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 rest. Suppose a passage describes a new swimming pool, with its cost, its opening hours, its architect, its water temperature and the objections of nearby residents. A reader asked what a parent needs to know about using it would select hours, temperature and perhaps cost; asked what the objections were, the same reader would pass over those and gather the residents' points.

When selecting, a reader checks each detail against the purpose and asks what it adds. Details that repeat an earlier one, illustrate rather than inform, or belong to a different purpose are left out. Choosing well is itself evidence of understanding, since it shows the reader has seen what the text is for.

Summarising

A summary reports the main points of a text in the reader's own words, in a much shorter form, in the order the text presents them or in an order that makes the logic clearer. Its working rules are these:

• it states the main points and drops illustrations, repetitions, anecdotes and decoration;
• it keeps the proportion of the original, so the heaviest idea in the text is also the heaviest in the summary;
• it uses the reader's own words, with only technical terms kept as they are;
• it adds no opinion, because a summary reports what the writer says and a comment on it belongs elsewhere;
• it is written in continuous prose, usually in the present tense, with the writer or text as the subject ("The writer argues…", "The article reports…").

A worked case. A paragraph states that a town's bus service has been cut to hourly, that older residents in outlying estates are now unable to reach the clinic, that the council blames reduced funding, and that a local councillor gave two examples of people who had missed appointments. A summary: "The article reports that cuts have made the town's bus service hourly, leaving elderly people in outlying estates unable to reach the clinic; the council attributes this to reduced funding." The councillor's two examples are dropped as illustration.

Commenting on the selection of facts

A text is made of choices, and a reader is expected to evaluate them. Commenting on the selection of facts means asking:

• Is the information adequate for the purpose, or does it leave gaps?
• What has been omitted that a reader would expect? A report on a factory closure that gives the company's profit and the shareholders' view but not the number of jobs lost has made an omission that tells the reader whose interests it serves.
• Are the facts presented in an order or a tone that guides the reader? Placing a reassuring statistic first and a worrying one in the final paragraph shapes how the whole is received.
• Is the evidence of a kind that can be checked: dates, figures, named sources, or only general assertions?

An omission is often as revealing as an inclusion, and a well-argued comment can rest on what a text declines to say.

Point of view and values

Every text has a point of view: the stance from which it is written and the interests it takes for granted. It may be openly stated ("In my view the plan is a mistake") or built into the choice of facts and words. A reader finds it by watching which side of a question receives the longer, warmer or more specific treatment, who is quoted at length and who is paraphrased, and which words carry approval or disapproval.

The values a text assumes are the beliefs it expects the reader to share without argument: that economic growth is good, that privacy matters, that tradition deserves respect. These are rarely stated. A reader outlines them by asking what must be true for the text to make sense, and what the writer would regard as an obvious good or an obvious harm.

Genre, language and layout

Identifying the genre of a text means naming its kind and giving the evidence: a news report has a headline, a dateline, the most important facts first, and quoted sources; a speech has direct address, repetition and rhythm designed for the ear; a memo has a header, a heading line and brief numbered points. Comment on language, structure and layout follows from genre. Language use covers vocabulary, sentence length, formality and tone. Structure covers the order and proportion of parts. Layout covers headings, columns, lists, captions, type size and images, all of which direct the reader's eye and signal what matters.

A reader who combines these skills can say, of any passage, what it is, what it says, what it leaves out, whose view it takes and how it is built to carry that view.