HOW TO READ

BUILDING YOUR WORD POWER

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

Presented by: Christopher P. Valenzuela

HOW TO READ:
ONE WHO CLAMS TO KNOW HOW TO READ CAN VERY WELL ANSWER THESE
QUESTIONS IN AFFIRMATIVE:

1. DO YOU ASSOCIATE THE PROPER SOUNDS TO THE WRITTEN SYMBOLS? IN

OTHER WORDS, DO YOU HAVE A MASTERY OF PHONEME-GRAPHEME
CORRESPONDENCE IN THE LANGUAGE?

2. DO YOU REGOGNISE THE RELATIONSHIP OF WORDS, SENTENCES,

PARAGRAPHS IN SELECTION?

3. DO YOU GET THE GENERAL MESSAGE OF THE SELECTION?

4. DO YOU HAVE A CLEAR PURPOSE IN MIND WHEN YOU STARTED TO READ THE SELECTION?

5. DO YOU HAVE SOME PRIOR KNOWLEDGE TO ENSURE THE NECESSARY LINKAGE OF PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE WITH THE
NEW IDEAS YOU MEET IN THE SELECTION?

6.CAN YOU REACT CRITICALLY TO WHAT YOU READ?

7. DO YOU MAKE A FULL USE OF AIDS AVAILABLE TO HELP YOU GRASP EFFECTIVELY THE FLOW OF IDEAS IN PRINTED
SELECTION?

A. CONTEXT CLUES – THE CO-OCCURRING WORDS WITH UNFAMILIAR WORD WHICH MAY SHED LIGHT ON THE MEANING OF SUCH WORD.
B. ILLUSTRATION – PICTURES, GRAPH, DIAGRAMS.
C. PRESENTATION CLUES – ITALICS, BOLDFACE, FOOTNOTES, INDENTATION, MARGINAL NOTES.
SEVERAL GUIDELINES ARE GIVEN TO STUDENTS FOR EFFECTIVE READING.
DETERMINE WHICH SETOFF GUIDELINES WILL BEST FIT YOU.

A. ONE SET OIF GUIDELINES INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING.

1. BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR PURPOSE IN READING MATERIAL. KNOW WHAT
YOU WANT TO FIND OUT.
2. VARY YOUR TECHNIQUE BASE ON YOUR PURPOSEAND THE TYPE OF
MATERIALS. DECIDE IF YOU NEED CAREFUL SLOW READING OR JUST
SKIMMING
3.BE FAMILIAR WITH THE FORMAT AND STRUCXTURE OR ORGANIZATION
OF THE MATERIAL. IN READING A SHORT STORY, FOR EXAMPLE , IT HELPS
IF YOU ARE AWARE OF THE BASIC STORY, COMPREHENSION IS FACILITATED
WHEN YOU KEEP TRACKOF THE STORY PARTS E.G THE SETTING EPISODE IN
THE DEVELOPMENT ENDING.
4. TRY TO KNOW THE AUTHORITIES IN VARIOUS TYPE OF WRITINGS. A LITTLE
BACKGROUND TOO, THE AUTHORS LIFE PROVES TO BE USEFUL IN UNDERSTANDING
A SELECTION.

B. A MORE ELABORATE SETS OF GUIDELINES FOLLOW

1. A WIDE VOCABULARY WILL BE VERY HELPFUL.

2. THE ABILITY TO CONCENTRATE PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN READING.

3. A GOOD READER IS USUALLY GUIDED BY A DEFINITE PURPOSE WHEN HE READS

A CERTAIN MATERIALS.

