Chapter 2 Word Precision : How Do I Describe It ?

Summary

This chapter was titled “Word Precision: How do I Describe It”. The chapter sums up how important vocabulary is to communication and expressing our experiences. Our words are our thoughts so if our words aren’t clear then our thoughts aren’t clear. Dictionaries are a very important tool for this. It suggests every time you come across a word you do not know, you should look it up. “Clear thinking depends on clear word definitions” is a quote from the chapter that I highly agree with it. The chapter goes on to tell us the different kind of definitions of words. There is taxonomy, dictionary definitions, scientific definitions, and stipulative definitions. The chapter also touches on the Connotation of words which is the associations those words have. Knowing the etymology of a word can also help in giving us a concrete understanding of its definition. The chapter also states that critical reading begins with a resolve to aim for a neutral and accurate comprehension of the material.

Chapter 2 Developing Your College Vocabulary

Summary

This chapter covers how important learning, understanding and building your vocabulary really are. When you learn new vocabulary, you can understand what you read better. There are many different ways to learn the vocabulary words you do not know. This chapter will be beneficial to me because I can know new word from this chapter.

Chapter 3 Facts : What's Real ?

Summary

Fact = knows something with certainty through experience, observation, or measurement. A fact can be objectively shown and verified and people agree that it corresponds to reality. You need to learn how to recognize and verify facts based on what was just said.
Fiction = something that is made up story. We also need to be able to distinguish facts from fiction. You feelings can also be facts, or at least help you to determine what a fact is. You need to be careful though as you need to pay attention to your attitude along with your feeling. We, as humans, sometimes feel the need to get confirmation from someone else in a certain situation. Confirmation on what we think to be true allows us to make easy and correct determination we made.

Chapter 4 Managing Your Reading Time

Summary

This chapter was about different types of reading and different strategies for reading. There is speed-reading and critical reading:
Speed-reading is more of a way to group words together and read quickly.
Critical reading is about taking your time and fully comprehending every word the author wrote. I think no matter what type of reading you use, you should be able to understand what you just read. It is important for you to understand what your reading rate is.
This chapter gives an outline of the average pages per hour read in different subjects. You can use this chart to compare your own reading rate to. This will help you determine if you have an issue with reading and also can help you plan your reading schedule for each class better.

Chapter 4 Inferences : What's Follow ?

Summary

When a person infers, they are: imaging, guessing, predicting, and concluding. Inferences are often confused with facts. Inferences help fill in when facts are missing, or they can help make sense of facts already presented. Inferences should always be checked against the facts for accuracy and to make sure you are not inferring incorrectly. This chapter’s goal was to make us more conscious about our inferences. We should state the obvious as much as possible for this will help us in distinguishing facts from inferences.

Chapter 5 Locating Stated Main Ideas

Summary

I learned that before you can understand what you are reading you must first be able to identify some information. The first thing you must identify is the author’s main idea. You need to be able to distinguish between general ideas and specific details. As you are reading something, you need to be asking yourself questions the whole time. You need to ask yourself, “what is this about”, “what am I reading”? Asking yourself questions like this and identifying the main idea, the topic and the details, will help you to understand what you are reading much better.

Chapter 5 Assumptions : What's Taken for Granted ?

Summary

This chapter talks about all the different types of assumptions that can and are made. Assumptions can be made consciously or unconsciously, and they can be warranted or unwarranted. When people assume, they take up or accept something. They accept it without proof that it is true or certain. There are also hidden assumptions. Hidden assumptions are defined as unconscious assumptions that influence a line of reasoning. A hidden assumption is not always easy to identify. A Stereotype is one type of a hidden assumption. Value assumptions are also a type of hidden assumptions people make and rarely or never question them, most of the time these assumptions are passed down from family or through their culture. They are unexamined beliefs that unconsciously affect our thought processes. Conscious assumptions are also known as working assumptions. Working assumptions serve as strategies or working trials.