BASIC WAYS OF COMMUNICATION- READING

  

In today's world, reading remains a vital communicative process, just as Francis Bacon emphasized centuries ago. Reading skills are crucial for academic and professional success, as they play a pivotal role in acquiring knowledge and information. Developing efficient and imaginative reading techniques is essential because academic performance largely relies on the quantity and quality of reading.

Reading is a multifaceted communicative process involving the reception and interpretation of written text. It encompasses recognizing the written content and comprehending it, which includes understanding the main and supporting ideas and identifying connections between different parts of the text. Four key components characterize the act of reading: decoding, comprehension, text analysis, and response.

1. Decoding: This initial step involves transforming the coded message into meaningful information. It requires the ability to accurately recognize words, comprehend word meanings, and understand how words function in various contexts. Decoding is only possible when one is proficient in the language in which the message is encoded.
2. Comprehension: Comprehension refers to identifying the central theme, main concepts, supporting details, and patterns of writing within a text. It necessitates critical and analytical thinking to grasp the lexical meanings of words, their relationships, specific details, and the coherent structure of sentences, including logical and thematic consistency.
3. Text Analysis: Text analysis is vital for critically evaluating and understanding a text. It involves identifying relationships among different parts of the text to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, explicit and implicit content, facts and opinions, examples and ideas, and drawing inferences and conclusions.
4. Response: Response is the reader's action or reaction to the written message and signifies the conclusion of the reading process. It depends on the correct understanding and evaluation of the text. Response can take various forms, including immediate reactions to messages like letters or emails or retaining information for later use.

Reading with a Purpose

Determining the purpose of reading is a crucial initial step. Readers must clarify why they are engaging with a particular text. Is it for leisure, information acquisition, or future discussion? Is it a serious or casual reading endeavor? Different texts are read for various purposes, but the overarching goal is essential.

For students in engineering and other fields, reading involves interpreting diverse materials, such as textbooks, research papers, technical journals, teaching notes, web content, directories, encyclopedias, laboratory instructions, safety manuals, technical reports, and reference materials. While the fundamental aim is to extract information, specific reading purposes may include:

• Gaining a preliminary understanding of the text.
• Developing a broad grasp of the subject matter.
• Comprehending scientific concepts, theories, and principles.
• Retrieving specific information.
• Staying informed about new developments in a field.
• Expanding one's knowledge and perspective.
• Exploring the author's viewpoints.
• Seeking evidence to support one's own arguments or viewpoints.

Clearly defining the purpose of reading helps readers approach texts more effectively and extract the information they need.

Efficient Reading:

• Comprehensible Language: The text is composed in a language that the reader can readily understand.
• Familiar Content: The content is accessible because the reader is familiar with the subject matter.
• Background Information: The reader possesses background knowledge or information that aids in comprehending the text.
• Concentration on Key Elements: The reader focuses on the essential components of the text, anticipates content, forms hypotheses, and makes predictions.
• Clear Purpose: Efficient reading is driven by a clear and specific purpose that motivates the reader to engage with the text.
• Adaptation of Strategies: Different reading strategies can be employed based on the nature of the text and the reading goals.
• Swift Reading: The reading process is conducted at a brisk pace.

Inefficient Reading:

• Incomprehensible Language: The language used in the text is not comprehensible to the reader.
• Unfamiliar Content: The content is unfamiliar and significantly diverges from the reader's knowledge and experience.
• Lack of Background Information: The reader lacks or does not utilize background information to aid in understanding the text.
• Equal Attention to All Parts

 

Reading Strategies

Reading various types of texts requires employing different reading strategies based on the purpose and content of the text. Here's the information presented with phrasal verbs:

Reading Entertaining Messages/Texts

• Reading entertaining messages or texts is typically done for relaxation.
• This type of reading is casual and not meant for serious comprehension.
• Examples include reading a short story, celebrity gossip, novels, or jokes for enjoyment.

Reading General Messages/Texts

• Reading general messages or texts, like newspapers, magazine articles, and encyclopedias, aims to enhance general knowledge.
• The primary goal is to broaden one's outlook and intellectual understanding.
• This form of reading involves concentrating on the theme, main points, and supporting details.

Reading Reference Materials

• Reading reference materials focuses on quickly extracting specific information.
• It involves efficient scanning skills.
• This type of reading is common in academic and professional contexts.

Reading Business Documents

• Reading business documents, including reports, letters, memos, and emails, demands complete attention.
• It requires attentiveness to all parts of the document.
• This interactive and productive reading style enhances reader-writer relationships and requires concentration, involvement, and responsibility.

Reading Scientific and Technical Texts

• Reading scientific and technical texts is a multifaceted process.
• It involves understanding linguistic and semantic patterns as well as discipline-specific information.
• Comprehension of linguistic and semantic patterns requires various skills such as visual perception, vocabulary, skimming, and critical reading.
• Understanding discipline-specific information transfer necessitates familiarity with the subject matter.