Unit 2Reading Skills

Active ReadingReading is like playing football – you need a GOAL and a

STRUCTURE

1. GOAL: what information do I want out of this reading?

2. STRUCTURE: a mental map

3 ways:• Check your understanding, monitor difficulties• Thinking as you read (with a goal & structure)• Thinking about what you read instead of

memorising

Skimming a paragraph

• Look quickly – get the gist (spot relevant bits) – ignore details & examples

• Beginning (main concerns / themes)• Middle (arguments / points / examples)• End (relation between main points &

examples, with slight modification)

Skimming a chapter

• Headings, subheadings & layout• Flip to the end to read SUMMARY first.• Diagrams – capture meaning faster• FIRST paragraph of each section• FIRST sentence of each paragraph• LAST paragraph of a section / LAST TWO

paragraphs for conclusion

Book• Blurp (to sell) vs Preface (to tell)• Index / glossary – quick & easy search for

topics• Appendix – more info• Bibliography – sources & interviews• Footnotes – additional info• References – for confirmation & FURTHER

STUDY

WEB PAGE

• Linear vs Non-linear• text-based vs graphical user interface• Interactivity – activities to engage you• User control – more engaging• CREDIBILITY: check if info is up-to-date

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• A bibliography is a list of books and other printed materials referred to by the writer of a report.

• The bibliography is arranged in alphabetical order by authors’ surnames.

Hard-copy (Books):

• For a book with one author:Surname, First name. Book title in italics. Edition (if available).City of publication: Publisher’s name, Year book published.

• Examples:• Kohler, Jane. Human Behavior. Sydney:

McGraw-Hill, 1988• Yu, Alice. The Applied Theory of Price. 3rd

ed. Hong Kong: Macmillan, 1997.

Hard-copy (Books):

• For a book with two authors, place the first author’s name first:Surname, First name, and First name Surname of second author. Book title in italics. Edition(if available).City of publication: Publisher’s name, Year book published.

• Example:• Tan, James, and Harry Ang. Singlish and

Its Cultural Setting. Singapore: TimesPublishers, 2010.

Hard-copy (Articles):

• For an article with a known author:• Surname, First name. “Article title within double

quotation marks.” Magazine title in italics, Date article appeared, page number (p. 4) or page range (pp. 9-15) of article.

• Example:

• Tan, Susan. “The CPF Question.” The Straits Times, 20 November 2006, pp. 11-18.

• Singh, P.N. "No Go for Leonardo." 8 Days, 3 July 2010, p. 4.

Hard-copy (Articles):

• For an article with no author given:• “Article title within double quotation

marks.” Magazine title in italics, Date article appeared, page number (p. 4) or page range (pp. 9-15) of article.

• Example:• "The Internet,untethered." The Economist,

13 October 2011, pp. 3-4.

Web Sources

• For Internet sources, provide the following information in the given order:

• a. Author’s name, for example: Harriet Smith,Wong Siew Mei

• b. Title of document in double quotation marks, for example: “Battle of the Bulge.”

• c. Title of complete work (if relevant) in italics or underlined

Web Sources

• d. Date of publication or last revision • e. Full URL in angled brackets, for

example:<http://www.example.com/report_writing/25-08-2009/html>

• f. Date of access in parentheses, for example: (21 April 2012)

Web Examples

• 1. BooksPeter J. Bryant, "The Age of Mammals," Biodiversity and Conservation, April 2009, <http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/index.html> (21 July 2010)

• 2. Professional Sites• NTUC Income Cooperative, NTUC Income,

<http://www.income.com.sg> (14 June 2011) • Singapore Government, Singapore Government

Online Portal, <http://www.gov.sg> (3 May 2011)

Web Examples

• 3. Personal Sites• JasonQuek,"Homepage,"<http://

web.singnet.com.sg/~jasonqhs/> (15 July 2011)• 4. Articles in Electronic Magazines (e-

zines)• Kevin Bonsor, "How Black Boxes Work,"

Marshall Brain's HowStuffWorks, <http://www.howstuffworks.com> (13 July 2002)

• Nathan Myhrvold, "Confessions of a Cybershaman," Slate, 12 June 1997 <http://www.slate.com/CriticalMass/97-06-12/CriticalMass.asp> (19 May 2001)

Web Examples

• 5. Newspaper Articles• Christopher Wren, “A Body on Mt. Everest, a

Mystery Half-Solved,” New York Times on the Web, 5 May 2009, <http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/fastweb?getdoc+site+87604+0+wAAA+%22a%7Ebody%7Eon%7Emt.%&Eeverest%22> (13 March 2012)

Activity

1. How many types of sources are there in a bibliography? What are they?• Two: Hard-copy and Web sources.

• 2. How many types of hard-copy sources are there? What are they?• Two: Books and articles.

• 3. You have referred to a book with two authors when writing your report. How do you list it in your bibliography?

• For a book with two authors, place the first author’s name first:• Surname, First name, and First name Surname of second author.

Book title in italics. Edition (if available). City that book was published in: Publisher name, Year that book was published.

Activity

4. You have referred to a magazine article without an author when writing your report. How do you list it in your bibliography?• For an article with a known author:• “Article title in double quotation marks.”

Magazine title in italics, Date that article appeared, page number (p. 4) or page range (pp. 9-15) for the article.

Activity

• 5. What are the items that need to be listed when documenting a Web source (in order)?

• Author’s name• Title of document in double quotation marks• Title of complete work (if relevant) in italics or

underlined• Date of publication or last revision• Full URL in angled brackets• Date of access in parentheses

Assignment 1

• Preparation and Progress Check for Assignment 1.

• Pair-work on Making a Pitch