TECHNICAL ENGLISH

PRESENTED BY:
BAHLOUL KHAOULA

FOR SECOND YEAR SCIENCES

AND TECHNOLOGIES
STUDENTS
 LECTURE 1:
READING TECHNIQUES

The four main types of reading techniques are the

following:
Skimming
Scanning
Intensive
Extensive
 1) SKIMMING

• Skimming is sometimes referred to as gist reading. It may

help to know what the text is about at its most basic level.
• Skimming will certainly save you a lot of time. But it is
not the best way to read because your comprehension will
be lowered.
• However, skimming is useful when your goal is to
preview the text to get a better idea of what is it about. It
will help you for deeper learning. This completely
prepares your brain to have an overview of what this text
is about. You can then go on to use scanning to find
specific important ideas.
 2) SCANNING

• Scanning involves getting your eyes to quickly scuttle

across sentence and is used to get just a simple piece of
information. Pay special attention to the introduction and
the conclusion.
 3) INTENSIVE READING
• You need to have your aims clear in mind when undertaking intensive
reading. Remember this is going to be far more time consuming than
scanning or skimming.
• If you need to list the chronology of events in a long passage, you will need
to read it intensively.
• This type of reading is beneficial to language learners as it helps them
understand vocabulary by deducing the meaning of words in context.
• It moreover, helps with retention of information for long periods of time
and knowledge resulting from intensive reading persists in your long term
memory.
• This is one reason why reading huge amounts of information just before an
exam does not work very well. Students tend to do this, and they undertake
neither type of reading process effectively, especially neglecting intensive
reading. They may remember the answers in an exam but will likely forget
everything soon afterwards.
 4) EXTENSIVE READING

• Extensive reading involves reading for pleasure. Because

there is an element of enjoyment in extensive reading it is
unlikely that students will undertake extensive reading of
a text they do not like.
• It also requires a fluid decoding and assimilation of the
text and content in front of you. If the text is difficult and
you stop every few minutes to figure out what is being
said or to look up new words in the dictionary, you are
breaking your concentration and diverting your thoughts
 LECTURE 2:
HOW TO READ A SCIENTIFIC PAPER
 STRUCTURE OF AN ARTICLE
I. ABSTRACT

• The Abstract portion of an article is a short summary of the article as a whole.

It should include the focus and results of the study as well as ultimate
conclusions drawn. It does not explain in full any of the above, so it is
important to use the abstract as a tool to decide if you should investigate
further.
• The Abstract is always available even when an organization does not have a
subscription to a journal.
• The Abstract is the best thing to read FIRST.
Question to ask:
Does this interest me?
Is this related to my area of research?
 II. INTRODUCTION
• The Introduction of a paper explains the idea investigated. It should include
what refers to as a "Literature Review", which is a summary of research
already performed by others about the same topic. Here it should indicate why
this particular study is unique or how it adds to the discussion.
• The literature review may have its own section in the paper, if so; it will
directly follow the introduction.
• If the abstract is unclear, you may wish to read the introduction second, if the
abstract is clear, the introduction may wait until you read more of the paper.
Questions to ask:
What have other people done in regards to this topic?
How is this research unique?
Will this tell me anything new?
 III. MATERIAL AND METHOD

• The Materials and Methods section of a paper tells you how the study
was performed. It should include the specifics of the experiment or study, so
if you wanted to repeat it, you could. It is important to note that not all
studies include enough information to be repeated, and that is considered a
poor Materials and Methods section.
• Some people suggest reading Materials & Methods second, so you can see if
all of the information is there to repeat. However, sometimes the M&M
section may be too technical for some readers. You may also jump to the
Discussion second, or the Introduction, if you still are not sure what the
article is trying to convey.
Questions to ask:
Could I repeat their work?
Is all the information present in order to repeat it?
 IV. RESULTS

• The Results section of a research paper should tell you, in unbiased

terms, what the findings were. The data should be included here.
• Rarely the Results and Discussion sections will be combined.
• Some suggest reading the Results section before the Discussion to review
the data without opinions of the researchers clouding your judgment. Some
may wish to read the Discussion first to see if the paper still holds interest
for them.
Questions to ask:
Are the results presented in a factual and unbiased way?
Is all the data present?
What conclusions do you formulate from this data?
 V. DISCUSSION / CONCLUSION
• The Discussions section of a research paper should tell you what the
researchers felt was significant about the results. This is where they analyse
the data. What did the data tell them? They may also point to facts and
figures.
• The Conclusion of a scientific paper tells you the final thoughts from the
researchers. It may reiterate what they noted in the Discussion or it may
even be combined with the Discussion. Many times the Conclusion
recommends areas to be researched in the future.
• The Conclusion may generally be read last.
Questions to ask:
Does their analysis agree with the data present?
What are the weaknesses in their argument?
Is the conclusion valid?
Based on what you have read, what other research should be explored
next?
 VI. REFERENCES

• The References section of the article gives credit to other scientists and
researchers. It shows you what works the article you are reading referred to
when planning their research and writing their paper. Any articles they
mention in their Introduction or Literature Review should be present here.
Any studies they modeled their Materials and Methods on should be
included here.
• The References may be read at any time during the process. You may want
to follow up a point made in the text, or you may want to look them over in
the end to see what else you might read.
Questions to ask:
What other articles should I read?
What other authors are respected in this field?