Previewing Texts

Previewing Texts

Indrini Oktamelinae, S.Pd., M.Pd

Friday
October 27, 2023

Step 1: Look at the title

The first thing we look at is the title. In this example article, the title is "Salting away renewable energy for future use".

​We need to ask ourselves a very important question. What do I already know about this topic? For example, we may see renewable energy and think, "this is about a new type of energy that we won't run out of like the wind or the sun." Or perhaps, we can't make a guess and that's okay. In any case, by looking and thinking about the title, we are learning about the article and preparing to understand it better.

Step 2:  Look for pictures and their captions

Next, we look for pictures and their captions. A caption is the words or sentences right below a picture that gives more information about the picture.

​In scientific texts, you'll also find text captions under other figures such as tables, charts, and graphs. Together with the title, pictures and their captions can help us make a guess about the overall idea of the text. This process, using small pieces of information from previewing to make a guess about something in the whole text is called predicting.

Step 3. Read the subheadings

In addition to pictures, we should pay attention to any subheadings in the text. Subheadings are small titles that introduce different sections of the text.

​In our text, we see the subheading, "how does it work?" We can predict that the text will explain how the system makes electricity.

Step 4: Read the first paragraph

​Now, comes our last step in previewing texts. Informational texts often gives the most important information, first. So, let's look at the first one or two paragraphs.

​We see two phrases, “how to store electricity from the sun” and “uses molten salt as a medium for long-term energy storage.” Even if some of these words are new for us, we should be ready to combine what we know about the title, the pictures, the captions, and the sub-headings to predict the main idea of the text. The main idea is the overall, general message of the text. In our example, we could guess that there is a new system for storing energy that uses sunlight and salt.

Summary

1. We previewed a text by looking at the title, pictures and captions, subheadings, and first paragraph.

2. We thought about what we already know about the topic and predicted the main idea of the text.

3. After previewing, we can decide if we want to read the text more carefully.

4. If we choose to read the text, previewing has prepared us to understand the text much more successfully.

What next?

Next, you will take a short quiz to test your previewing skills.

Directions:

Answer the following questions based on the sample article below.  You can take this quiz as many times as you want and your highest score will be kept.

For doing the quiz, please join at 
app.formative.com/join using this code: BUHNMC
or just click this link:
https://app.formative.com/join/BUHNMC