Reading and Comprehension of General and Technical Articles
Reading and comprehension are essential cognitive skills that enable students and professionals to extract, analyze, and apply information from written texts. For college students, particularly those studying communication, language, or technical fields, it is crucial to move beyond surface-level understanding and engage with the underlying logic, context, and structure of written content. This includes evaluating the author’s purpose, identifying assumptions, and connecting information across multiple sources.
1. Reading General Articles
General articles—commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and digital media—present information on diverse topics such as social trends, health, economics, education, and politics. They aim to inform a broad audience and typically employ accessible language and straightforward organization.
- Skimming: Get an overview of the article’s topic, tone, and main arguments.
- Scanning: Locate specific information quickly (e.g., statistics or names).
- Critical Reading: Evaluate arguments and evidence critically, considering bias and credibility.
- Contextual Analysis: Understand the social, historical, or cultural background.
2. Reading Technical Articles
Technical texts are structured, data-rich documents written for experts or students in specialized domains such as science, engineering, or agriculture. These articles follow strict formatting and use specialized terminology.
- Terminology Mastery: Learn key terms and domain-specific language.
- Visual Data Interpretation: Analyze graphs, tables, and figures.
- Structural Awareness: Recognize the components like methods and results.
- Annotation and Note-taking: Make notes and summarize sections.
Precise Writing
Precise writing is characterized by clarity, conciseness, and logical coherence. It allows clear communication of complex ideas in academic and technical fields.
- Clarity: Use explicit, direct language without ambiguity.
- Conciseness: Remove redundant or unnecessary words.
- Accuracy: Base statements on verified facts or data.
- Consistency: Maintain tone and terminology throughout.
Summarizing
Summarizing means reducing a text to its essential ideas while preserving its core meaning.
- Reading Comprehension: Fully understand the original content.
- Distillation: Extract main arguments and key points.
- Rephrasing: Rewrite in your own academic language.
- Verification: Ensure it accurately represents the original.
Abstracting
Abstracting is the process of summarizing an entire research paper into a concise and informative paragraph.
- Objective: State the problem or purpose.
- Methods: Briefly describe research methodology.
- Key Findings: Present major results or discoveries.
- Conclusion: Summarize implications or applications.
- Brevity: Stay within 150–300 words, formatted academically.
Tips for Strengthening Reading and Writing Skills
- Read both academic journals and high-quality general publications regularly.
- Maintain a vocabulary notebook for technical terms and definitions.
- Practice writing summaries and abstracts based on your reading.
- Discuss material with peers to gain varied perspectives.
- Use tools like citation managers, annotation software, and writing labs.
- Get feedback from instructors or writing mentors for improvement.
Conclusion: Mastering these skills helps you read critically, write effectively, and engage deeply with academic content—an essential foundation for success in any professional or research-based field.