Improving Reading Skills

• Part 1 Getting Started: Practicing the Basics
• Identifying the Main Idea and Writer’s Purpose
• The Difference Between Fiction and Nonfiction
• The Difference Between an Article and an Essay
• Identifying the Main Idea in Paragraphs
• Implied Main Ideas
• Thesis Statements in Articles and Essays
• Identifying the Writer’s Purpose
• Part 2 Refining the Basics: Annotating, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
• Annotating
• Paraphrasing
• Summarizing
• Part 3 Tackling More Challenging Prose
• Making Inferences
• Part 4 Mastering Reading about Complex Ideas
• Patterns of Development
• List of Facts or Details
• Examples
• Reasons - Cause and Effect
• Description of a Process
• Contrast
• Transitional Elements
• Some Final Considerations
• Part 5 Reading About Issues
• Persuasive Writing and Opinion Pieces
• The Principles of Persuasive Writing
• The Aims of Persuasive Writing
• How to Read Persuasive Writing
• Types of Claims
• Kinds of Evidence
• The Refutation
• The Structure of an Argument
• Practice Editorial
• Part 6 Reading Short Fiction
• Part 7 Everyday Reading
• Reading Newspaper and Magazine Articles (Print or online)
• Reading Warranties
• Reading a Credit Card Insert
• Reading and Comparing Package Labels
• Reading Recipes
• Reading Blogs
• Interpreting Graphic Material-Pie Charts, Bar Graphs, and Line Graphs
• Using e- Readers-An Overview
• Reading Comprehension Progress Chart

Now in its 7th edition, Improving Reading Skills features a wide variety of carefully chosen readings that engage, encourage, and challenge students. Ideal for introductory and intermediate developmental reading courses, this new edition has been thoroughly revised and now includes two new parts, expanded part introductions, an even broader range of levels for the reading selections, increased emphasis on annotating, paragraphing, and summarizing, and a new section in part five.