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The College Reading Skills Program (CRSP) utilizes various vocabulary, critical comprehension, and reading rate strategies to encourage students in becoming more active and critical when they are engaged in the reading process. Click on any of the strategies below to view or download the documents.
Ways of Reading
“…it is crucial for college students to develop reading strategies and techniques which will aid in learning, understanding, and retaining key concepts from textbooks, essays, novels, technical materials, and other kinds of reading…these reading strategies will undoubtedly guide you in becoming a stronger, more critical reader…”Visualizing
“…can help to improve your critical comprehension of a text…will enhance the other reading strategies…also your understanding of the way the pieces of an essay/novel/story work together and allows you to make connections between a number of texts.”Reading With and Against the Grain
“A good reader is one who reads actively, interacting with the text in many ways…thinking about and considering what a writer does not say as well as what she does say are all parts of critical thinking and reading…reading ‘with and against the grain‘ enables you to fully engage with a text and an author's ideas, moving toward developing your own reading.”Marking Your Textbook
“Do not be reluctant to mark your textbook. Marking or annotating a text is your response to what you are reading, and it might prove valuable to you later as you study for a test or write an essay…marking a text is your way of discovering what you find important, what you want to explore, and/or what puzzles you about a text…this is an exciting process.”Reflective/Free Writing
“…can help with critical thinking skills while refining your writing skills…allows you to put your thoughts about the text into writing…”SQ3R Method of Studying
The five steps involved with this method of studying “should result in faster reading, picking out the important points, and fixing them in memory.”Four Reading Rates
“To maximize your comprehension of a text, adjust your reading style, technique, and rate to accommodate the type of text your are reading…chart can be used as a guide to determine which reading rate is most suitable for the different types of texts…”Mechanics of Reading
A description of techniques for improving reading rate through rhythmic eye movement, absence of vocalization, and infrequent regressions.Context Clues
“Because most of your vocabulary is gained through reading, it is important that you be able to recognize and take advantage of context clues.”Recognizing Signal Words
“Transitions or signal words help you, the reader, follow the directions of a writer's thought…Common signal words show emphasis, addition, comparison or contrast, illustration, and cause and effect.”Recognizing Signal Words II –
Understanding the Basic Patterns for Organizational Information
Understanding the speech patterns of a writer should enable the reader to “follow the writer’s sequence of ideas more readily and improve your comprehension.” Writers use various terms to signal “which organizational method is being used.”