Previewing and Making Predictions

Previewing or pre-reading is looking something over before you actually read it. Previewing helps you to get ready for the piece you are about to read, whether it be a magazine article, a Web page, or a textbook. By previewing your reading, you give yourself a sense of what to expect when you do the actual reading.

When you read actively, you also make predictions about where a piece of writing is headed based on the words and sentences you are reading at a given moment.