Steps to Advanced Reading

Main Ideas

To become an effective reader, you must understand the difference between point
and support. What is a Point? A point is an idea or opinion. What is support? Support is
the evidence that backs up this opinion.

Example 1: You should not put your hand into that box. Inside the box are freshly cut
leaves of poison ivy. A loaded mousetrap is inside, ready to spring. A flesh-eating
spider the size of a large crab just crawled into the box.

Point: You should not put your hand into that box.

Support
Inside the box are freshly cut leaves of poison ivy.
A loaded mousetrap is inside, ready to spring.
A flesh-eating spider the size of a large crab just crawled into the box.

Example 2: When you are in a theater, you sometimes have to put up with rude
people and crying children. At home, you can “pause” a movie when you leave the
room to get a snack. It’s more enjoyable to watch movies than in a theater. It’s relaxing
to watch movies in your pajamas while sitting in your favorite chair.

Point: It’s more enjoyable to watch movies than in a theater.

Support
When you are in a theater, you sometimes have to put up with rude
people and crying children.
At home, you can “pause” a movie when you leave the room to get a
snack. It’s more enjoyable to watch movies than in a theater.
It’s relaxing to watch movies in your pajamas while sitting in your
favorite chair.

Example 3: People lie for different reasons. One common reason is to avoid hurting
someone’s feelings. For example, a friend might ask, “Do you like my new haircut?” If
you think it’s ugly, you might still answer something like, “I really do.” Another
common reason for lying is to avoid a fight. Say a friend angers you and then asks, “Are
you upset with me?” You might answer, “No,” to avoid an argument. People also lie so
that they’ll fit in, as when you listen to a boring person and politely say, “That’s so
interesting.” Finally, people lie to avoid spending more time with someone. For
instance, you might lie, “I have to go now.”

Point: People lie for different reasons.

 Support
To avoid hurting someone’s feelings.
To avoid a fight.
To fit in.
To avoid spending time with someone.

Example 4: Certain basic fears are part of our lives. For one thing, we fear being
disrespected. Bullies are part of this fear. They cruelly tease their victims and take
away self-respect. And we feel disrespected when someone doesn’t return our phone
calls or walks past us without saying hello. Another of our deepest fears is being alone.
We know all in our hearts that we need each other. Not having other people in our
lives makes us feel empty inside. A third basic fear, once we become adults, is growing
older. Every year, many Americans use plastic surgery to try to turn back the clock. And
our magazines and TV shows and movies are full of beautiful young people. We do not
want to be reminded that the clock keeps ticking.

Point: Certain basic fears are part of our lives.

Support
We fear being disrespected.
We fear being alone.
We fear being old.

Supporting details

Supporting details are reasons, examples, facts, steps, or other kinds of evidence that
explain the main idea.

Example 1: Eight million more women than men are of voting age, and more women
than men vote in the U.S. national elections. However, men greatly outnumber women
in political office. Since 1789, over 1800 men have served in the U.S. Senate, but only
30 women have served. Women are underrepresented in the U.S. politics for a number
of reasons. First, women are still underrepresented in law and business, the careers
from which most politicians emerge. In addition, most women find that the irregular
hours kept by those who run for office are incompatible with their role as mother.
Fathers, in contrast, whose ordinary roles are more likely to take them away from
home, are less likely to feel this conflict. Last, preferring to hold on to their positions of
power, men have been reluctant to incorporate women into centers of decision-
making or to represent them as viable candidates.

Addition Words: One, for one thing, in addition, first of all, another, last, second, also,
finally. These words often will help to understand a paragraph by outlining it.
An outline is made up of a main idea followed by a numbered list of the key supporting
details.

Main Idea
Women are underrepresented in the U.S. politics.

Supporting details
1. Women are still underrepresented in law and business, the usual staring
place.
2. A politician’s hours are incompatible with their role as mother.
3. Men have been reluctant to give women power.

A helpful outline tip: Look for list words

Several kinds of
Various causes
A few reasons
A number of effects
A series of
Three factors
Four steps
Among the results
Several advantages

Maps are highly visual outlines that use circles, boxes, or other shapes to set off a main
idea and its supporting details.

Example

To avoid hurt To avoid spending

feelings time with someone

Point: People lie for

different reasons.

To To avoid a
fit in fight
Implied Main Ideas

Sometimes a main idea in a selection is implied –only suggested by the supporting

details and not clearly stated in one sentence. To figure out an implied main idea, you
must look at the supporting details.

Example 1: The family introduces children to the physical world by providing

opportunities to play and explore objects. The family also creates bonds for children
with their parents and siblings that usually last a lifetime and that serve as models for
relationships in the wider world of neighborhood and school. In addition, within the
family children experience their first social conflicts. Discipline by parents and
arguments with brothers and sisters provide children with important lessons in
compliance and cooperation. Finally, within the family children learn the language,
skills, and social and moral values of their culture.

Two questions for finding the main idea:

1. What is the paragraph about?
2. What is the point the author is trying to make about the topic?

What is the paragraph about?

Family and Children

What is the point the author is trying to make about the topic?
The importance of the family in the lives of children.

Main idea: The family has a profound effect on the lives of children.

Hints for identifying the topic and implied main idea:

 Look for repeated words.
 Mark major supporting details. Major details are often signaled by addition
words.

