Reading a thinking activity

IN this context, reading critically means that you read with your brain, not with your eyes; reading is a thinking activity. As a critical reader, you need to understand the facts, grasp a deeper understanding of the ideas that connect to the details, evaluate the ideas, and form intelligent opinions.

Understanding the topic, the gist, or the larger conceptual framework of a textbook chapter, an article, a paragraph, a sentence or a passage is a sophisticated reading task. being able to draw conclusions, evaluate, and critically interpret articles or chapters is important for overall comprehension in reading. textbook chapters, articles, paragraphs, sentences, or passages all have topics and main ideas. the topic is the broad, general theme or message. It is what some call the subject. the main idea is the “key concept” being expressed. Details, major and minor, support the main idea by telling how, what, when, where, why, how much, or how many. Locating the topic, main idea, and supporting details helps you understand the point(s) the writer is attempting to express. Identifying the relationship between these will increase your comprehension.

When writers write they have an idea in mind that they are trying to get across. this is especially true as writers compose paragraphs. a writer organises each paragraph’s main idea and supporting details in support of the topic or central theme, and each paragraph supports the paragraph preceding it.

Now, let’s try to read the passage below and identify the topic, main idea and supporting details.