In a world full of information and multiple languages you certainly can't go through all the information you come across, or understand every single word your eyes see. You need to be selective, and in a few seconds, reach the conclusion that the text in front of you deserves your attention or discard it.
Reading quickly is a silent activity in which a focused mind works together with the eyes
to decode the meaning of clusters of words in a given language.
If you have already learned the basics of a foreign language and you keep an eye on the following techniques, you can easily understand the main idea of an article without depending on a bilingual dictionary or online translator.
Whenever you want to understand the main idea of a text, take a close look at:
- Titles
A title is a general a descriptive heading that provides readers with intriguing telegraphic information about the article, calling their attention.
- Subtitles
A subtitle is a second explanatory title that adds some specific details in connection with the title.
- Lead
The lead or first paragraph gives the main idea of the story before the body where the whole story is developed and interesting details are included.
- The first sentence
The first sentence of each paragraph is a topic sentence which states the main point of the paragraph and is developed by supporting ideas.
- The last paragraph
The last paragraph should be read completely as it provides a judgment or opinion after considering different features of a subject.
- Enhanced words
Enhanced words displayed in italic or bold typeface call the reader’s attention. And add relevant information.
- Pictures with Captions
Pictures with captions are great sources of information as they generally give a gist of the theme, and they also call attention to specific features of the pictures that are not so obvious, or show the relationship between the picture and the text.
- Charts
Charts are visual representation of information in which information is represented by symbols such as bars or parts of a cake, together with numbers that are universally understood. They represent quantitative or qualitative data.
- Lists
Lists are an ordered display of individual names, topics or step to follow, allowing the reader to quickly glance at them.
If, after applying all the above techniques you’re not sure what the article is about, pay attention to repeated words, synonyms and related phrases.
Repeated words and phrases, together with synonyms, confirm the theme of the article, reinforce the idea that the writer wants to transmit and create lexical cohesion. This way each part of the article helps to build up an informative, cohesive and harmonious piece of writing.
All these conspicuous features that should be easy to spot, will let you gather all the necessary information to grasp the main idea of the article quickly either in your language or any foreign language.
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