Reading Literature

You have learned and practiced using eight basic reading skills. Although we talked about each skill one at a time, they all work together. Your reading speed and reading comprehension will continue to improve as you regularly apply these skills to your reading, and as you increase your vocabulary. You have already had some practice using these basic reading skills by reading parts of books, articles, novels, short stories, poems, and more.

It is important to read a variety of types of literature. Literature may include narrative writing, descriptive writing, or expository writing. Each type of writing has a unique organization and a unique vocabulary. Although one definition of the word literature refers to all written materials, literature can also be used with a more narrow meaning. The second meaning for literature includes writing which is recognized as being of very high quality.

Books, articles, essays, poems, short stories, novels, and biographies may fit into the category of high quality literature. You can recognize this category of literature because they tend to have the following qualities:

Represents high quality writing

Talks about familiar human problems

Highlights truths about the “human experience”

Clarifies our position in the world

Reading quality literature will not only improve your reading skills, but it will also help you improve your writing. Reading carefully and evaluating skilled writers’ works will guide you in developing your own writing style.

As you study this section on reading literature, pay attention to the differences between the types of literature. Read carefully to find differences in how each type of literature is structured, how words are used, the author’s message, the effectiveness of the type of literature in communicating the author’s message. You will also find similarities. Literature from a specific time in history, region, or culture will often have similarities in topics, style, structure, or other aspects of writing.