What is reading for gist?
Gist is the overall meaning, the core idea, the main
idea of a spoken or written discourse. When we take a
quick look at a written text to establish its genre and
the main message that its writer means to get across,
we're reading for gist.
A text can provide readers with lots of clues that help
readers quickly establish what it's all about. These
needn't be just the words. A quick glance at the
arrangement – densely written columns, for example
– can tell us that we're looking at a newspaper article,
even when it's been reproduced in an exam paper.
This texts explains what reading for gist is.
This
reading strategy is also known as: