 In today's program, I shall discuss with you the importance of comprehension. Here is the layout of the contents of this presentation. The objectives, comprehension, the purpose of comprehension, reading practice, intelligent reading, comprehension for example purpose, answering unseen passage, comprehension for general purpose, and practice and perfection. The objectives are designed as follows. The design program will enable the learner to learn the importance of comprehension, gain an idea of intelligent reading, grasp the difference between scheming and scanning, comprehend how to tackle unseen passages with relative ease, apply the suggested point of discussion in your exercise or practice of comprehension, answer unseen passages keeping in mind the points of discussion in examination, and basically to develop an interest and enjoy the mental exercise of comprehension. What is comprehension? The mental exercise of comprehension may either tickle and excite your brain cells, it may be exciting exercise for you, or it may simply leave you head scratching and totally jumbled. So comprehension is not as scary as it seems. It can be an enjoyable exercise, reading and grasping knowledge from any form of reading materials be it news reports, editorials, magazine, original articles, books or even fiction narratives, pro-stics and various other forms of writing can be an enjoyable experience, but for many reading itself isn't ordeal. So trick of cracking any form of new and unseen passage lies in practice. The simple answer lies in practice itself. Once you master it through practice it can leave you to discover new ideas, information and knowledge. What is the purpose of comprehension? You may be wondering why comprehension is needed at all. It is very important even in our day to day lives or even for our regular examinations. The skills of comprehension are important both for an examination and for regular reading purposes. In an exam the purpose of comprehension in an examination is to test the candidate's ability to read and grasp meaning to scan and select information and most importantly to answer and express the content in his or her own words in how he or she makes sense of a particular comprehensive passage within a stipulated time, within a limited time. The answers to the given set of questions of an unseen passage provide the examiner an idea of the candidate's comprehension skills. So this is an evaluative process. It measures at once the cognitive abilities of the candidate that is the mental thinking capabilities and thinking and grasping capabilities of a student. For regular reading comprehension is an important skill by way of which one has access to wider knowledge and information. Practice of reading. So why is it important? Now you know. What happens when you turn the leaf of your question paper in an examination and find that the unseen passage is staring back at you? You just don't know how to react. You just don't know what to do but if you have practiced well you will not lose your composure and instead busy yourself in reading and making sense of it. You will then try to extract the essence of the passage and mind you when you do this a part of your work is done and then you'll go on to focus on the details of the text and accordingly answer the set of questions that are given at the end of the comprehension passage. But if you lack good practice what happens is that you may be unsure of attempting you know a comprehension portion or passage. You may lose a good deal of time head scratching in the examination and you may also run the risk of misinterpreting in your hurry which is why you require good practice and hence the answer for you is intelligent reading. Now you may think it's easier said than but practice is the only way to develop your skills. So pay attention. Intelligent reading is very important. One's first reading of an unseen passage is bound to be incomplete okay nobody knows of what the unseen passage will contain or how much lead will it be with meaning information data etc but they realize the challenge. So it is bound to be incomplete as it tends to provide a big idea of its entire content. In your quick second or third rereading you generally start to grasp the essential information and highlights of the text you know the keywords etc and then you make a mental note of the keywords and the main points and then you read the given set of questions and answer try to answer them. The point to remember is that it is incorrect to think that reading a passage of number of times two three times over is a waste of time. No but it's not in fact it is investment because you understand the passage better and then you go on to answer the questions. Instead of rushing in a hurry we just you know just about vaguely reading something and trying to somehow just get rid of these questions by answering them you know in a few words. What happens when the time is limited? You don't have all the time in the world to just read that particular comprehensive passages you have so many questions to develop which is why you require practice of skimming and scanning. Now you may be wondering what these two terms are. When you practice it yourself you will understand it better. Skimming is a way of quick reading through a passage to receive an overview or a gist of the content and the type of questions that have been asked. This provides a vague idea of say an almost 55 percent of the passage that one skims through after having skimmed through the next thing to do is to scan the content. Now you have had a quick reading now you will move on to scanning. Scanning is a way of detailed reading which requires one to focus on the details of the contents that is for example the keywords the central controlling ideas the expository sentences the highlights the figures or factual details all right. This will enable one to form a broad view of the content so you get a better idea of the passage and then you can move on into you know answering these questions better because you have a mental picture you have already formulated a mental picture or you have made a map of meaning unconsciously in your mind all right. So, while the examination clock is ticking all it requires is concentration and tact to crack open an unseen passage. Generally it is seen that students prefer or learners prefer to attempt comprehension passages at the end. It is all right to do so but it is always good to have a good practice before your exam so that within that stipulated point of time you can read reread skim scan and then go on to answering the questions without making the mistakes of misinterpretation. So, comprehension for examination purpose read a given passage or extract quickly in order to receive a vague idea of the content. We read the passage with a careful attention to details along with the questions. As you reread your mind will simultaneously when you practice it will happen naturally okay which is you just have to keep this in mind simultaneously they will be it will be at work to figure out the core idea what is the core idea of that particular passage that you have in front of you. Scan through the passage for important ideas, informations, details and any tidbits all right. Make mental notes if sometimes or most of the times in fact students or learners are not allowed to mark their question papers. So, what you do is you can always make a mental preparation mental note of you know the probable answers in the given set of questions or frame your answers