Example 2: Because most students are unmarried, high schools and colleges serve as
matchmaking institutions. It is at school that many young people find their future
spouses. Schools also establish social networks. Some adults maintain friendships from
high school and college; others develop networks that benefit their careers. Another
function of schools is to provide employment. With 53 million students in grade and
high schools, and another 15 million enrolled in colleges, U.S. education is big business.
Primary and secondary schools provide jobs for 2.9 million teachers, while another
million work in colleges and universities. Schools also help stabilize employment. To
keep millions of young people in school is to keep them out of the labor market,
protecting the positions of older workers. Last of all, schools help stabilize society by
keeping these millions off the streets, where they might be marching and protesting in
search of unskilled jobs long lost to other nations.
The topic is
Schools and Colleges

The point about schools and colleges is

Schools and colleges serve a number of functions in our society

Implied main ideas in longer passages

At times you may need to figure out on your own an author’s unstated central idea
(also called a thesis) in a longer passage. To find an implied central idea in a longer
passage, ask the same questions that help you find main ideas in paragraphs, and
when you think you know the idea, test yourself by asking, “Does all or most of the
material in the passage support this idea?”

Relationships

Here are two items. Which one of them do you think is easier to read and understand?

1. Most people choose a partner who is about as attractive as themselves. Personality

and intelligence affect their choice.

2. Most people choose a partner who is about as attractive as themselves. Moreover,

personality and intelligence affect their choice.

Transitions are words that show the connections between ideas. One way that writers
show relationships between ideas is with addition words. Addition words show that a
writer is presenting one or more ideas that continue long the same lines of thought as
a previous idea.

Addition words are used in a pattern of organization called the list of items pattern. In
this pattern, each of the major supporting details is introduced by an addition word.

Example: Nearly half of the six billion people in the world experience one of three
degrees of poverty. First is extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as getting by
on an income than $1 a day, which means that households cannot meet such basic
needs for survival as food, clothing, and shelter. Next is moderate poverty, defined as
living on $1 to $2 a day, which refers to conditions in which basic needs are met, but
just barely. Last, relative poverty, defined by a household income level below a given
proportion of the national average, means lacking things that the middle class now
takes for granted.

Another way that writers show relationships between ideas is with time words. Time
words tell us at what point something happen, in relation to when something else
happen. They help writers organize and make clear the order of events, stages and
steps in a process.
Time words are such as: first, next, last, then, before, previously, first of all, secondly,
now, later, after, following, when, while, during, as (soon as), until, often, eventually,
last of all.

Authors usually presents events and processes in the order in which they happen,
resulting in a pattern of organization known as the time order pattern. Each event or
step is introduced by a time word.

Example: The first books in the United States were imports, brought by the new
settlers. Then, in 1638, a press in Cambridge, Massachusetts printed a book of psalms
that became an instant bestseller. During the years that followed, booksellers emerged
in the Boston area, and by 1685 the leading bookseller offered over three thousand
books. Eventually, in 1731, Benjamin Franklin asked fifty subscribers to help him start
America’s first circulating library.

Ilustrations

Illustration words indicate that an author will provide one or more examples to
develop and clarify a given idea.

Words that indicate illustration: for example, for instance, such as, including,
specifically, being specific, as an illustration, to illustrate, one, once.

One way illustration words are used in textbooks, is in a pattern of organization known
as the definition and example pattern.

Example: Informal problems often call for a heuristic –a rule of thumb that suggests a
course of action without guaranteeing an optimal solution. For instance, anyone who
has ever played a card game such as hearts is familiar with the heuristic to “Get rid of
high cards first.” Another example is the situation in which a student tries to decide to
take a particular course and follows the advice to “Ask friends how they liked the
instructor.”

Comparison and Contrast

Comparison words signal similarities. Contrast words signal that an author is pointing
out differences between objects.

Comparison words: just as, just like, alike, same, both, equally, resemble, likewise, in
like fashion, in like manner, similarly, similarity, in a similar fashion, in a similar
manner, in the same way, in common.

Contrast words: but, yet, however, although, instead (of), in contrast, on the other
hand, on the contrary, even though, as opposed to, in spite of, despite, difference,
differently, differ (from), unlike.
THE COMPARISON AND/OR CONTRAST PATTERN

Example: Women’s labor force participation is approaching that of men’s, with 60

percent of adult women (versus 74 percent of men) in the labor force. However,
gender differences remain in career choice and development. At present, married
women still subordinate their career goals to their husbands’, especially when children
are involved.

Cause and effect

Cause and effect words signal that the author is explaining the reason why something
happen, or results of something happen.

These are: therefore, thus, as a consequence, consequently, so, as a result, results in,
leads to, led to, owing to, effect, cause, if…then, because, because of, reason,
explanation, accordingly.

Example: Losing one’s job is difficult at best and devastating at worst. Not only can it
cause economic distress; it can result in health problems and psychological difficulties
as well. Also, unemployment leads to an increased rate of attempted and completed
suicides.

Problem and Solution

Problem: Many people who need to exercise suffer from joint problems that make
walking, jogging or running painful.

Solution: Swimming is a low-impact form of exercise that provides an excellent

cardiovascular workout for people who experience joint pain.

Example: Smokers who decide to quit must break through both the physical addiction
of nicotine and the habit of lighting up at certain times of day. Most try to quit “cold
turkey” –that is, they decide simply not to smoke again. Others use nicotine
replacement products such as nicotine chewing gum and the nicotine patch.