Reading and Writing Skills

• thesis statement


  it reveals and summarizes the argument you intend to develop and defend
• it should be clear that the thesis statement is not the subject or topic itself, but an interpretation of the topic.
• this technique of improving your critical reading skills allows you to develop your impressions of the text and connect them to your personal experience

  keeping a reading journal
• annotating the txt


  making notes on your copy of the reading
• outlining the text


  highlighting words and phrases
• summarizing the text


  simplifying the text with its main point or idea
• an information that is clearly stated

  explicit
• implicit


  ideas that are suggested
• explicit information


  it is clearly written and explained in the text so the reader will not be confused
• implicit information


  something that is not implied, but not stated outright the text
• claim


  most important part of the text
• claim


  a sentence that summarizes the important thing that the writer wants to convey in the text
• a claim should be argumentative and debatable
• a claim should be specific and focused
• a claim should be interesting and engaging
• a claim should be logical
• types of claims


  claims of fact, claims of value, and claims of policy
• claims of fact


  state a quantifiable assertion, or measurable topic
• claims of value


  assert something that can be qualified
• claims of policy


  posit that specific actions should be chosen as solutions to a particular problem.
• context is defined as the social, cultural, political, historical and other related circumstances that surround the text and form the terms from which it can be better understood and evaluated
• intertextuality is the modeling of a text's meaning by another text.
• hypertext is a nonlinear way of showing information
• hypertext


  information appears as links and is usually accessed by clicking
• assertions


  declarative sentences that claim something is true about someone else
• four common types of assertion


  fact, convention, opinion, preference
• fact


  statement that can be proven objectively by direct experience, testimonies of witnesses, verified observations, or the results of the research.
• convention


  a way in which something is done, similar to traditions and norms
• opinion


  based on facts, but are difficult to objectively verify because of the uncertainty of producing satisfactory proofs of soundness
• preference


  based on personal choice; they are subjective and and cannot be objectively proven or logically attacked
• counterclaims


  claims are made to rebut a previous claim