About-Point+Plus

// About-Point Plus // is an easy-to-remember formula for strategic reading. To use this strategy, readers pause at natural breaks in the text (at headings, subheadings, or paragraphs) and complete the following two phrases: // This section is about _______. The point is _______. //
 * About-Point Plus Reading Strategy **

These simple phrases remind readers to translate the basic meaning of the section and then to ratchet up their comprehension to the interpretive level in order to state the author’s probable intent for presenting this information in this way.

An //about// statement should be more than a single key word but less than a summary. The //about// statement should identify //what// is discussed in the section. The //about// statementis not a judgment; rather, it’s simply an unbiased summary of //what// is discussed.

A //point// statement should include the most important elements of the section. Here are two possible About-Point Plus statements: //This paragraph is about one Japanese-American woman’s trip from Los Angeles to Park College, and the point is that having done nothing wrong, she was treated worse than a criminal simply because of her Japanese ancestry.//

//This paragraph is about President Young’s opening-of-school speech in September 1942, and the point is that bigotry is a greater threat to freedom than an invading army.//

The //plus// element of the About-Point Plus strategy calls on the reader to use a quotation or multiple quotations to support the //about// and //point// statements. Examples of quotations to support the above About-Point statements are: //“She said, ‘I was going to Union Station in Los Angeles, but I felt like I was going to the guillotine” (6). (1st statement)//

//President Young said, “The Axis (powers) are not the only change to our liberties as we know them...There are those who, because of their intolerance and bigotry, would deny to a fellow American citizen his just rights...What makes this spurious loyalty so dangerous is that it is cloaked in the garb of patriotism” (11). (2nd statement)//