Unit 3 Academic Reading

 Academic reading is a critical skill for students, involving the ability to effectively understand, analyse, and engage with scholarly texts.

Organisational aids

Title, headings, subheadings, table of contents, footnotes, glossary, appendix and index.

Group activity:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/190yoiOj0YN3n_w_Ck4Sd7RRe_bDZX5Px/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=101988888085339039883&rtpof=true&sd=true

Effective reading ways 

 

Scanning: Reading rapidly to get a general overview of the text.

Skimming: Reading rapidly to find a specific information. 

Our tutor assigned us with exercise for us to understand the concept of scanning and skimming:

SQ3R Method

Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review: Helps to process and retain written information 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etv359djp-c

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is when I take someone else's ideas and express them in my own words, while still keeping the same meaning. It helps me show that I understand the original message and allows me to make it clearer or more suited to my audience. It’s a handy skill for writing, speaking, and just communicating more effectively.

Today, we were provided with a text passage and were asked to paraphrase it. It was quite tough at first as we were unfamiliar with so many vocabularies. However, we were able to grasp the idea of paraphrasing at the end of the day.

Paraphrasing Tips

●        Start your first sentence at a different point from that of the original source

●        Use synonyms (words that mean the same thing) and related words

●        Change the sentence structure (e.g., from active to passive voice)

●        Break the information into separate sentences

 

class activity on paraphrasing

Summarising

Summarizing is the process of distilling the main ideas of a text into a shorter form.

We referred two examples to know the differences between a summary and a paraphrase

Summary vs. Paraphrase:

1. Length: A summary is shorter, condensing main ideas, while a paraphrase is similar in length to               the original text.

2. Focus: A summary highlights overall messages; a paraphrase restates specific ideas in different               words.

3. Detail: Summaries omit details, while paraphrases retain them.

4. Purpose: Summaries provide an overview; paraphrases clarify specific sections. 

In short, summaries give a broad view, and paraphrases reword specific content.

Class activity on summarizing