3 Stages of Reading Literary Works

PART TWO: READING STRATEGIES
UNIT 1: Stages of Reading Literary Works
Class: FORM THREE

In this Unit, the following aspects will be covered:
- Introduction
- Stages of reading literary works
- Conclusion

INTRODUCTION 
This is the PART TWO of the five parts to be covered in this series of articles on LITERATURE IN ENGLISH. Reading strategies is a part in which all main literary genres are discussed especially on how they should be read. These are strategies that are applied by any advanced reader of literary works so that they can get the most of the content before they start analysing the works of art.

3 STAGES OF READING LITERARY WORKS
Mostly, reading a single literary work fall into three major stages. They are:
1. Before reading
2. During reading
3. After reading

Let us take a simple example from Reading a Poem. When reading a poem, a reader should treat these three stages as follows:
1. Before reading. (Mind Preparation Stage) A person should sit down and have settled mind because poems are short but they can be difficult if the person reading it has failed to concentrate on the poem. At this stage, the readers should avoid any distractions that can prevent them from understanding the poem.

2. During reading. (Rethinking Stage) A person during reading a poem is required to think and reflect on what is being communicated in the poem. This can help the reader to understand the poem and make it simple to paraphrase the poem at the end. Also during this stage, the reader can take down important notes to be used during Analysis stage. A good reader has to understand Inference Making Skills for better execution of this stage.

3. After reading. (Analysis Stage) Firstly, the reader should keep in mind that a poem should be read more than once so that its fullest message is taken into consideration. Secondly the reader needs to use the clues he/she kept during Rethinking Stage and start analysing a poem itself. The poem has to be analysed by using all important Analysis stages. You can check out 15 Stages of Analysing a Poem.

CONCLUSION
These three stages for reading a work of art are going to be discussed in each literary genre, that is, there will be specific reading strategies/techniques for a novel, play and a poem.
Therefore, for any Literary Genre, every reader has to get ready before reading a story, rethink about the story he/she is reading, and analyze the story after reading. These are the three basic stages for understanding any work of art.