This is the most effective way to learn

Chapter 58 Preface Grammar

The preface refers to the text written in front of the main text of a book, which mainly introduces the target audience of the book, the main content, and the author's reason, intention, process, and style of writing the book.Some prefaces also introduce the author's situation, relevant background materials, and comments and analysis of the book.

The benefits of reading order are many

(1) Knowing the object is good for book selection.Read the preface first to find out who the readers are, so as not to spend a lot of energy reading books that are not suitable for you.

(2) Understand the background and make it easy to get started.

(3) Those who know the book know the book better.

(4) Get a guide and don't get lost.

(5) Grasp the key points and gain a deep understanding.

In general, the main points of the book can be pointed out in the preface, so that readers can understand the ideological content of the work more accurately and deeply.

Einstein's Preface Reading Method
Coincidentally, the great physicist Einstein summed up the "one total, two points, three combinations" reading method, which is also such a learning method that advocates reading the preface first.Specifically, the steps are as follows:

General: first browse the preface, postscript, preface and other general parts of the book, and then read the table of contents carefully, so as to have a general understanding of the structure, content, main points and system of the whole book, so that you can have an overall impression of the whole book.

Two points: After reading the table of contents, skim the text first, instead of reading word by word, but focus on reading the paragraphs with big and small titles, underlines, dots, boldface or special marks, which are often the key points of each section .Readers can choose the content they need to read carefully according to these.

Sanhe: On the basis of skimming the whole book, you have a specific impression of the book, then go back and read the contents of the table of contents and the whole book carefully, and think about it and synthesize it to make it organized and systematized. In order to clarify its inner connection, achieve the purpose of deepening and improving, and further understand many things that could not be understood at the first reading.This step is very important. People often read the book and throw it away when they don't know the point of this step.

Several Situations of Pre-reading Grammar
Preface grammar is actually a kind of exploratory reading.Exploratory reading is an effective reading method.It usually refers to reading in order to search for some kind of information or to determine whether the reading is worth reading.This is a reading method often carried out by people with independent study habits.

There are [-] different cases of this reading:
(1) In order to grasp the general point of view of a book, the following steps must be followed:
Note the title and subtitle of the book, author and publisher;
Read the Introduction and Preface;

Browse the table of contents and check the bibliography;
Read the publisher's words or notes about the author;

Choose one or two central chapters that contain the main themes, and read the first and last paragraphs of it.

After a quick read, it can be determined whether the book contains the material the explorer needs and whether further in-depth or comprehensive reading is required.

(2) In order to grasp which type of books or newspapers a chapter or article appears in, know the relationship between the read part and other parts, and find out the paragraphs and sentences that summarize the article.

(3) In order to find some special information, we must learn to browse.When browsing, keep the questions you are looking for in mind, move your eyes as soon as possible, scan the reading materials, and use titles, prompts, etc. to help you search for the required information.

Using this method can help us distinguish the quality of a book as soon as possible, grasp the general idea as soon as possible, and effectively improve the efficiency of reading.

(End of this chapter)