The performance of 35 students with low and medium reading scores who took a reading and study skills course at a community college was compared with that of 27 students who had similar reading skills (as judged on a standardized test) but who did not take the reading course. Comparisons were made in the areas of the number of semester hours each…

Five studies compared how skilled readers arrived at an understanding of what they were reading with how children learning to read comprehended primers. Undergraduate, second, fourth, and sixth grade students read orally stories in which various aspects of the stories were distorted (pronounceable nonwords substituted for real words, semantically…

The activities of the reading/writing center at the University of Minnesota Technical College are described in this paper. Following a brief discussion of the background of the center and its rationale, the paper provides (1) steps in planning effective reading and writing strategies, (2) examples of reading/writing assignments, and (3) ways to…

Teaching college freshman composition students how to write a research paper can be used as a way of emphasizing reading and comprehension skills as well as helping them learn to test the conclusions of other research. Research work should require more than an introduction to the Dewey Decimal System and the tools of the research room, it should…

This study investigated the effects of looking back at relevant sections of previously read text, a strategy that is frequently proposed as useful when comprehension fails while studying a text. The subjects, more than 100 freshmen, read 24 pages of text and answered inserted comprehension questions. Approximately half of the subjects were…

This study was designed to answer two questions: Will the percentage of utility for a group of phonic generalizations in a college-level vocabulary sample be similar to generalizations in a primary-level sample? Will qualitative differences in the types of phonic generalizations be apparent? A 1,495-word sample was selected from George Feinstein's…

In this study, rate controlled speech is defined as speech that is reproduced in less time or in more time than the time required for its original production. The particular comprehension skills of interest were: the ability to detect main ideas; the ability to determine supporting details; and the ability to draw conclusions. These skills were…

As research progresses in the direction of studying more complex materials such as sentences and paragraphs, it becomes increasingly useful to have a pool of associative norms. The stimulus words for the free association norms presented here were chosen because 100 of them were not used before, they are primary associates of words for which norms…

The purpose of this study was to collect information about the graduate degree program in reading at Montclair State College, the graduates' professional and educational involvement, and graduates' perception and assessment of the level of attainment of the program objectives. Questionnaires were sent to 42 master's graduates from the graduate…

College students are not mature enough to benefit from an intensive course in composition till their junior years. (JH)

Purposes a reconsideration of the traditional notions regarding reading rate and flexibility (i.e., that the good reader is a flexible reader who adjusts reading rate to the difficulty of the material or the purpose for reading) and suggests that perhaps there is no relationship between reading rate and flexibility. (JM)

Presents special skills which help readers to enjoy and profit from reading various literary genres. (JM)

Describes a program at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley which sponsors seminars for university and high school teachers where they can learn how to teach reading and writing skills in the content areas. (MKM)

Notes that the same students who according to a reading test, were severly deficient in reading skills were mysteriously able to complete a complex research questionnaire, and showed academic success far beyond what the test predicted. (Author/AM)

A language program is proposed in which the chief emphasis is on developing reading skills and vocabulary in humanistic and scientific studies. (CHK)