Importance of developing strong reading skills in academic and

everyday life.

Sure, we all know that reading is the key to success in life, it is a fundamental skill for both
education and daily living. Some reasons of reading skills which matters in both academic
and everyday life are given below:

Academic Success

 Improved Academic Performance: Research shows that students who read well
perform better in all academic subjects, not just language arts. The ability to read and
understand texts allows students to learn and retain new information effectively. A
solid foundation in reading can lead to better academic performance in science, social
studies, and math.

 Boosts Critical Thinking and Analysis: The best of readers can dissect and
responsibly critique information in every text they ever read. All of which are great
for interpreting arguments / identifying arguments / adding general knowledge /
putting into context / synthesizing, etc, all of which are things you are really going to
need for academic writing and problem solving.

 Enhanced Vocabulary: Reading helps build a strong vocabulary, which is critical for
communication and understanding written texts. Exposure to different types of
literature can also help students understand the nuances of language and develop
necessary thinking skills.

 Improved Social and Emotional Development: Reading can help students develop
empathy and understand different perspectives, which is crucial for social and
emotional development. Stories can teach children about other cultures, experiences,
and emotions, making them more compassionate and understanding individuals.
  Lifelong Learning: Reading is a lifelong skill that opens a world of knowledge and
learning. Students who develop a love of reading at an early age are more likely to
continue reading throughout their lives, leading to a lifetime of intellectual and
personal growth.

Everyday Life

 Access to Information Reading: Access to Information Reading is from news

articles to instruction manuals, signs and digital content, good reading skills
enable people to keep up to date, make decisions based on information and live
day-to-day life with ease.

 Education and Learning: Most formal education settings use a print-based

curriculum, including textbooks and written instructions. Good reading will
translate to efficiency and good communication in the workplace, both of which
will put you in a stronger position for career advancement.

 Problem-Solving and Decision-Making: In day-to-day life, you routinely follow

instructions, make purchases, or compare options. Having strong reading skills
assist the individual with the processing and reflection of the written words, thus
helping with decision-making as well as problem solving.

 Personal Development: Reading books, articles, or any other content for pleasure
helps in vocabulary expansion and writing improvement alongside contributing to
general knowledge. It also nurtures empathy and opens eyes to new worldviews
through exposure to different ideas, cultures, and experiences.

Muhammad Allama Iqbal said that "A person who reads books is like someone who walks
through a door into another world."
Albert Einstein said that "The only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of
the library."

How do active reading strategies improve comprehension

What is Active Reading?
Active reading is a reading comprehension strategy that helps students or other
readers evaluate and remember key points in a text. The more students are involved in the
text and the reading process, the more they will improve their reading skills. In addition to
improving understanding of a text, active reading also makes reading time more efficient
because the student will gain more from the time spent reading. Active reading can also
improve concentration because the student has something specific to focus on while reading.

Active reading strategies enhance comprehension by involving the reader in the process of
understanding, analysing, and retaining information. Active reading is not exercise; rather
than passively consuming text, it promotes interacting with material, making it less difficult
to comprehend and retain. Here’s how active reading strategies improve comprehension:

1. Improve your vocabulary:

Knowing what the words you are reading mean can improve your ability to
comprehend the meaning of the text. To improve your vocabulary, you can:

 Take an online vocabulary quiz to assess your current level of vocabulary

understanding
 Use flashcards to quiz yourself on words you don’t know once or twice a week
 Make a point to use newly learned words in verbal and written communication
 Read as much as possible to improve your ability to guess what a word means in a
certain context
 Make a list of unfamiliar words as you read and look them up in the dictionary

2. Come up with questions about the text you are reading

Asking questions about what you are reading can help improve your reading
comprehension by allowing you to become invested in the text. It can also broaden your
overall understanding of what you are reading by enabling you to explore themes, motifs and
other components of text that you otherwise wouldn’t inquire about. The more specific your
questions, the more likely you will gain further insight into the text and its meaning. The
following are examples of questions you could pose as you read:

 Why did the author begin the book at that location?

