2. Occasionally, a serious reader will say, “Tonight, I’m going to read these pages with a particular goal in mind.” A reader could decide to look for… Details about a certain character Big changes in the plot Surprises imagery Irony ….and all kinds of other things
3. IT’S LIKE SNORKELING …. You might decide to look for a certain kind of fish. It doesn’t mean you ignore everything else underwater. It just gives you something specific to search for and focus your attention on. It could make the snorkeling more fun and rewarding. The same is true of reading. If you search for something special in a chapter, the chapter might be much more memorable.
4. How I Set a Purpose … I don’t always set a purpose for reading, but I probably should, because when I do take a moment to decide on a purpose for my reading, I always get more out of it, and remember more of it. My favorite purpose is to look for certain writing techniques. I might decide to search for excellent Imagery Word choices Parallelism Long sentences Short sentences
5. I recall one great night of reading … I decided that my purpose would be to look very carefully for what we call “epiphanies” – parts of the chapter when a character suddenly understands something. It’s called an “Aha!” moment – or a “Now I get it!” moment. As I read that night, I found three very important epiphanies, and I’ll never forget that chapter because of my discovery.
6. A few more purposes for reading … To look for how characters get along with each other To focus on how characters talk To try to learn more about one particular character To look for new “mysteries” in the story To focus on new foreshadowings
7. TRY IT! Try it yourself. Take two minutes to set a purpose for your reading, and see what happens. Like me, you might find that the reading becomes much more interesting and memorable.
