previewing long material

4c : previewing long material : the part of a book

Much of what you read appears in long works. Your textbooks in biology,or business courses,for example, offer several hundred pages of material. One professor my require that you read a novelor a plays another may ask younto read an article in journal; still anothermay assign a new book that treats the subject of the course in a special way;

Before you read a long book for information, you can use some other effective preview techniques aside from those a explained in section 4b. here is how to preview a book :

·         Look at the table of contents.

           Found in the front of the book, the table of contentsis list of the names of the chapters and the  pages on which they begin. I the book is divided into parts, that information also appears in the table of contents. If you study the names of the chapters title, you can get an idea of what each section of the book deals with and how the topics relate to each other. Sometimes a table of contents is very detailed: you might find a listing of the topics treated in each chapter.

·         Look at the preface.

           Coming before the table of content, the preface (also called the foreword) is a brief essay in which an author gives reasons for writing the book. The prefece is a personal message to the reader. In the preface you get an idea of the kind of reader the author is writing for; or the aims of the book and just what the author expects you to learn as a result of a reading it and of the topics in the book and the best approaches to those topics. Not all book have a preface, as you may know; an a sometimes a preface deals with matters that interest the author but may not have much to do with specific ideas. In the book. Still it is good to look to the preface over, even is you just skim it, so that you can judge for yourself whether or not to read the preface carefully.

·         Look briefly at the index.

           At the end of a book, you my find an alphabetical listing of the topics, subject, idea, and names mentioned in the book. A quick look at the index will suggest some of the points the writer deals with and how detailed the book is.

·         Look at one of these special features that sometimes appear in book :

1.      After the chapters in a book a writer sometimes providesa glossary, which is a list of difficult words terms commonly used in the subject the book deals with. The word are listed in alphabetical listing order; their definitions appear also. The fact that a book has a glossary may indicate that the subject is technical but the author does try to explain the difficult terms.

2.      An appendix (plural appendix or appendices) at the end of the present additional information that is interesting and useful. However, the boo k is a complete without the appendix and the information we find there is only extra. An appendix may include charts and graphs, special leters or documents, or fact about the lives of the people mentioned in the book. It may just give information to explain something the author felt needed more auention. A look at the appendix, if the book has one, will indicate how a writer deals with a special problems.

·         Read the introduction.

            Often the first chapter of the book is the introduction. The introduction gives the overview of the book and states the basic problem the author will deal with. It gives background information is discusses the history of the topics. It may summarize what others have said about the subject. It may even explain the method of research the author used. Sometimes – especiallyin a work of fiction such a novel, a collection of short stories, or a play- someone other than the author writes the introduction. Such as introduction often explains the book to the reader, pointing out key scenes or ideas worth noting.

·         look at the bibliography of references.

             At the book of the book an author sometimes gives a bibliography- a list in alphabetical order,of some all of the book that helped the author to writer this book. The bibliography (sometimes title works cited) indicator the author is range of knowledge and basic interests.

·         Think, about what parts the book has and what parts it does not have.

            A book with a detailed index, a long bibliography, and a number of appendixes may be more appropriate for research than a book with only a short table of contents. Book with glossaries often provide helpful introductions to difficult subject.