mentally basically. If the questions follow the sequence of paragraphs serially mentally organize your answers okay mentally organize your answers because sometimes this is seen that the paragraphs according the questions follow the pattern of paragraphs you know in a serial way the answers are just there you just have to follow them but mind you this is not always this only in in the general context that I'm talking about sometimes it's all haphazard and questions just you know are in a random order also. Write your answers in your own words all right this is very important because you cannot or you should not in fact in alter the content of the passage if there is any opinion of the author okay stated in the particular comprehensive passage. So, do not provide your opinion unless the question requires you to okay you don't have to just rush into say you know writing what you think of it you have to write what you have received in the particular passage that's all okay that's all there that there is to it all right. So, check if you have misread or misinterpreted any portion of the passage so that you know you don't lose out on those marks and see answering passages all the clues that you require are there in the passage itself it's not there everything that you need your answers are already there you just have to formulate them you have to be just intelligent to pick them up and you know put them in your own words all right. So, you have to just judiciously cut out that is you have to take out the main points you have to cut out the main points and you have to arrange it in your own way of expression. So, questions follow a pattern in which each question correspond to the paragraphs or seriously discuss ideas of a given passage. Like I said the questions generally tend to follow the particular sequence of the paragraphs this is generally all right. Antiquity questions test if you can reflect your understanding of a problem okay issue or an idea in a gist that is where you can analyze the particular comprehensive passage where you can reflect it through your own writing okay in short that is in a gist nobody wants you to elaborate it you just have to show that you just have to be able to grasp it and show your critical thinking skills answer to the point okay this is very important because you you only have to answer what has been questioned and nothing more or nothing less all right make sure that answers do not overlap because sometimes it happens that without reading the question questions you're just reading question one and you're finding the answer and then reading the question to this is not what is done what you have to do what you have to do is you have to kind of answer it in a very systematic process by which you have to first read the questions and so that you can formulate okay first you have to just go through all the questions so that you are sure that you do not overlap your answers okay while you correspond to the particular passages provide clear cut answers which answers the question to the point or well written answer is both concise and precise okay in simple language and correct grammar which is very important you cannot be writing all kinds of you know haphazard kind of things has to be proper simple language but has to be proper improper grammar you may rephrase your answers instead of blindly copying them okay this is very important you have to write it in your own words without first altering the content of the passage or the writer's opinion if any and also you have to write them in your own words all right but while you're writing your own words keep in mind not to alter the author's idea or provide your own subjective opinions comprehension for general purpose for general reading purposes you can select any extract from newspaper novel magazine journal encyclopedia any other text source okay any you may just pick any form of reading material be it in print or on the web you can take your laptop and you can just you know serve the net and try to you know access such kind of text sources so that you can practice your comprehension skills and quickly read a browser material reread and scan it select passages for smaller details jot down the core ideas or central theme of the content and mark or highlight certain keywords that act as clues to the central theme consult a dictionary if you find certain keywords difficult which you obviously will okay so form questions you should form self-questions or you should get somebody else to practice comprehension with you to read the same passage and you know formulate self-questions and ask each other and try to see how you both evaluate or how you both critically analyze a particular comprehension passage just really help you so you can also jot down a set of questions because since it is just for your practice you can after reading a particular comprehension passage you can jot down your set of questions and you can try to answer them mentally okay or you can even do read writing practice you can just write them down attempt to answer these questions in your own words but in case you are asked to provide a heading write a suitable one in keeping with a core idea theme event or character as the case may be start from the easier text that which interests you because then you will find it more interesting suppose you just end up taking you know difficult text from say the web or from some kind of a difficult book you'll find it very challenging so you start from simpler simpler comprehension passages or extract simpler you know comprehensive passages for your own you know development so that you can gradually start from the simpler texts to the more critical ones right so you can also time yourself okay because this is what is important within a stipulated time doing comprehension or you know making sense of something is the skill that will always stand in good stead for you all right so you may time yourself and try to ask someone like I said you who will be able to explain the meaning and context of the passage or you will be able to show you if you have misinterpreted something check how much you can you know comprehend within a particular time and how correctly you can comprehend okay this you can do with a person who is interested in comprehension or your friend or anyone who can help you out practice and perfection these are the keywords perfection will come only when you practice okay so therefore it is important to inculcate a good habit of regular reading comprehension and also writing is equally important so comprehension not only helps in reading and grasping but also in expressing and articulating both intelligent reading and writing go hand in hand suppose you know how to read and grasp intelligently but cannot reflect it through your writing the purpose is defeated so both are equally important therefore comprehension requires a good deal of intelligent reading practice a good deal of focus of concentration and eye for details and a knack for the correct expression in words so dear learners we come to the end of today's program I wish you all the best I hope you develop your reading and writing and comprehension skills in a big way so that you benefit in your day to day life whether you are there sitting for an examination or whether you are just reading for pleasure or whether you are teaching someone or whether you're just grappling with new strands of knowledge thought and reflecting on various kind of ideas thank you with this we come to today's program thank you dear learner