Improving Reading Skills - 9780073407319

Spears (reading and composition, City College of San Francisco) assembles 41 readings from books, magazines, newspapers, online and newspaper editorials, textbooks, and short fiction and everyday reading material (new sections in this edition), meant for use in introductory and intermediate developmental reading courses. She argues that college students improve their reading skills by actually reading, instead of reading about techniques and strategies, and includes exercises to reinforce skills and develop vocabulary, along with a section on vocabulary analysis before each selection and overviews and explanations of reading skills. Revised, this edition has expanded part introductions with short exercises; a broader range of levels for the selections, with new readings on contemporary topics like the psychological effects of the use of cell phones, Facebook, and World of Warcraft, a way of finding marriage partners in China, whether online education is appropriate for K-12 students, materialism and consumerism, and a blog post by an Iraq war veteran who describes returning to school; more emphasis on annotating, paraphrasing, and summarizing; new pieces related to learning to read, the world of work, psychological and social behavior, and human interest and adventure; group activities; a new section on asking questions that go beyond the readings; and web exercises. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)