ABSTRACT
The way you read a text depends in part upon your purpose. If, for instance, you are reading for factual information you will use different tactics and strategies from those you would employ if your purpose were to grasp a theory. But are you sure what is theory and what is fact? Our aim in this chapter is to help you to make distinctions more confidently. In particular we want to sharpen your sense of what is the main idea of a text, what are elaborations and applications of it, and what are qualifications of and objections to it. We approach this by trying to make you more aware of the cues which authors conveniently put in the text to guide you. As in the case of reading tactics, strategies and purposes it helps to have some sort of record which exhibits your thinking. We put forward an idea for one such record in the form of a flow diagram. In the next chapter we show how by comparing a flow diagram of a particular text with a record of the way you read the text it is possible to develop your reading effectiveness. However, as in the previous chapters, it is important to remember that the techniques are merely a means to an end, and the end in this case is to increase your awareness of the nature of the text you are reading.
