Syntopical Reading. The fourth and final level is called "syntopical reading." This type of reading involves teasing out new ideas or themes from a number of books rather than a single one. During inspectional reading for example, you can decide whether or not the book even deserves your full attention. For example, say they're reading a book in class about Mexican food. The goal is not to achieve an overall understanding of any particular book, but rather tounderstand the subject and develop a deep fluency. A lot of people like to read linearly. The art of reading, in short, includes all of the same skills that are involved in the art of unaided discovery: keenness of observation, readily available memory, range of imagination, and, of course, an intellect trained in analysis and reflection. . How to Remember What You Read: The Surprising Solution In Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language and Never Forget It, Gabriel Wyner writes: Spaced repetition[is] extraordinarily efficient. As you move on with your syntopical reading session, you will need to ask yourself questions and find the answers within the book. Thats when you can read a page and make sense of it. Analytical reading is thorough reading, complete reading, or good reading the best reading you can do. Syntopical reading is the reading we do when reading many books on the same topic and compare what they talk about. After finishing his syntopical reading of the leaders' speeches, he wrote an essay comparing the language used by Reagan, Carter, Gorbachev, and Qaddafi. And not a chaotic practice, but a specific one. Skimming and Scanning - 5 . What is Analytical Reading? Strategies & Examples - Basmo Show how the questions are answered differently and say why. Not only does this prime our brain with the material in the book, but it helps us determine if we want to read the entire book. If inspectional reading is the best you can do quickly, this is the best reading you can do given time. The 4 Reading Levels: Different Ways To Read Different Books Syntopical reading is the most demanding level of all four levels of reading. Syntopical reading is what I find myself doing in those time gaps. After reading works by authors who know more about a subject than we do, our understanding is changed it may be the case that we better understand something or perhaps we understand that our understanding was incomplete. The use of a ZK could be one of many tactics for syntopical reading, and a ZK can be used to support syntopical reading, among many other possible text-consumption . This is the most complex and systematic level of reading. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); (c) 2023 Leticia Mooney, all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. Keep a reading journal. It is now time to determine what is applicable or not to your subject. That way, you can be able to differentiate when writing reviews. It is the highest level of reading, the result of mastering all other lower levels, and the most important learning tool you can possess. Inspecting the relevant passages. Its uncomfortable. As the most complex and demanding reading level, syntopical reading definitely requires some effort, dedication, and the correct approach in order to be mastered. knowing the name of something and knowing something. Another name for this level might be comparative reading. A powerful book tracking app designed for every reader, Give your reading experience an extra boost with Basmo. Since that time the book has been updated and recast many times, most notably by Charles van Doren in the 1970s. Mortimer Adler literally wrote the book on reading. They would write this down in the learned column. How to Read a Book: The Ultimate Guide by Mortimer Adler To better understand what syntopical reading means, you can simply look at it as an intense research session. I study the way people search and research. The bulk of the book How to Read a Book is about four levels of reading, each increasing in difficulty and complexity. Its not going to give you an edge, make you better at your job, or allow you to avoid problems. You need to jot down your thoughts, write down the answers to your questions, and create a scheme of relationships between the contradictory information you discover. Note chapters name and how the content is structured. By the way, if you are interested in this specific topic of how to sound out words correctly, check this youtube video about how to sound out words correctly. As you are surveying, note down your questions. The first step in this research process is to identify the relevant passages that you will need to examine in order to gain the necessary level of understanding of the topic. It is stimulating, rewarding, and extremely useful, but it requires a certain level of dedication and effort. You have to interpret the authors, not just copy out what they say. Defining the issues. This effect shows that more information is encoded into long-term memory by spaced study sessions, also known as spaced repetition. What do I already know about this subject? How can we extract more value from each reading session? You can easily annotate, highlight, and take notes. There is a way to slow down the process of forgetting. So the first step is an inspectional reading of all the works that you have identified as relevant. this syntopical reading process. If the questions to which you needed answers were rather complex ones, its relatively safe to assume that proper research is going to leave you with somewhat different answers. You need to find writers who are more knowledgeable on a particular subject than yourself. The relation between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension was mediated by vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and memory; in contrast, word reading and syntactic awareness shared unique variance not explained by these controls. Inspectional reading concerns: Reading the preface and the table of content. This is the level of reading that we all learn in elementary schools. Francis Bacon once remarked, some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.. What is syntopical reading, and how can it help? Analytical This is where you really dive into a text. This is the difference between being knowing the name of something and knowing something. This is how most people read. If you do do this type of reading, its much more likely that you found it, rather than were taught it. You go to the nearest bookstore and start looking through titles in the self-help section. The inspectional stage will most likely continue when you get back home and start reading some of the seemingly essential parts of the book. Be sure that your notes are legible and coherent enough to refer to easily later on. However, if you are reading to improve understanding, analytical reading is entirely