Lesson 3: Mastering Your Comprehension
In this lesson I will outline techniques to demonstrate the advantages of comprehending what we read while continuing to enjoy the experience of reading. You will learn how to measure your progress and continue with the technique of comprehending literary content.
Understanding the literary message
We can hear words being spoken to us or read someone’s lips to interpret what they are saying if we are hearing impaired. However, reading takes a more in-depth approach to convey the author’s message to the reader. At times, the reader will not gain understanding of the message and therefore, lose out on something vital to his or her life. Remember our formula to effective reading:
Reading: for information + understanding = enjoyment of the reading experience
This relates to (reading) texts for initially gaining information that you might already be aware of. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or essays that you are comfortable with: this is your comfort zone. This is fine. However, you also want to take a step further to expand your knowledge and strive to reach more understanding of the different types of literarature. Effective reading is the answer to reach the ending formula: enjoyment of the reading experience.
You will have to remember that being well-read in a specific type of literature or thought is one thing, but being an effective reader is really allowing yourself to expand your horizon. Sure we all love to read just for fun without the stress of scratching our heads trying to interpret what the author is trying to tell us. However, effective reading is really higher intellectual reading that will apply to our everyday lives.
For instance, it might apply to your daytime job, that promotion that you just got, the higher paying job offer, the speech at the next committee meeting. Effective reading allows us to read between the lines and to interact with different individuals as an educated, passionate, and interesting person. And we all want to be considered that, don’t we? Of course we do.
To begin these exercises in learning to understand the author’s literary message we will focus on some techniques to overcome difficult reading to reach our goal...the enjoyment of the reading experience.
Begin to use these techniques:
-- Be alert. Pay attention to key words the author uses often to relay his message. In order to accomplish this make a note of the parts that are unclear to you. Watch out for questions being posed by the author to you either discreetly or directly.
-- Look for points that call you to pay attention to the author's reasoning of thinking.
-- Observe how the author makes a particular reference over and over again. In some instances they will reference back to the title of the book. For example, I use to read a lot of Danielle Steele novels in high school leading up to college. I often noticed the pattern and the underlying style of Steele’s writing ability that would unfold almost like clockwork. It is key to be active in your reading and notice the writer’s pattern.
-- Understanding the proposition in a book. A proposition is a direct statement of knowledge or opinion of the author concerning a particular subject. The author feels strongly about his opinion, and this will unfold in the context of the book. Or the author will state that the subject matter is untrue and provide supporting sentences. This can apply to fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or corporate communication.
-- Find the author's solution (in non-fiction) or final conclusion (in fiction) to the theme or argument presented. To perform this task you must have found the author's argument or the issues between the characters to then answer: “ What is the solution to the problem the author has raised?”
Let's proceed to the next lesson:
“Learn how to read effectively”
