Which Term Best Reflects the Process of Reading and Understanding Sentences in a Story?

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Classic literature includes older works that accept withstood the test of time and that are still widely read today. Some well-known examples of archetype literature include The Aeneid by Virgil, The Odyssey by Homer, Inferno by Dante, and Romeo and Juliet past William Shakespeare. Whether you lot're a student or just an avid reader hoping to delve into classic literature, you may exist wondering where to brainstorm. Familiarizing yourself with a text before you read, using reading strategies to improve your understanding, and finding means to reverberate on the text tin can all help you lot to understand a work of archetype literature.

1. 1

   Read summaries of what the work is almost. You tin find descriptions or summaries of classic works of literature online, or read the back cover of the book to gain a bones idea of what the story is virtually. Knowing a fleck well-nigh the plot, characters, and setting may make it easier for y'all to follow and understand the writing when you begin reading.

   • But brand sure that you practise not substitute summaries for reading the actual text. Recall that a summary is someone else's estimation of what happened. Fifty-fifty if the summary is quite objective, information technology may contain some bias about character motives and potential meanings backside events.

2. 2

   Learn nigh a volume's historical catamenia. Understanding the time period in which a book was written can either assist or hinder how you read that book.^[ane] By researching the historical events that are depicted in the book or otherwise influenced its writing, yous tin come abroad with a meliorate agreement of that novel's narrative.

   • You tin get a quick understanding of a given time period and/or the author'due south life experiences by searching online.

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3. 3

   Consider skimming. Y'all tin also skim a book or other work of classic literature if reading it seems as well hard. Skimming will assist you to gain a basic understanding of the plot, characters, setting, and concepts.

   • Read the first and concluding paragraph of each chapter to become a sense of what happens on the pages inside.
   • Read the beginning and last sentence of each paragraph to get a sense of what happens in that chapter.

4. 4

   Ask questions. If y'all know someone who has already ready this slice of classic literature, and then asking him or her some basic questions may assistance y'all. Y'all could enquire the person to give you a basic explanation of the:

   • Characters - the people (and sometimes animals) in a piece of work of fiction.
   • Setting - the identify, fourth dimension, and civilization in which a novel takes identify.
   • Plot - the things that take identify over the grade of the novel.
   • Theme - the underlying concept, idea, or belief that runs through the entire novel.
   • Conflict - a struggle that creates tension in the novel.
   • Climax - turning betoken at which the tension (created by conflict) cannot rise anymore and must be resolved.
   • Narrator - who tells the story (a character in the story or someone else?).

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1. 1

   Consider reading an annotated edition. Many classic texts were written with a vocabulary or historical context that may be lost on contemporary readers. Reading an annotated version, which includes supplemental information and explanations, is an piece of cake way to engage with an otherwise complicated text.

   • In addition to reading an annotated text, try keeping a dictionary or reader's guide on hand when you lot read. These supplemental materials tin help you work through hard terms and disruptive chapters.

2. ii

   Commencement reading and continue reading. Even if yous struggle with the text, information technology is important to stick with it if yous want to understand it. Later sticking with it for a while, the language, setting, and characters may start to become more familiar to you.^[2]

   • If yous run across a difficult passage that you do non empathize, marker the page and skip it for now. Y'all tin can always come dorsum to information technology after you accept a basic understanding of the text.
   • Skip footnotes on your first read because these may deadening yous down.
   • Go on in listen that with difficult texts, it is often necessary to read through them more than one time. Later on you have read through a slice of classic literature once, your second read through should be much easier and concepts that were confusing to y'all should make more sense.

3. 3

   Make comments in the margins of the text. If you're trying to proceeds a ameliorate understanding of a hard text, underlining passages may not be enough. Instead, try making comments in the margins to fully engage with the text. Your comments/notes can do whatever of the post-obit to assistance yous gain a better understanding of the material:

   • summarize the attached passages
   • make notes on passages that chronicle to other passages from earlier/afterward in the text
   • write (and respond) questions on anything you didn't understand
   • agree or disagree with what a passage is proverb

4. four

   Try reading and learning with a group. Some readers learn improve while working within a grouping setting. Joining a book guild or enrolling in a literature class at your local community college can give yous the opportunity to discuss a novel with other readers and gain valuable insight from an instructor.

   • You can notice volume clubs in your surface area by searching online.
   • If y'all're not able to enroll in a class at your local higher, you may want to consider taking a massive open online course (MOOC). These courses are often free or very affordable and are frequently offered through prestigious educational institutions.

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1. i

   Write a summary or summaries. After you finish the text or finish a chapter, commit to writing a cursory summary of everything important that happened. Restrict yourself to about a one-half page or less, and make sure y'all address the major plot points, how those points affected each graphic symbol, and how that chapter fits into the context of the larger book.

   • Write your chapter summaries without consulting the text or your notes. This will help test your understanding of what you've read.^[iii]

2. 2

   Tell someone nigh what you have read. Telling something nearly something you have learned is a good mode to assistance you empathize t better yourself. If you have a friend who also has an interest in classic literature, then you might consider telling him or her about the text.

   • Even if you take not withal finished reading a text, you may benefit from describing what has happened so far in your own words.

3. 3

   Watch a flick adaptation. For many readers, visualizing the characters, setting, and plot points of a book brand information technology easier to absorb the narrative.^[4] While watching a flick is not a substitute for reading the actual book, it may help you lot make it at a amend agreement of the volume.

   • For instance, if you are reading a play by Shakespeare, and so check out a filmed version of the play. While some versions use artistic staging and may cut some of the dialogue, you volition still be able to see most of the text come to life.

4. 4

   Read commentary and critical analyses of the book online. After you finish reading, it may exist useful to larn about what others take learned and interpreted from the text. Become online and see if websites such as Spark Notes and Cliffs Notes have whatever valuable data on your book. These often have data on themes, symbols, characters, and more, which may aid y'all think about the book on a deeper level.

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• If you lot don't understand a word that an author uses, look it up in the dictionary. Your vocabulary will grow, and you lot'll be able to have a more than complete agreement of what you read.

• If you lot're reading a book in translation, look into various different translations (unless you're reading for a class that requires yous to read a detail version). Y'all might notice some easier than others, especially if given the option between e.g. an early on 19th century translation and a modern one.

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