necessary. There are five steps to syntopical reading: Reading is all about asking the right questions in the right order and seeking answers. Marking a book is literally an experience of your differences or agreements with the author. Another quick tips. In language classrooms, these phases have to be put in consideration in order to achieve to develop students' reading skills. Let me clarify that. When reading analytically, your goal is to comprehend and remember as much information as possible from the reading material. The person who can perform more of them is better able to read. Thats what sets you apart. Inspectional reading is underappreciated by a lot of readers because they see it as a waste of time. . Success in reading is determined to the extent that you receive what the writer intended to communicate. Syntopical reading is actually the last and most complex of the four levels of reading: One interesting thing about the four reading methods listed above is that they work in a cumulative fashion. Often differences in answers are due to different conceptions of the question, and different views of the subject. 4. These three phases are pre-reading, while-reading and after-reading phases. Skimming helps you reach to a decision point: Does this book deserve more of my time and attention? For example, if the title says "Guide to memory techniques" it is unlikely to find information about 'web design' in that book, chapter or section. In some books materials, pictures, maps, or diagrams may serve the same purpose. This is also known as comparative reading, and it represents the most demanding and difficult reading of all. However, Hannah transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018 and now enjoys sharing travel guides and trying to inspire others to see the world. It is the most complex and systematic type of reading of all. Basmo times your reading sessions. For example, in Chapter 10, "Change", some of the topics are: "1. I guess that makes me an anthropologist of search. Level 1 (Elementary Reading): You'd read the words on the page, follow the plot, and grasp what the book is trying to say. It may be entertaining, but not enlarging to your understanding. The final section of the book, "The Ultimate Goals of Reading", focuses on syntopical reading and the concept of reading and the growth of the mind. You start actually reading the book, paying close attention to every single detail. How to Read a Book and Remember Everything - Magnetic Memory Method This may not be explicit you may have to infer that. Here's what you'll find in our full How to Read a Book summary : Hannah graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English and double minors in Professional Writing and Creative Writing. The steps of syntopical reading included: selecting a bibliography (in this case, our two books) reading all the texts inspectionally (systematic skimming) selecting passages related to topic of interest coming to terms with the author getting the questions clear defining the issues between the passages/authors analyzing the resulting discussion As a result, as you move forward with syntopical reading, you must start developing a vocabulary that enables you to understand other authors, not just one or a select few, and, second, enables you to address the issue you are facing. 1. How to Read Intelligently - GuruFocus.com For example, lets assume that the book you just read mentioned that mindfulness can help your partner overcome depression. Check their accuracy against the notes you made during your reading. And they can do it without becoming tedious because theyre always challenging enough to remain interesting and fun. In the know column, they would jot down the names of Mexican foods theyre familiar with, such as enchiladas, tacos, and tostadas. Usually, when you read a book critically, you tend to believe the author to be superior, and this is especially true when the book is excellent. Syntopical Reading for Collection Understanding Answer the questions that you compiled for yourself. Summary: "How to read a book" by Mortimer Adler There are four levels of reading. This is by no means an exhaustive selection. You must establish the controls and bring order to the chaos. It doesnt matter whether you completed high school or not, the schooling system doesnt get you beyond basic reading. If youre not interested in reading Adlers book but you want to know how to conduct syntopical reading, then let me have a moment on the moral high-ground: Shame on you. That way, you give yourself a well-deserved mental break and time to reflect on all the information you just went through. Reading is a complex activity, just as writing is. This is the final stage of syntopical reading, the part where you are informed enough to have your own thoughts and opinions about a certain topic. As you probably know, I carefully write up what I do each day. The KWL reading method is an instructional technique used to improve reading comprehension. When reading syntopically, the reader reads many books, not just one, and places them in relation to one another and to a subject about which they all revolve. There are five steps to syntopical reading: Finding the Relevant Passages You need to find the right books and then the passages that are most relevant to filling your needs. She works in a multiplicity of form, from essays to poetry. See our Privacy Policy. In explaining syntopical reading, Adler and van Doren take three pages up before actually presenting their argument, namely that multiple works should be consulted in reading syntopically (Adler and van Doren 305). Well, now I have a good description of what I was doing, and a name for it. Level 3 is when you become a Demanding Reader. For example, you will know if it's a practical how-to book, a history book, a novel, and so on. Hosted byPressable. Contact Leticia: +61 421 925 382 | leticia [@] leticiamooney [dot] com | PO Box 332, Oaklands Park SA 5046 Australia. It might seem like a minor thing, but approaching your reading out of order has been shown to help you remember more. It is both a more complex and a more systematic activity than either of the two levels of reading discussed so far. Write down any questions you may have after preview stage. It is obvious, therefore, that syntopical reading is the most active and effortful . There are four rules to Analytical Reading. During skimming pay attention to the following: While reading I suggest you to stop after each significant paragraph and do one of the following: While you read its effective to do the following: Use a tiny sticky bookmarks for easy access to your highlights. Knowing which books should be read, in a general way, is the second requirement." Flash Fiction of the Month Club for April 2019. It requires a deep survey of the field, and you listing them all for yourself in some fashion.