4. IT IS ADVISABLE TO BE FLEXIBLE IN ONE’S SPEED ONE’S READING SPEED

SHOULD BE DEDICATED BY ONE’S PURPOSE IN READING AND BY THE KIND OF
MATERIAL READ.
5. THE FOLLOWING HABITS ARE GENERALLY AVOIDED WHEN READING:
A. VOCALIZING
B. WORD BY WORD READING
C. WORD BLOCKING
D. NUMBER ATTRACTIONS
E. WORD ANALYSIS
F. MONOTONOUS PLODDING

6. WHEN CONFRONTED WITH LONGER PASSAGE , PRE-READING CAN

ASSIST YOU TO GRASP THE ESSENTIAL POINTS OF PASSAGE. PRE-READING
IS QUICK APPRAISAL WHICH PROVIDE YOU SYSTEMATIC APPROACH IN
ORDER TO GAIN THE MOST FROM YOUR READING IN THE SHORTEST
AMOUNT OF TIME.
BUILDING YOUR WORD POWER

A LIMITED VOCABULARY IS A SETBACK TO EFFICIENT READING. ONE WHO WANTS TO GET THE
MOST FROM THE PRINTED PAGE MUST THEREFORE HAVE A RELATIVELY WIDE VOCABULARY. OF
COURSE, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO MASTER ALL LEXICAL ITEMS OF ONE LANGUAGE.
AS MANY AS KNOW VOCABULARY IS THE MOST UNSTABLE COMPONENT OF A LANGUAGE.WORDS
KEEP ON GROWING AND CHANGING SO THAT WHEN WE READ, IT IS NOT SURPRISING TO COME A
CROSS UNFAMILIAR WORDS.WHAT DO WE DO WITH THESE UNFAMILIAR WORDS TO INSURE
UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEXT? OF COURSE , THE DICTIONARY OR THESASURUS WILL BE VERY
VALUABLE AIDS. HOWEVER, THEY MAY NOT ALWAYS BE ACCESSIBLE. THIS NECESSITATES
THEREFORE THAT WE OR ANY READER, MUST BE EQUIPPED WITH CERTAIN SKILLS WHICH WE MAY
USE WHEN ATTACKING UNFAMILIAR WORDS.

THE DISCUSSION AND EXERCISES THAT FOLLOW WILL HELP YOU GAIN SKILLS IN WORD ATTACK
SKILLS WILL HELP YOU FAMILIARITY WITH SPECIALIZED VOCABULARY IN THE DIFF. SUBJECT AREAS.
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS IS THE PROCESS OF BREAKING WORDS

DOWN INTO THEIR BASIC PARTS TO DETERMINE WORD MEANING.
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS IS A POWERFUL VOCABULARY TOOL SINCE
KNOWLEDGE OF A FEW WORD PARTS CAN GIVE YOU CLUES TO
THE MEANINGS OF A LARGE NUMBER OF WORDS. ALTHOUGH THE
MEANING SUGGESTED BY THE WORD PARTS MAY NOT BE EXACT,
THIS PROCESS CAN OFTEN HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORD
WELL ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN CONTINUE READING WITHOUT
SIGNIFICANT INTERRUPTION.
A. ROOT WORDS
- A WORD FROM WHICH OTHER WORDS ARE FORMED BY ADDING A
BEGINNING PART ( PREFIX ) OR AN ENDING PART ( SUFFIX ) IS CALLED ROOT
WORD.

EXAMPLE:

REWRITE KINDNESS ADEQUATELY

ADDITION

READING HOPEFUL LIKELY

INTERVIEW
B. PREFIXES
- A WORD PART ADDED TO THE BEGINNING OF A WORD IS CALLED A PREFIX.
A PREFIX IS MADE UP OF ONE OR MORE SYLLABLES.

MANY WORDS CONTAIN PREFIXES. SOME OF THEM ARE SHOWN IN THE

FOLLOWING EXAMPLE:

PREFIX ROOTWORD NEW WORD

SUB- SET SUBSET

TRANS- POSE TRANSPOSE
IN- FINITE INFINITE
RE- GROUP REGROUP
C. SUFFIXES
- A SUFFIXES REFERS TO A SYLLABLES ADDED AT THE END OF A WORD TO FORM A NEW WORD WITH A
DIFFERENT MEANING.

