Irish Leaving Certificate English

Reading a text for its use is the first skill in comprehension: before anything is said about style, a reader has to know what the text is about, what it claims, and which of its details matter for a given purpose. Every later skill, from judging an argument to comparing two texts, rests on a correct grasp of the gist. ## Finding the gist The **gist** of a text is its central subject and what it says about it, in a sentence or two. A passage about a village library closing might be an account of the closure, a complaint against the council, or a memory of a childhood spent there, and these are three different gists for the same subject. To find it, read the title and any headline, subheadings and opening paragraph; read to the end; then ask what the writer wants the reader to know, feel or do. A useful test is to state the gist without borrowing the text's own phrases. If the only way to say it is by copying, the text has not yet been understood. The gist should name the genre as well as the subject. "A newspaper report on the closure of a library, quoting the council and two residents" is more exact than "a text about a library", because the genre shapes what a reader should expect: a report promises facts and attributed opinions, a column promises a stance, a memoir promises a remembered feeling. ## Selecting details for a purpose Texts carry far more detail than any one reader needs. **Selection** means choosing the details relevant to a stated purpose and leaving the…