This valuable book informs readers about the skills, strategies, attitudes, and habits associated with effective reading that are vital for success in every walk of life. Readers will see themselves as active participants in the reading process. Updated to include even more practice materialnumerous excerpts, examples, and articlesBuilding Strategies for College Reading, 4/Estresses the importance of learning strategies to expand vocabulary.Nine chapters of this useful guide to effective reading are devoted to the development of skills and strategies. Topics include: reading as a process, building vocabulary, understanding main ideas, reading multi-paragraph selections and graphics, author's point of view, and organizing information. The selection of readings is divided into thematic sections, giving a context for understanding the skills presented; they include: "First Amendment Freedoms," "Today's Workplace," "Violence and Crime," and "Biodiversity."This book is a valuable tool and reference for anyone who needs to develop better reading, comprehension, and vocabulary skills.

If we are going to talk about teaching reading comprehension, then we are going to have to look for methods of teaching that create active rather than passive readers .... Learners must be provided with materials that motivate them to become actively involved in constructing meaning, strategic guidance and support when their own repertoire of strategies is not adequate, a connection to writing as a similar meaning making activity, questions and discussion that help them focus on both the content being created and the strategy being used, and meaningful interactions with other readers so that meanings and strategies can be shared. - (Irwin, J. W.Teaching Reading Comprehension Processes,2nd ed. 1991. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.)The revisions in this fourth edition ofBuilding Strategies for College Readingevolved from answering the question, What changes will better prepare students to succeed in American history, biology, business, sociology, and every other course of study?I am convinced that adopting the skills, strategies, attitudes, and habits associated with effective reading are vital for success in college and in life and that those skills, strategies, attitudes, and habits can be developed and improved through relevant and applicable instruction and guided practice. This text provides the foundation for that instruction and practice.Firmly focused on helping students develop strategies for reading college-level expository prose, this is a "textbook" reading text: it mirrors typical content-area texts in form and structure, and it includes a wealth of authentic text excerpts and four complete textbook chapters. In addition, its thematic approach promotes a meaningful, connected understanding of topics that allows students to profit from more sophisticated material than is possible with isolated readings.This text, like the introductory textBasic Skills and Strategies for College Reading,second edition, and the next-level textStrategies for Critical Reading,encourages students to see themselves as active participants in the reading process--readers who can set and accomplish reading and study goals and objectives. Therefore,Building Strategies for College Reading,fourth edition, presents detailed instruction in and examples of the reading skills students must master to be successful in college; encourages students to develop a repertoire of reading and study strategies and provides guided activities as they learn to select and use different strategies for different tasks; provides abundant authentic practice with complete articles, essays, text pages, and textbook chapters; stresses the importance of transferring skills and strategies to other readings and other classes; encourages students to realize that expanding their vocabulary is fundamental to college success; provides extensive practice opportunities in four topical thematic units so that as students broaden their conceptual background knowledge, they see themselves as successful readers; and persuades students to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning.This explanation of askilland astrategyby Alexander and Jetton clarifies how I use the terms in this text: "During the 1970s, when it first dotted the reading landscape, the term strategies signified a form of mental processing that deviated from traditional skills-based reading. However, any distinctions between skill and strategies that seemed apparent then have begun to fade, leaving many to wonder where skills end and strategies begin. As a way to unearth those contrasts, we propose two differences between skillful and strategic processing, relevant to text-based learning: automaticity and intentionality... Skills are, in essence, essential academic habits. They are routinized, automatic procedures we employ when we en