. Exercise 3 although I am only their adopted daughter.
whenever you have the time.
unless there is an emergency.
because the questions were difficult.
so that he could pay for his school fees.
after I have finished my work in the office.
where she left her purse.
as her best friend just died.
and she won first prize in the competition.
until it was dark.