Final answer:
College students enhance reading comprehension by looking up unfamiliar words, expanding their vocabulary, and actively engaging with the text. Developing context and critical analysis skills is also essential for deeper understanding and writing.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ability to comprehend what you read is fundamental to academic success, especially in college where students encounter a variety of new subjects. Strengthening comprehension skills relies on proactive reading habits like regularly consulting resources such as the Oxford English Dictionary to understand unfamiliar words and mastering the technical skills of reading.
Yet, to develop context for new material, students must engage actively with texts, which involves a blend of vocabulary expansion, critical analysis, and connecting new knowledge to existing information networks. Students need to read widely, utilizing books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs to enhance their vocabulary. Avoiding passive reading is crucial; understanding the text requires active engagement to build cognitive connections.
In any case, whether it's literary works or informational texts, the reader must acquire some prior knowledge of the subject matter, learn the specialized language utilized within it, and understand the conventions of the genre to facilitate reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.