Words Expose the Soul
When I was a freshman at Bemidji State I lived in the dorms. My roommates name was Chad. He had a girlfriend who attend Moorhead State. Her name was Jodi. I didn't get a chance to meet Jodi until very late in the year, around February. But up until that time, I had gotten to know her very well. The thing was that since they lived so far apart they didn't call each other until late at night. Most of the time, when she called, Chad wasn't there. It was actually quite ironic, Jodi's roommate was a girl that I graduated with. This led to many conversations, many that over a half an hour. I had seen pictures of her so I knew what she looked like, but I was starting to get a picture of what she was like as a person. I did this through observation of her tone of voice in certain situation, word usage, and overall temperament. By temperament I mean was she happy, sad, or confused in general. All of this gave me a pretty good idea as to what kind of person she was.
One day in February I had the opportunity to find out exactly what she like. She came to visit Chad, and stay the night. This gave us a chance to talk face to face. It was very funny, because she was exactly like I thought she would be. I couldn't believe that I had gotten all of this information about her just by listening to the way that she talked. Some might say that a situation like this and one in where you read something are totally different, but I believe that they are very similar.
Reading a piece of writing by a person that you do not personally know is the same as having a conversation with a person over the telephone that you have never met before. In both cases you try to get to know the person better by the words that they use. The means of communication makes no difference. One of the main difference between the reading and listening, though, is that when you listen to a person you can detect inflections and tones that a person uses while talking. When you read you have to rely on the author to provide you with the voice of the characters or maybe even himself.
How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C Foster is a how to do book that teaches children how to become better readers. The novel was written in second person. The purpose of this novel is to inform readers on details that they wouldn’t usually realize in literature. Students who read Thomas C Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor are suppose to gain knowledge of how to identify details of their story that have connections to other literature or have alternative meanings that the author is trying to get across to the reader. Thomas C Foster believes reading his novel can help develop you into a better reader. He believes this because the information that he includes can apply to your reading. When you realize the connections he talks about, it gives you a better understanding of the book you are reading.
Philip, M., & William F. 2004, ‘Tropical Deforestation and Greenhouse-gas Emissions’, Ecological Applications, (no publication information), Volume 14, Issue 4, pp. 982–986, viewed 23 April 2010,
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading between the Lines. New York: Harper, 2003. Print.
What goes through your mind when you read? Do you read deliberately, looking for certain aspects, or do you read as a blank slate? When reading, professors expect a deliberateness that will help you to uncover meanings that are not readily apparent. Thomas C. Foster in his book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” expands on this concept. He endeavors to instruct his readers in the way he believes they should read, in order to get the most out of each book. He concedes that, “When lay readers encounter a fictive text, they focus, as they should, on the story and the characters” but to truly read like a professor you must also divert a portion of your attention on “other elements of the novel” such as “memory… symbol… [And] pattern” (Foster, 15). Foster clarifies
Reading Rosenblat is certainly a difficult task. While reading The Reader, the Text, the Poem, I was absorbed by her philosophical discussions about the way we process literacy. Her philosophy has challenged my previous notions about reading processes. At a first glimpse, reading seems to be a very structured process. We see a word, decode the graphic-sound correspondence, and finally we assign meaning to this group of sounds. Precisely, this is what Rosenblatt rejects, the notion that we process reading in a systematic and objective fashion. Her rejection is also against to think that there are absolute processes, and that all readers react in the same way when facing a text.
The purpose of the reading is to see the difference in audience and how it can and cannot affect our end result. William Zinsser uses the reading to convey that not all writing is the same, nor is the preparation to write, but if the style is consistent and clean a reader will be able to follow.
The most common sites of malaria-carrying mosquitoes is in tropical and subtropical areas with warm climates. Also, there must be a source of water, such as a lake, ocean, or stream, because this is where the mosquitoes breed. While Africa is the site of most malaria cases, there are a few other countries that account for some of the malaria cases. In fact, in 1990, seventy-five percent of all recorded malaria cases outside Africa were condensed in nine countries, which were India, Brazil, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and China. There was once a small malaria epidemic in the United States. It occurred mainly in Army families. This was because U.S. troops in other countries were not on the proper medication, contracted the disease, and brought it back to the United States.
All I really knew about this girl is that she went to Ohio State as well because of OSU’s roommate finder. Ten or so years ago this process might have been a lot scarier but today, there is Facebook. The ability to chat with my future roommate before actually meeting did a lot more good than I expected. Sometimes after first meeting someone, there is a period of awkwardness where you want to get to know them better but you just don’t know quite how. Facebook allowed my roomie and I to get all the awkwardness out of the way very quickly.
...I do like to go back and reread my favorite parts of stories and books so analysing how my views and ideas change over a piece of writing was interesting for me. During my first read of something I often look at the work in a very literal sense. I am only trying to see what the writer is strictly saying and not really looking for any literary devices. After that with each read I try to look for more hidden meanings. I read it from all the different viewpoints I can think of to see what evidence there is for it. Once I have found what I think is the best fitting meaning I try to pinpoint the parts that fit that view. As a reader I am very similar to myself in that I am very into the details and very tactical about how I look at the meaning of something. When reading something I take steps in looking at it much like I did when reading Frost’s poem “Mending Wall”.
Montgomery, Martin, et al. Ways of Reading. Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English Literature. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2000. 161-171.
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor: a Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading between the Lines. New York: Harper, 2003. Print.
Have you ever finished reading a novel or short story and thought: 'What did the author mean?' Or maybe you asked yourself: 'Why did the author write this?' It is natural for us to ask these questions when we read. Part of the reading process is to make connections to the writing, which means you spend time interpreting it.
Such views influence both L1 and L2 reading studies. Kern (2000) explains the importance of the social and personal interpretation of reading, he says that readers have the freedom to interpret texts in any way they like if they do not deviate from the so-called interpretive constraints. In terms of fo...
Fearnside, Philip M. "Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia: History, Rates, and Consequences." Conservation Biology 19.3 (2005): 680-688. Print.
“Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.” This is a popular quote by P. T. Barnum (“Barnum”, n.d.). In this quote P. T. Barnum is saying that literature in one of the most important aspects to human kind. Most of the time people read a piece of literature and don’t truly dig deep and feel what the author was intending, like in older pieces of work. First, a person should read a story. Then, they should ask themselves, “How did that make me feel and why did it make me feel that way?” and write it down to help make the thought become clearer; this is called a personal response. Next, they should do a little research on the author’s background. The background information will help give the reader insight into what the author was trying to say; this is usually an author’s biography. Finally, you begin close reading by breaking the story down paragraph- by- paragraph, this is an analysis. When reading older stories, like Hearts and Hands by O. Henry, this is an important process. By using the author’s biography, having a literary analysis, and responding personally the reader can truly connect with and understand what an author is trying to express.