LEARNING TIPS

HOW TO BECOME A STRATEGIC READER

Strategic reading involves steps that can help you interact with a text. This can be done in three steps.

First, focus on the general idea of the text:

• look for nonverbal information to help you make inferences (illustrations, typographic marks, numbers, etc.);
• identify where the text was published;
• identify who the text was written by and for;
• ask yourself what the textual genre can tell you about its content.

Next, focus on the main ideas of the text by:

• reading titles and subtitles;
• reading the first few sentences of each paragraph;
• identifying cognates;
• using the context to infer the meaning of words.

Finally, focus on details of the text. Pay attention to:

• discourse markers (although, in addition, however, etc.);
• words before and after the word whose meaning you’re trying to infer;
• word prefixes and suffixes (word formation);
• compound nouns and adjectives.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to understand every word in a text. Here are some resources to help you become a strategic reader:

Newspapers and magazines

• Start with the headlines.
• Read the leads and try to find answers to questions beginning with when, why, who, what, where, how.
• Read nonverbal information.

Dictionary

• Look up the meaning of words you don’t know.
• Write down the meaning of these words.
• Make a glossary of these words.

Adapted from: BRAGA, J.; RACILAN, M.; GOMES, R. "How to become a strategic reader". In: New Alive High. Língua Inglesa, Ensino Médio. Obra específica da área de Linguagens e suas Tecnologias. 1 ed. São Paulo: Edições SM, 2020. p. 18.