What is pre-reading?

Defining the purpose for reading and deciding how you will need to read can be considered part of the pre-reading process. Other important tasks to be done during the pre-reading process include: thinking about knowledge you already have about a topic, surveying the material you are about to read, guessing at the main idea of the material, and listing questions that will guide your reading.

1. Survey

What is surveying?

Surveying is thinking about what you are about to read. Thinking about reading is called active reading. Active reading is more than simply making the sounds of letters and words. It is more than recognizing words. It is using the information that you are reading.

Why do I need to use surveying?

Readers survey what they read to help them understand what they are about to read. Surveying gives the reader some context. It gives the reading context about the content and, also, about how the material has been written. This information guides the reader in deciding how to read the material. It helps the reader focus on what is important and to skip over what is not important.