Patterns of Comprehension For Close Readers

Patterns exist within our written language which benefit those who are aware of those benefits. This bonus is enjoyed by skillful readers who know where to locate what is needed quickly. Unskilled "readers" can spend hours looking at a selection of written material and not absorb as much as a skilled reader can absorb in a few minutes. That's why a guy like Karl Benedict can "study" all night long and still fail the same test on the same material that a guy like Crazy Joe can study for fifteen miutes for and get a C on the test after a full night of drinking uptown rather than pounding his head against the desk in the dorm which is a great place to sleep but a horrible place to study. Joe understood a lot more about composition than did Karl.

Every effective composition is a collection of ideas called paragraphs which are composed of an arrangement of complete thoughts known as sentences. Collection and arrangement are concepts of equal importance. A composition is more than an idea, therefore, several ideas have to be collected and the thoughts within those ideas have to be put in some kind of order with the most imortant sentence usually the first sentence. Order is important. Joe for example did not call Karl "an ugly, fat, balding moron who has no idea how to read" until after he had returned from his carousing which he felt he could afford because he understood differentiation better than Karl.

Differentiations exist not only within the arrangement of thoughts but also within the the collectiion of ideas. Some ideas are more significant than others. A guy like Karl looked at every thought, idea and word as of equal significance which leads him to a kind of "reading" that is characterized not only by insidious sub-vocalization but also by an attempt to memorize rather than to visualize. Karl would read a few words, test his memory, find it lacking, go back and re-read, test his memory again find it lacking again, re-read etc. Unable to visualize anything other than Joe being uptown having a ball while he was stuck alone in this hellhole on an over the hump Wednesday. Karl could not grasp the essential and as a consequence overdosed on incomprehendible triviality which he mistakenly confused as essential. 

Ideas as well as thoughts can be categorized as essential, important, or nice to know. All students are expected to establish a grasp of the essentials. The essentials are the main ideas of any composition which means they are delineated by the most evident thoughts. If a student can exhibit a mastery of the essentials, that student will pass most evaluations. Karl, unable to differentiate, was on his way to another E while Joe, having discerned the essentials with a quick, cursory glance had a good shot at a  bonus B because Joe knew how to use compositional patterns while time saving on his quest for another cold draft or ten; a C with an ouside shot at a B was good enough for Joe. He wasn't going to bother with the nice to know, trivial crap that A students  learn to accompany the essential AND the important. A students also learn to emphasize the essential while using the important and the trivial merely to accentuate their emphasis upon the essential.

Built in emphasis exists at the beginning of every idea so that's the best place to look for essential thought placement. Joe knew that the first ideas were the ideas that represented "takeoff ". Usually in takeoff mode, the "pilot" or "writer" announces the destination of the flight. After the takeoff, subsequent ideas represent the flight and the landing which are composed of complete thoughts. Takeoffs and landings take less time than the "flight" itself but are equally critical, therefore, thoughts at the beginning of each idea are usually categorized as essential whereas anecdotes, and illustrations no matter how cleverly embrodered, are merely nice to know.

Anecdotes are minor forms of emphasis and need to be regarded as such. Karl's comprehension, driven by compulsion to grasp trivial illustration resembles the reaction of an actor who after being booed for his rendering of Hamlet's soliloquy responds to an ouraged audience by screaming back, " Hey, I didn't write this crap, I'm only reading it." Karl in readinging this very composition might be afraid of a "trick" question and therefore attempt to memorize the entire soliloquy and then be amazed when that is not on the test, failing to grasp the purpose of the test itself to say nothing of the source material from which the test is derived.

All the ideas and thoughts, properly ordered should achieve a clear purpose which should be underscored in the conclusion which is the proverbial "telling your audience what you told them" even at the risk of redundancy. The last paragraph should some up all of the essentials which are seemingly an accumulation of the essential and enable the "student" simply by grasping the conclusiion, to pass the test and maybe avoid being tossed out of college even though they are the oldest, fattest and baldest person in the entire class. Karl preoccupied by distraction never gets to the end of the composition so he misses the point of the entire effort yet feels justified in having spent six hours "studying".

Karl would never reach this last paragaph

Patterns exist within our written language which benefit those who are aware of the patterns. Every effective composition is a collection of ideas called paragraphs which are composed of an arrangement of complete thought known as sentences. Differentiations exist not only within the arrangement of thoughts but also within the collection of ideas. Ideas as well as thoughts can be categorizes as essentil, important or nice to know. Built in emphasis exists at the beginning of every idea so that's the best place to look for essential thought placement. Anecdotes are forms of emphasis and need to be regarded as such. All the ideas and thoughts, propwrly ordered should achieve a clear purpose which should be underscored in the conclusion which is the proverbial "telling your audience what you told them" even at the risk of redundancy.