IN GENERAL, SUFFIXES SERVE A PRIMARILY TO INDICATE WHETHER A WORD IS USED AS A VERB, AN ADJECTIVE
OR ADVERB OR WHETHER THE WORD IS THE NAME OF A PERSON, PLACE OR THING. THEY MAY ALSO SERVE AS
TENSE OR NUMBER MARKERS. I.E THEY TELL WHETHER A WORD IS IN ITS PAST OR PRESENT FORM, OR IF IT IS
SINGULAR.

EXERCISE 1. – THE SUFFIXES –OR, -ER, -IST, -IAN, -ANT, OFTEN MEAN ONE WHO OR WHICH DOES SOMETHING.
FOR EXAMPLE, A TEACHER IS ONE WHO TEACHES; A FORESTER IS ONE WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE FOREST.
USING THIS INFORMATION AS YOUR GUIDE, COMPLETE THE SENTENCES THAT FOLLOW.
1. ASTRONOMERS, ASTRONOMY
A. ___________________ IS THE STUDY OF HEAVENLY BODIES.
B. MR. POYO IS AN ______________________________.

2. CHEMIST, CHEMISTRY
A. MRS. FELIZARDO IS __________________________.
B. WHEN SHE WAS IN COLLEGE, HER FAVOURITE SUBJECT
WAS___________________.

3. VOLCANOLOGIST, VOLCANO
A. MT. TAAL IS A _____________________.
B. THE _______________ HEADED THE GROUP WHO INVESTIGATED MT. TAAL’S
LATEST ERUPTION.

4. PHYSICIST, PHYSICS
A. ALBERT EINSTEIN WAS A _________________.
B. HE WAS A GENIUS IN THE FIELD_________________.
5. CONDUCTOR, CONDUCTION
A. AN IRON IS A GOOD _____________________OF ELECTRICITY
B. THE PROCESS OF TRANSMITTING ELECTRICITY IS
CALLED________________

C. COMPOUND WORDS
WORD’S THAT ARE MADE UP OF TWO OR MORE WORDS ARE CALLED
COMPOUND WORDS.

COMPOUND WORDS MAY BE WRITTEN IN THREE WAYS: WITH A HYPHEN,

JOINED AS ONE WORD, WRITTEN AS SEPARATE WORDS. THE DICTIONARY
WILL HELP YOU BEST AS TO HOW A CERTAIN COMPOUND WORD IS
WRITTEN.
THESE ARE EXAMPLES OF COMPOUNDS:

BOBBY-SOXER CHECK-OFF RAT RACE

TEENAGER HANGER-ON BLUE STOCKING
KICKBACK RUNNER-UPRED HORSE
BLACKOUT ALL-TIMESTANDING INVITATION

CERTAIN COMBINATIONS LIKE THE FOLLOWING ARE USED TO FORM COMPOUNDS:

1. NOUN + NOUN = NOUN 4. VERB + ADVERB = NOUN

PILLBOX MAKE UP

2. ADVERB + NOUN = NOUN 5. VERB + NOUN = NOUN

UNDERGROUND KILLJOY

3. ADJECTIVE + NOUN = NOUN 6. ADJECTIVE + NOUN = NOUN

HIGHWAY GOODTIME AND NEW STYLE
7. ADVERB + VERB = NOUN 9. NOUN + ADJECTIVE = ADVERB
INCOME MONEY-WISE

8. ADVERB + ADJECTIVE = ADJECTIVE 10. PHRASE ODDITIES

OUTGOING HAND-ME-DOWN
OUT-OF-DATE
FORGET-ME-NOT
EXERCISES:
UNDERLINE THE COMPOUND WORD IN EACH SENTENCE.

1. IT IS ADVISABLE FOR YOU TO HAVE A PENLIGHT IN YOUR BAG ALL THE TIME.

2.THE WIDESPREAD RUMOR DID BOTHER THE UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS.

3. THE GREAT MAN WAS A BOOTBLACK WHEN HE WAS A YOUNG BOY.

4. HE IS VERY YOUNG YET VERY INDEPENDENT-MINDED.

5. THE BRIDEGROOM’S EXCITEMENT WAS VERY OBVIOUS.