Developmental Reading

08.09.15
BPCC Developmental Reading ENGLISH -099

Module 4:
Context Clues - Understanding difficult words by searching relative definitions around the word.

• Reading Process - These are the things you will use if you read a writing with context clues.
• Comprehension: Understanding what is read.
• Active Reading: Reacting to the idea of the author like asking questions and finding answers.
• Prior Knowledge - Information you learned throughout a life-time of experience.
• The more you know about the topic, the better you understand it.
• Vocabulary -  Words that you learned due to prior knowledge. 
• By the time you're 18, you will know over 60,000 words
• You can learn an additional of 20,000 when your in college.
• Each subject has it's own set of words.  
• Learning new words are acquired with context clues.  
• Four Types of Context Clues
• Synonyms: Different words, same meaning
• Example: irritable = bad-tempered 
• Antonyms: Different words, opposite meaning
• Example: irritable = good-humored
• General Sense: Provided definition, description or logic/reasoning.
• Examples: Provides a "preview" of how the word is applied.

09.13.15

Transitions - Helps convey information clearly and concisely. These are words that establish logical connections between sentences, paragraphs and sections of your paper.

Thought Patterns - Are signaled by using transitions to show relationship in a chapter.

• Time Pattern - Shows chronological order of events
• Comparison - Points out similar things together
• Contrast  - Points out opposite things together

09.27.15

Module 5:

Fact and Opinion
In order to be a critical reader, you must learn to evaluate an author's support for a point and determine whether the support is solid or not.

Reading critically includes:

• Separating fact and opinion.
• Detecting propaganda.
• Recognizing errors in reasoning.

Separating Fact and Opinion

• Fact: Information that is proven true through objective evidence or physical proof, spoken or written by witness testimony.
• Here are some examples of facts
• Fact: Albert Einstein willed his violin to his grandson.
• Fact: On September 11,2001, terrorists attacked the New York World Trade Center, killing thousands.
• Opinion: Information, belief, judgement or conclusion that couldn't be proven true and open to question as a result.
• Here are some examples of opinions:
• Opinion: Einstein should have willed his violin to a museum.
• Opinion: The attack on the World Trade Center was the worst act of terrorism in the history of mankind.

Detecting Propaganda:

• Propaganda: Uses emotional appeals instead of solid evidence to support a point. 
• Advertisers, Salespeople and Politicians often lack adequate factual support for their points. So they appeal to our emotions by using propaganda techniques. The part of being a critical reader is to resist these propaganda techniques.
• Common Propaganda Techniques:
• Bandwagon
• Or "Everybody-else-is-doing-it" technique. It tells the us to buy a product just because many people are using it. The ads imply that if you don’t jump on the bandwagon, the parade will pass you by.
• Testimonial
• The testimonial approach tells us to buy a product or support a certain issue because a celebrity is endorsing it. The idea behind this technique is that the testimony of someone we admire will influence us. 
• Transfer
• In transfer, the most common type of propaganda technique, products or candidates try to associate themselves with something that people admire or love. 
• Plain Folks
• This technique present people as ordinary persons, hoping we will identify them as average people too. An example could be a politician mingling with everyday people.
• Name Calling
• The use of emotionally loaded language or negative comments to turn people against a rival product, candidate, or movement. An example may be a "taste test" to describe a leading, rival or previous brand of spaghetti sauce as "Too Salty" or "Tasteless".  
• Glittering Generalities
• A glittering generality is an important sounding but unspecific claim about some product, candidate, or cause. An example may be an advertisement that calls a certain television set “simply the best.”

01/24/16

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Module 6               

Purpose and Tone

Purpose	Tells about the topic
Tone	Emotion or Mood of the author’s written voice.

Purpose
To Inform	Give Information
To Persuade	Convincing the reader
To Entertain	To delight the reader

Characteristics of Tone
Objective	Subjective
Unbiased	Biased
Neutral	Emotional
Formal	Informal