Page 85 - Computer Basics- Student Textbook

b. How to Make a Book of Your Own
i. Underlining—of major points; of important or forceful statements
ii. Vertical lines at the Margin—to emphasize a statement already underlined or to point to a
passage too long to be underlined.
iii. Star, asterisk, or other doodad at the margin—to be used sparingly, to emphasize the ten or
dozen most important statements or passages in the book.
iv. Numbers in the margin—to indicate a sequence of points made by the author in developing an
argument.
v. Numbers of other pages in the margin—to indicate where else in the book the author makes
the same points, or points relevant to or in contradiction of those here marked; to tie up the
ideas in a book, which, though they may be separated by many pages, belong together.
vi. Circling of key words or phrases—This serves much the same function as underlining.

III. 3 Level; Analytical Reading
rd
A. 7 Factors to Consider When Dealing with this Level
1. Pigeonholing A Book—Classification of all the components of a book understudy
a. Rule #1; You must know what kind of book you are reading, and you should know this as early in the
process as possible, preferably before you begin to read .
2. X-raying a Book—Reading in order to find the fabric (fundamental Structure) of a book
a. Rule #2; State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence, or at most a few sentences (a short
paragraph, [75-76]).
b. Rule #3; Set forth the major parts of the book, and show how these are organized into a whole, by
being ordered to one another and to the unity of the whole.
c. Rule #4; Find out what the author’s problems were.
3. Coming to terms with an author—The author’s Bio
a. Rule #5; Find the important words and through them come to terms with the author (98).
4. Determining an author’s message—Why did he write his/her book?
a. Rule #6; Mark the most important sentences in a book and discover the propositions they contain.
b. Rule #7; Locate or construct the basic arguments in the book by finding them in the connection of
sentences.
c. Advanced Rule #7; Find if you can the paragraphs in a book that state its important arguments; but
if the arguments are not thus expressed, your task is to construct them, by taking a sentence from
this paragraph, and one from that, until you have gathered together the sequence of sentences that
state the propositions that compose the argument.
5. Criticizing a book fairly—The overriding goal for analysis should not be focused on contradicting and
confuting; “nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and
consider” (139).
a. Rule #9; You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, “I understand before you can say any
one of the following things: “I agree,” or “I disagree,” or “I suspend judgment”.
6. Agreeing or Disagreeing with an author

th
IV. 4 Level; Syntopical Reading—Reading multiple books in order to zero in solutions for the drawn out problem.
A. Five Steps in Syntopical Reading
1. Finding the relevant passages— “in syntopical reading, it is you and your concerns that are primarily to
be served, not the books that you read”. Therefore, “your aim it to find the passages in the books that
are most germane (relevant) to your needs”
2. Bringing the authors to terms— “Thus it is you who must establish the terms, and bring your authors to
them rather than the other way around”. In a nutshell, it means that readers should build their terms
which should help them to grasp all of their authors, in order to figure out their problems.
3. Getting the questions clear— “we are faced with the task of establishing a set of neutral propositions as
well.” The best way to do that is to structure some questions that shed more light our problem and
locate which of our authors appears to be answering those questions.
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