If you could possibly remember as I discussed earlier, I described comprehension as the goal of reading. But now I want to add that effective comprehension leads to understanding (a pragmatic concern), and that understanding can manifest in, at least two broad ways.
Through commitment and/or involvement. By commitment is meant that you, based on your comprehension of a target material, are able to assertions and propositions. This type of understanding derives from some appreciation of the underlying principles or concepts involved in the text at hand. It also reflects the manner you have cultivated towards the subject of discussion in the text.
Understanding can be reflected in how you show your involvement in the text by the cognitive content of your comprehension activities. Commitment and involvement can be determined precisely by examining your vocabulary, diction, sentence construction, sustained attention to topic and what the entirety of your comprehension performance say to whoever is reading your work.
In order to aid your understanding of a text, you will not read it word by word. Rather, you will read phrase by phrase as you comprehend the text. You advance towards understanding by asking yourself such functional questions as follows:
1.What personal feelings does the author show in the text?
2.How does he/she express the feelings. Subtly or freely?
3.How does he/she treat the subject matter, is his/her approach shifty or definitive?
4.Does the author introduce subtopics slowly or suddenly?
5.What steps does he/she take to ensure connectivity among details?
6.Does the text contain repetitions?
7.If there are repetitions, of what effects are they?
8.What is the author's style, is it conversational?
9.If conversational, how do characters take their turns?
10.Does the author enhance conversation by adding side notes his/her normal comments?
11.What are the definite cooperative strategies used by the authors?
This aforementioned above are the lists of what to take note of in order to aid your understanding of a given text.
