Reading Matters

This high-level developmental reader focuses on reading flexibility and how to analyze different genres of writing. Students learn different strategies for approaching textbooks, magazines, newspapers, and other genres. After a basic review of comprehension and critical-reading skills, the text introduces four units of thematically linked readings. Each reading is accompanied by a description of its specific features and some appropriate responses to those features. Readings that center on two or three related issues encourage students to develop informed opinions—allowing them to shape and revise their opinions as they receive, evaluate, and synthesize opposing points of view.

Reading Mattersis designed for students who have had a good deal of practice with short passages and are ready to move on to longer, more complicated readings. The emphasis throughout is on reading flexibility and learning how to adapts one's reading skills to the material assigned. A critical component of academic success is knowing that textbooks make different demands on a reader than magazines and newspapers do. As Reading Matters consistently illustrates, experienced readers expect those differences and adapt to them.

After receiving her B.S. at Southern Connecticut State University, where she was certified as a teacher of secondary reading, Laraine Flemming went on to earn an M.A. in English literature at Boston College and a Ph.D. in American literature at the State University of New York in Buffalo. During her career, Flemming has taught students from elementary to graduate school covering subjects as varied as reading and writing, American literature, time management, speed reading, and study skills. She began writing textbooks while working as Director of the Reading and Writing Center at Dean Junior College. In need of a reading textbook that had lots of exercises combined with genuinely thought-provoking readings, Flemming decided to write her own. You can contact Laraine Flemming by emailing her at [email protected] or by visiting her website at www.laflemm.com.