What is pre-reading?

Pre-reading means getting ready physically and mentally. This means clarifying your purpose, clarifying the information you want, clarifying how you need to read, thinking about what you know already, surveying the material, asking specific questions, and predicting the answers to you questions.

1. Survey

What is surveying?

Surveying means reading and thinking actively. It means quickly looking for clues about the message and information in the literature.

Why do I need to use surveying?

Surveying reduces the number of times you will need to read something before understanding and remembering the information. Surveying makes the other steps in the reading process easier. It also helps you identify words or ideas which will require more of your time and attention.

How do I survey?

Quickly read the following parts of what you are about to read:
titles, sub-titles, headings, table of contents, outlines, pictures, illustrations, tables, footnotes, first sentences, last sentences, first paragraphs, last paragraphs. Guess at the writer’s main idea. Look for words or ideas which are new to you. Look up new words in a dictionary. During this step, you will also want make a list of questions.