Basic Reading Comprehension Skills

We have talked about why people read. We have also talked about how people read-”the reading process”. Now it is time to talk about several basic and specific reading skills. These skills apply to all types of literature. With practice, a reader can improve his or her ability to understand, remember, and use the information he or she reads.

Some of the basic reading skills includes: finding the main idea, finding facts and details, finding sequences and patterns, using context clues, making inferences, making logical conclusions, and sorting facts from opinions. Although you will have chance to practice these skills one at a time, several skills are actually used at the same time. For example, it is difficult to distinguish fact from opinion if you are not able to find facts.

The Main Idea

One of the main goals for reading is to discover the main idea. Main ideas are referred to as the theme or thesis. For narrative writing the main idea is often called the theme or moral of the story. For expository writing (informative writing), the main idea is often referred to as the thesis.

What are main ideas?

The main idea, theme, thesis, or moral of the story is the writer’s message. Sometimes the main idea is clearly and directly stated. This is particularly true for expository writing. Other times the main idea is not clearly stated. For both situations, using all of the basic reading skills will be useful.