Reading Comprehension: What questions would you ask yourself while reading to understand the main ideas of a textbook or book?

Answer 1

Strategies that I have found helpful for identifying the main ideas of a textbook are focusing on the introduction and conclusion of the chapters or sections. In my experiences, authors explain what the chapter/section will be about in the beginning so that they provide a sort of "roadmap" for the rest of the chapter. Authors also tend to summarize the main points of their chapters in their conclusions.

Questions that I ask myself when I am reading a textbook:

What is the general topic that is being discussed?

(When reading the introduction) What has the author said they are going to talk about? In what direction is the chapter heading?

How does each section relate to each other?

Why has the author chosen to organize their ideas in this order?

Are the subsections or the body paragraphs related to the general topic? Are they underneath the "umbrella" of the general topic? (i.e. if the main idea was Government, legislative, judicial, and executive would be subsections)

What are the major talking points or developments on each page or section?

(Every 2-3 pages) What has the author said so far?

It can be helpful to jot down quick summaries every couple of pages so that you don't lose track of what has been said. That way, when you finish a chapter or section, you have the main ideas recorded for reference later. Also, creating outlines has been massively helpful for me. Using the example from above:

1) Government

a) Legislative

i) House of Representatives

ii) Senate

b) Judicial

i) Supreme Court

c) Executive

i)President

This can help keep things logically organized, and, hopefully, the author has organized their chapters in a way that this works!

With books, I tend to read a chapter, write a small summary of the chapter and ask myself:

What happened? Who were the main characters of this chapter? What did they do? Did they have important conversations? Did they meet new people? How did this chapter drive the plot forward? How did this chapter build upon the last chapter, or what did this chapter add to the book as a whole?

I hope this helps, cheers!