Analyzing Paragraph: Effective paragraphs are important in all types of writing. Your paragraphs guide your reader through the paper by helping to explain, substantiate, and support your thesis statement or argument. Each paragraph should discuss one major point or idea. An effective paragraph has three parts: claim, evidence, and analysis.
Analysis
Your analysis or concluding observation is your way of “wrapping up” the information presented in your paragraph. It should explain why the evidence supports your claim and why this supports the main thesis in your paper.
It’s important to end with your own analysis of the information rather than with evidence. This keeps you in control of the paper; if you end with evidence, you’re emphasizing ideas from your sources rather than your own. The reader relies on you to analyze the evidence in the paragraph and explain why it matters to the claim and to the rest of the paper.
Finding Specific Information Quickly
We read with different purposes in mind. Sometimes we read to pass time, to pass exam and sometimes to know details of something. Sometimes we read to have an overall view of some text and sometimes for having a general idea. Students use different techniques for different purposes in their academic activities. It depends upon the nature of the textual material and our purpose of reading it. Sometimes we read for specific information.
A specific reader will be searching for specific information in a text. A student will be finding specific information in an academic text like a work of fiction, as suggested by the teacher. A house-wife might be trying to find a specific recipe from a book on cooking and a mother might be finding the right way of giving some medicine from a doctor’s prescription. A lawyer will be reading an article for specific legal information. A factory worker may even be required to read the service rules, safety signs and job regulations. Everybody will be using the same technique but for n different purposes. Everybody will be sifting through the text to reach the specific information and ignoring the rest of the text as unnecessary.
For this, you need to read wisely and smartly. Instead of labouring to read all and wasting time, you should train yourself for jumping on the exact information.
You should have a pre-view what should be read in detail, partially and what should be eliminated.
Pre-viewing
Pre-viewing is the exact word for the technique used in such a situation when you have to search for specific information out of many books or specific information out of a lengthy text. previewing will give you an idea of what the text is about and which information can be found in a specific chapter. You can do it by going through the hook review given on the back flap of the book or reading the fore-word by the ven, author himself. Then you can get guidance from the contents page and the introduction of the hook. if you think that the book is relevant, proceed with the reading.
Then you should read the first chapter, the middle chapter and the last chapter. This will give you an idea whether the information you are looking for can be found in it. Read the first paragraph of a chapter, first sentence of each paragraph and then the last paragraph. This is how you can quickly go through the assigned text to reach the required information.
Skimming
Skimming is a very useful technique for non-academic reading. It means reading a text quickly in order to get the gist of the text. The reader is concerned with just the main idea and leaves the other minor or supporting details. Skimming is a very useful reading technique, especially in extensive reading. It is useful when a reader does not have time to go through the whole text in detail. So, skimming enables us to read just the relevant parts in a book which might be of our interest.
Skimming can also be used for finding quick information. A skilled reader makes gueSses from the keywords used in the paragraph and moves on without reading each and every word.
However, scanning is the most important technique used for finding specific information quickly. For example, if the reader wants to find out certain names, figures or facts from a long passage or a lengthy text, he will scan the text. Here skimming will not be helpful. If you are searching for the date of birth of a writer, you will know before-hand where you can locate it and then scan that part of the text thoroughly. You will have to use your eyes like a scanner.
This skill of the reader to find specific information quickly helps not only in comprehending a text but also shows that the reader has the skill of rapid reading as well. This skill saves time and energy and avoids unnecessary labour and fatigue. Read more
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