For a comprehensive reading you should:
- Read the text carefully two or three times.
- Look up in the dictionary the words you don´t Know.
- Underline the main ideas.
- Identify the central idea in each paragraph.
Summarize.
- Write the summary without copying full sentences from the text.
- Organise your ideas into one cohesive paragraph, using short sentences and simple language
- Remember that the summary of a text is always shorter than the text itself.
- Examples , details, or personal opinions are not necessary.
Skimming for the main idea.
- Before reading a text it is very helpful to look at the title and the subheadings in the article.
- You can learn a lot about a text by reading the first sentence of every paragraph. Its content usually carries the main idea of the text
- The topic is expressed by a short and clear phrase
- Don´t use only one word.
- You can employ useful phrases like “The text deals with…/ talks about… “ to help you with the introduction
- The title of the text mustn´t be copied , you have to rewrite your own sentence.
To build a text
The main characteristics for a text to be understandable are: coherence, good organization and sructure.
- Underlining the main idea will help you identify the information in each paragraph.
- There is not a fixed structure for all texts. It depends on the point of view you give your idea.
- We generally use introduction, development and conclusion, but these are only useful in some texts, as narratives.
- When writing a summary, you may take into account this structure:
The first part is about..........
The third part is mainly.........
Finally, the last part......