READING

Reading is a universal pastime that transcends cultural boundaries, offering both knowledge and enjoyment. Different cultures may have distinct reading habits and preferences, from the choice of literary genres to the significance of certain texts. As Jorge Luis Borges wisely remarked, "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." This quote beautifully encapsulates the profound pleasure and enlightenment that reading can bring, as a personal library of books often represents a slice of one's own paradise. And now, a light-hearted reading joke: Why did the book go to therapy?

Because it had too many unresolved issues with its characters!

Imagine traveling to a whole new world, but without leaving your couch. What book could take you there?

Have you ever finished a book and felt like you just made a new best friend?

Ever wanted to know a secret nobody else does? Some books hold them within their pages.

Reading Strategies

Why Use Reading Strategies?
Goal: You will understand why reading strategies matter and how they help you read better in different situations (study, exams, daily reading, work, etc.).
Fast Reading Strategies
Goal: You will learn how to read quickly to get the main idea or find specific information using skimming and scanning.
Careful Reading Strategies
Goal: You will learn how to read more slowly and carefully to understand details, notice tone and mood, and check for mistakes.
Choosing the Right Strategy
Goal: You will learn how to decide which strategy to use depending on your purpose (speed, understanding, accuracy, or deeper meaning).
Extra Strategies to Improve Your Comprehension
Goal: You will discover more tools and techniques to understand texts better, remember more, and enjoy reading more.

We use different reading strategies depending on why we are reading. Sometimes we need information quickly. Other times, we need to read carefully and deeply. For this reason, reading strategies can be divided into two main groups: Fast Reading and Careful Reading.

Fast reading = Skim and Scan → for speed and general or specific information
Careful reading = Read for detail, Read for mood, Proofread → for accuracy, depth, and quality

Scan Skim Read for gist Read for detail Read for mood Proof-read

🔹 Fast Reading

Fast reading is used when you don’t need to understand every word. The goal is to save time and focus only on what is most important or most useful.

Skim (Read for gist / general idea)

Skimming means reading quickly to understand the main idea and the overall structure of a text. You look at titles, headings, first sentences, and key words. You are not reading in detail—you just want to know what the text is about and how it is organized.

Example: Browsing a magazine article to see if it is interesting before reading it fully.

Scan (Read for specific information)

Scanning means moving your eyes quickly through the text to find one specific piece of information, such as a name, a date, a number, or a keyword. You ignore most of the text and focus only on what you are looking for.

Example: Looking through a document to find a phone number or a date.

🔹 Careful Reading

Careful reading is used when you need accuracy, detail, or deeper understanding. Here, you read more slowly and pay close attention to the language and meaning.

Read for detail Reading for detail means reading carefully and thoroughly to understand specific information, arguments, facts, and explanations. You focus on how ideas are developed and how information is supported.

Example: Studying a textbook or an article to understand a complex topic.

Read for mood Read for mood (tone and atmosphere)

Reading for mood means paying attention to the feelings, tone, and atmosphere created by the author. You go beyond the literal meaning and think about whether the text feels serious, funny, tense, sad, or hopeful.

Example: Reading a poem or a story to understand the author’s emotions and the emotional effect on the reader.

Proofread means reading very carefully to find errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, or formatting. The goal is not to understand the ideas, but to check accuracy and correctness of the language.

Example: Checking an essay before submitting it to make sure there are no mistakes.

Note: Read for gist is another way to describe skimming. When you read for gist, you are not looking for details—you are reading quickly to understand the main idea and the overall meaning of the text.

Skim & Gist Practice

Goal: Practice skimming fast and identifying the gist of a text.

Step 1 — Quick Skim (30 seconds)

Look at the short passage below — don’t read every word!

Plastic waste is one of the biggest environmental issues today. Every year millions of tons of plastic end up in oceans, rivers, and forests. This harms marine life, birds, and even humans. People are now using reusable products, recycling more, and finding alternatives to single-use plastics.

Step 2 — Gist Challenge

After skimming, answer just one question:

🟢 What is this passage mostly about?

Choose one:

A) How to recycle properly
B) The problem of plastic waste and what people are doing about it
C) Types of plastic products
D) Marine animals only

💡 Try answering without reading the passage again word by word!

Strategy Comparison Matrix

To keep these straight, it helps to look at Speed vs. Depth.

Compare

1. Skimming vs. Scanning (The Common Mix-up)

People often confuse these two, but they serve very different purposes.

Scanning is keyword-driven. You ignore almost all of the text and move your eyes quickly to find one specific piece of information (a name, a date, a number, a word).

Skimming is concept-driven. You read titles, headings, first sentences, and key words to understand what the whole text is about and how it is organized.

In short:

Scan = Find one thing

Skim = Understand the big picture

2. Gist vs. Skim

These two are closely connected.

Skimming is the action (what you do).

Gist is the result (what you get).

For example, you might skim a movie review (the action) to get the gist of whether the critic liked the movie or not (the result).

So, reading for gist is usually done by skimming.

3. Proofreading: The “Blind” Strategy

Proofreading is the only reading strategy where meaning is not the main focus. The goal is to find language errors, not to understand ideas.

To catch small mistakes (like a double the or a missing word), professional proofreaders often:

Read the text backwards, or

Focus only on word forms, spelling, and punctuation, not on the story or message.

Here, you are reading for accuracy, not for meaning.

4. Reading for Mood (Inference)

Reading for mood is often called making inferences or reading between the lines.

It’s less about what is said and more about how it is said:

Tone
Word choice
Imagery
Style

You are trying to understand the emotional atmosphere and the writer’s attitude, not just the literal meaning of the words.

Which Strategy Would You Use?

Goal: Practice choosing the right reading strategy for different situations.

Read each situation and decide which strategy is the best choice.
Write your answer or say it out loud before checking the explanation.