QW: First Stab at Essential Questions

1) What are my current reading skills?
I don't really think I have any specific reading skills at the moment. But when I do read, I automatically picture the text in my brain as visual images. I also make a note of words that I don't know so that I can look them up later (I try and do this as often as I can, but I don't get to do this that much because I have a habit of being too lazy to see through my original plans). As a reader I'm not exactlly a thorough one; if the suspense is thick I'll skip through to the action part or to the dialogue as big blocks of text bore me. I think I should work to fix this problem becuase I usually miss a huge part of the story while doing this. Another skill that I have as a reader would probably have to be predicting what will happen next. I don't know if its because I've read alot of books or if its because the books that I read are too obvious but I'm generally good at guessing how the book is going to end.

2) How can i improve and grow as a reader?
Like I metioned before, probably actually going back and looking up the words that I didn't know from the text would be a good start. I did this for a few words that I picked up in from the book 'Wuthering Heights' and i still remember some of the vocabulary I learned. I think I can also improve my reading skills if I read books that are more challenging to me. I think I tend to read books that are more FUN then the ones that make me THINK.

3)What purpose can literature serve in life?
Literature is a big part of life! Everywhere you look you can see text; without words you wouldn't be able to talk or think or be able to understand your own emotions! I also think the more words you know that the broader your range of knowledge becomes. You can communicate better with different types of people and you won't feel left out even during a business conversation. I think the main part of our lives that literature comes in contact with is communication and expressing ourselves.

4)What resources can i find in the library that will help me in this course and other courses?
There are many different resources that are available in the library, but the main ones I would have to say are the dictionary, Encyclopedia (World and Britanica), Thesaurus, Reference books, History books, and other nonfiction accounts.