How often do you read? Do you enjoy doing it? And how well do you comprehend what you’re reading? Well, these are some of the questions you need to ask yourself if you’re looking to improve reading comprehension skills.
While reading more books, blogs, etc. is advisable, it is what you understand of what you’ve read that makes a difference. After all, what good will it do you if you can’t remember anything from that English book you read last week?
To that end, you need to come to a point where your reading isn’t just about adding another book to the list of books you’ve read but about comprehension. But don’t worry, we’ll help.
To start with, it is important to understand that you will not improve your reading skills in a day. To be honest, it will require time, dedication, and a lot of practice to hone your reading skills. But that doesn’t make it impossible though.
You only need to divide your learning into smaller parts that will help you build your reading skills over time. Luckily, you can get reading homework help by connecting with online tutors, thanks to the internet and tutoring apps.
Even so, here are practical tips you can apply to improve your reading comprehension skills:
1. Read Every Day
Remember we’ve said earlier that improving your reading skills requires practice. Well, you can only achieve that by reading extensively. To that end, ensure to devote a few minutes every day to reading. It can be as little as five or ten minutes.
The aim here is to form a reading habit. After that, you can now devote more minutes to reading every day. To avoid forgetting, consider putting the material you plan to read next to you.
2. Know What You’re Reading
It is also important to understand the kind of reading materials you have. It can be informative, for instance, a textbook or a newspaper, or artistic, for instance, a short story or a novel. But why is knowing this important?
Well, suppose you’re reading a guide or a manual that you need to follow to do something, will you not need to understand each step? It’s pretty obvious, right?
On the other hand, if you’re reading a textbook, then you’ll be reading a lot of new information that you do not know about.
3. Know Why You’re Reading
Apart from knowing the type of text you’re reading, you’ll also need to consider the reason why for your reading. And of course, the reason for your reading will determine how you’ll read.
To that end, the way you’ll read a class novel will be much different from how you’ll read a short story for pleasure. And there’s a good explanation for this. You’ll be required to understand and remember the concepts learned for a class novel, which is not usually the case when reading a novel for pleasure.
4. Improve Your Vocabulary
What do you do when you come across an unfamiliar word in the text you’re reading? Do you stop reading or find ways to know the meaning of the word? Well, you should opt for the latter.
To get a good understanding of what you’re reading, you should not let a new word pass you. You can either get the meaning of the word from the context or by looking at your dictionary.
Yes, you should always have a dictionary near you when reading. Luckily, you can get a good online dictionary that will not just help understand the meaning of the word but its pronunciation and usage as well.
5. Read Aloud
Reading texts aloud can help boost your reading in two ways. First, it allows both your eyes and ears to be involved with your reading. Secondly, it helps boost your pronunciation which can a long way in helping boost your reading and comprehension skills.
6. Make A Summary Of Your Reading
Always take your time to identify the key points in a text. What information should you gain from the text?
Well, after you’ve identified the key points, you should make a summary of it. Keeping a summary of your reading will go a long way in helping you measure your comprehension. And this should be easy especially if you understood what you read. If you have challenges summarizing what you’ve read, then you should consider the below tip.
7. Re-Read
Ensure to re-read any part of the text you didn’t understand. This way, you’re sure to comprehend any parts you missed during your first treading.
Improve Your Read Comprehension Today
So that concludes our 7 tips to improve reading comprehension. It really can be that simple to do if you dedicate qualtiy time to do it. It will improve your overall literary ability in every aspect, particularly if you are a student or scholar.
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