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Improving Reading Skills by Deanne Spears, 7th Edition

© 2013

* The estimated amount of time this product will be on the market is based on a number of factors, including faculty input to instructional design and the prior revision cycle and updates to academic research-which typically results in a revision cycle ranging from every two to four years for this product. Pricing subject to change at any time.

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Product Information

Now in its 7th edition, Improving Reading Skills features a wide variety of carefully chosen readings that engage, encourage, and challenge students. Ideal for introductory and intermediate developmental reading courses, this new edition has been thoroughly revised and now includes two new parts, expanded part introductions, an even broader range of levels for the reading selections, increased emphasis on annotating, paragraphing, and summarizing, and a new section in part five.

  • Part 1 Getting Started: Practicing the Basics
  • Identifying the Main Idea and Writer’s Purpose
  • The Difference Between Fiction and Nonfiction
  • The Difference Between an Article and an Essay
  • Identifying the Main Idea in Paragraphs
  • Implied Main Ideas
  • Thesis Statements in Articles and Essays
  • Identifying the Writer’s Purpose
  • Part 2 Refining the Basics: Annotating, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
  • Annotating
  • Paraphrasing
  • Summarizing
  • Part 3 Tackling More Challenging Prose
  • Making Inferences
  • Part 4 Mastering Reading about Complex Ideas
  • Patterns of Development
  • List of Facts or Details
  • Examples
  • Reasons - Cause and Effect
  • Description of a Process
  • Contrast
  • Transitional Elements
  • Some Final Considerations
  • Part 5 Reading About Issues
  • Persuasive Writing and Opinion Pieces
  • The Principles of Persuasive Writing
  • The Aims of Persuasive Writing
  • How to Read Persuasive Writing
  • Types of Claims
  • Kinds of Evidence
  • The Refutation
  • The Structure of an Argument
  • Practice Editorial
  • Part 6 Reading Short Fiction
  • Part 7 Everyday Reading
  • Reading Newspaper and Magazine Articles (Print or online)
  • Reading Warranties
  • Reading a Credit Card Insert
  • Reading and Comparing Package Labels
  • Reading Recipes
  • Reading Blogs
  • Interpreting Graphic Material-Pie Charts, Bar Graphs, and Line Graphs
  • Using e- Readers-An Overview
  • Reading Comprehension Progress Chart

About the Author

Deanne Spears

Deanne Spears is originally from Portland, Oregon. She now considers herself a native Californian, having moved to Los Angeles when freeways and smog were relatively new concepts. During her childhood and adolescence, she spent carefree summers i na small farming community in northwest Iowa. After receiving a B.A. and an M.A. in comparative literature from the University of Southern California, she began teaching composition and reading at City College of San Francisco. She continues to tutor students in reading and composition and to conduct teacher-preparation workshops for the college. In addition to her primary interests - reading and studying Italian - she and her husband David enjoy cooking, watching movies (there are over 100 titles in their Netflix queue), kayaking in Princeton Harbor, camping (especially in the Gold Lakes Basin area of Northern California), and searching out inexpensive ethnic restaurants. Deanne is the author of Improving Reading Skills (7th edition, 2013) and, with David Spears, In Tandem: College Reading and Writing (2007), also published by McGraw-Hill.

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