A writer only begins a book and a reader finishes it____ Samuel Johnson

What does a good reader do?

The act of looking at a collection of written symbols and extracting meaning from them is “Reading”. When we read we use our eyes to obtain written symbols (letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our brain to translate them into sentences, phrases and paragraphs that express something to us. Reading can be done at heart or aloud. Kids who read aloud get rid of their bad pronunciation soon.

Good readers build up a sense of comprehension through their experiences of prior knowledge, reading strategies, vocabulary and visualizing or imagining the text as a real performance.

Reading is an essential key to success. If children do not learn to read at their appropriate age they will definitely lag behind from their curriculum in their school as well in the class. They will not be able to pick up the pace with their peers and will eventually leave school without being qualified enough to read.

Teachers play a crucial role in helping their students to read efficiently. Research has shown that practicing reading instructions with the students enables them to read fluently, with proper pronunciation and simultaneously understanding the meaning of the text. This exercise helps them to communicate with each other orally and in writing.

Important steps taken by a good reader:

·

Set Out Goals

· Draw Inferences

· Keep a Thesaurus or Dictionary

· Imagination

· Selective Reading

· Improves Spoken and Language

· Reads Good Literature that Maintains Stable Mental Health

· Ability to Connect with the Content

· Enjoy and Appreciate Literature

· Summarize the Content

These steps are explained one by one below.

· Set Out Goals

A good reader can set out the goals before reading a text. The reader makes points about the structure or organization of the text, they also make an outline to take its overview to check its relevancy according to their goals.

· Draw Inferences

Good readers can draw the meanings of the text, through their ability and skills to understand it. Their intuitions work for them. Reading practice enables them to comprehend the hidden meanings within the text such as they get to know the unraveling incidents in the text or why is a particular character behaving in a certain way and what will happen next.

· Keep a Thesaurus or Dictionary

People who are fond of reading always keep a thesaurus or a dictionary with them. I personally think that one cannot enjoy the text fully without knowing the meanings of the difficult words. It is suggested that whenever you find a hard word search for it in the dictionary and write its meaning in your little diary so that you remember it for the future.

· Imagination

Good readers have a great imagination, while reading they can imagine and have visual images of what is happening in the story. They get too absorbed into it that they can create their own world of fantasy.

“Something very magical can happen when you read a good book” J.K Rowling

· Selective Readers

Good readers become selective because they focus their attention on the reading goals they have set. Usually, when they understand the concept of the story they try to skip the parts where the plot becomes tedious or stretched. They are only interested in the parts where the story has a twist or something new to serve. They sometimes also leave those parts when they find they have read something similar like that before.

· Improves Spoken and Language

Good readers learn the pronunciation of the words and improve their spoken with time. They come across many words that are difficult to pronounce but with the help of the thesaurus, they get through it easily. By the time they become well-spoken and learned intellectuals.

· Reads Good Literature that Maintains Stable Mental Health

Reading is to mind what exercise is to the body. This means reading good literature progressively entertains your mind. It helps you to think critically, intellectually and liberally. Good readers always read worthy compositions to maintain a healthy mindset and an ethical lifestyle. They avoid bad and indecent content that affects their minds ineffectively.

“All readers are good readers when they have the right book” Jeanne Herry

· Ability to Connect with the Content

Reading is the name of connecting yourself with the story mentally and emotionally. The characteristic of a good reader is that he compares himself with the text in the light of his own experiences. The more you are connected to the story the more you will understand it. Connectivity can build a sense of empathy in you which is very important.

“We lose ourselves in books and we find ourselves there”

“I am a part of everything I have read” Theodore Roosevelt

· Enjoy and Appreciate Literature

They take pleasure and respect in the literature they read. They do not feel bored or frustrated about the content because they have a passion to read and find it fascinating. Good readers respond to the text efficiently and effectively.

· Summarize the Content

When good readers understand the story or a certain text they are ready to summarize it in their own words. The process of reading and understanding helps them to write a review or briefly explain it in their own words.

So, when you will finish reading this article on good readers you will definitely want to buy a good book of your taste and will follow the tips given above. These tips will surely help you to develop your interest in reading and increase your vocabulary. Our daily lives which seem to be very busy and hectic have a maximum screen time of five to eight hours. We should take out some time for our leisure and invest it in reading a good book. It will essentially assist you to develop a sense of comprehension and creativity. Reading books can make you relax and refresh your brain from the tiring routine.

Good books create good readers and good readers take advantage of their knowledge and write useful literature for the people. I would recommend you to read good content as much as you can so that you turn out to be a good reader and a keen observer. I hope this brief article on “what good readers do?” might make you a good reader too!

Here are some wise words from the world-famous writers and personalities, Just take a moment to appreciate their famous sayings and quotes about reading.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” Benjamin Franklin

“Only a generation of good readers will spawn a generation of good writers” Steven Spielberg

“Learn to be good readers, which is perhaps a more difficult thing than you can imagine. Learn to be discriminative in your reading to read faithfully and with your best attention all kinds of things that you have a real interest in not imaginary and in which you find to be really fit for what you are engaged in.” Thomas Carlyle

“Some readers allow their prejudices to blind them. A good reader knows how to disregard inappropriate responses.” John Barton

“Better readers are better thinkers” James Patterson

“Maybe this is why we read and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words we already know” Alberto Manguel