 What kind of relationship do these two characters share?
 What do we know about the main character up to this point in the book?
 Are there any themes that have consistently come up throughout the book? If so, what
do they mean?
3. Use context clues
Using context clues is a great way to understand what you are reading, even if you
don’t know all the vocabulary being used. Context clues can be found in the words and
sentences surrounding the word that you aren’t familiar with. To use context clues, you can
focus on the key phrases or ideas in a sentence and deduce the main idea of a sentence or
paragraph based on this information. You can also look for nearby words that are synonyms
or antonyms of the word you don’t know.

4. Look for the main idea

Identifying the main idea of a paragraph or article can help you determine the
importance of the article. Understanding why what you’re reading is important can give you a
better comprehension of what the author is trying to convey. When reading, pause every few
paragraphs and see if you can decipher what the main idea is. Then, try to put the main idea
in your own words for even further understanding.

5. Write a summary of what you read

A great way to increase your knowledge of what you have read is to write a summary.
Summarizing requires you to decide what is important in the text and then put it in your own
words. Summarizing allows you to determine if you truly understand what you have read and
better remember what you have read in the long term.

6. Break up the reading into smaller sections

If you are reading longer or more challenging text, consider breaking it up into
smaller sections. For example, you could read two paragraphs at a time and then pause to
quickly summarize what you just read in your mind. Breaking up what you are reading can
help you feel less overwhelmed and give you a better chance of truly comprehending the
information in the text.

7. Pace yourself
Pacing yourself is also an effective way to work on your reading comprehension skills
by allowing you to set realistic goals for your reading practice and habits. This is especially
true for books or other literature that you find challenging. Set a goal for yourself that you
know you can meet each day. For example, rather than saying that you want to read an entire
book in two days, say that you will read three chapters a night. This allows you to reach your
goals and provides adequate time for you to process what you are reading between each
session.

Difference between Skimming, scanning and intense reading.

Skimming:
• Skimming is sometimes referred to as gist reading where you’re trying to glance over the
material to grasp the main idea.
• The way you do this is to read the first and last paragraph and check for any dark
headings.
• Skimming may help to know what the text is about at its most basic level.
• Example: Before starting an essay, you may skim through multiple sources, quickly
reading the introduction and conclusion, to determine which sources provide the most
valuable information.

Scanning:
• Scanning involves getting your eyes to quickly scuttle across sentence and is used to get just
a simple piece of information. You’ll be searching for specific words or phrases that will give
you more information and answer questions you may have.
• Interestingly, research has concluded that reading off a computer screen inhibits the
pathways to effective scanning and thus, reading of paper is far more conducive to speedy
comprehension of texts.
• Example: If you are searching for a particular recipe in a cookbook, you can scan
the index or the table of contents for the recipe name instead of reading the entire book.

Intensive Reading:
• You need to have your aims clear in mind When undertaking intensive reading.
• Remember this is going to be far more time consuming than scanning or skimming
• If you need to list the chronology of events in a long passage, you will need to read
it intensively
• This type of reading has indeed beneficial to language learners as it helps them
understand vocabulary by deducing the meaning of words in context.
• Example: When studying for an exam or trying to understand complex concepts in a
scientific paper, you would use intensive reading to focus on every word and grasp the
meaning.

Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR SKIMMING SCANNING INTENSIVE

COMPARISON READING

Meaning Skimming is a way Scanning means to Intensive reading

of reading look carefully and involves reading
something in a fast quickly at the thoroughly and
manner to grasp the written material to deeply to fully
main points. locate something. understand the text.
Method of Reading Quick Selective Detailed and focused
Involves Reading out the Finding out the Careful examination
maximum content in required data. of every detail and
minimum time. understanding
 meanings,
implications, and
structure.
Objective To take a bird's-eye To spot and cast To gain
view of the text. specific facts. comprehensive
knowledge or analyse
a piece of writing.
Familiarity The reader is not The reader knows The reader seeks to
familiar with the what he is searching build full
text. for. comprehension or
insight into the text.