Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

Skill Building until Next Time

S u m m a r y
Just as Sherlock Holmes learned to notice what he saw
when he arrived at the scene of a crime, you can also
learn to notice what you see when you look carefully at
a piece of writing. By noticing the specific words a
writer has chosen to use, you can help ensure that you
fully comprehend the writer’s message.

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S
tyle?” you ask. “What does style have to do with reading comprehension?”
Actually, style has a good deal to do with reading comprehension. Just as writers use different
structures to organize their ideas and information, they also use different styles to express their ideas
and information. Thus, the more aware you are of the elements of style, the more successfully you can determine
a writer’s purpose and understand his or her ideas.
Style is also important because it is often what attracts us to, or repels us from, certain writers or types of
writing. Though an awareness of style might not make us change our taste, it can at least help us appreciate different
writers and different styles.
L E S S O N
Style:
It’s Not What 
They Say but 
How They Say It
L E S S O N S U M M A R Y
How a writer puts words together to express meaning is as important
as what the writer says. This lesson shows you how to analyze the style
of a piece of writing in order to get a better understanding of what the
writer means.
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W h a t I s S t y l e ?
Style, in writing, generally consists of three elements:
1. Sentence structure
2. Degree of detail and description
3. Degree of formality
Diction is also an aspect of style, but because dic-
tion is so essential to meaning, it had its own lesson in
this book.