Chapter 8 Coming to Terms with an Author
We’ve made it through the first stage of analytical reading, which has allowed us to tell what a book is about and to outline it’s structure. We have applied the first four rules of reading to accomplish this task. Following the outlining of our book, we move into the next stage of reading, which also includes four rules. The first of these rules (Rule 5) is Coming to Terms with an Author.
What does it mean when readers are instructed to “come to terms” with an author? Discuss the difference between words and terms to explain what this means. (p. 96-98)
Adler describes term to mean the basic element of communicable knowledge. In order for us, the readers, to be able to understand what an author is telling us in their writing, we need to be clear on what they are communicating. The simple answer would be to say authors are using words, but words usually have multiple meanings, and so words themselves are ambiguous. In order to understand what authors are trying to communicate, we need to know not just the words they are using, but also qualify which meaning of a word they are using – and this is what is meant by term. A term is a word with further qualifications to make clear which meaning the author is using, to make their communication unambiguous. Another way to think about terms is such – the skilled use of words for the sake of communicating knowledge.
Knowing what is meant by words and terms, state the fifth rule of reading (expository works) and describe briefly. (p. 98-99)
Rule 5: Find the important words and through them come to terms with the author. Stated another way, you must sport the important words in a book, and then figure out how the author is using them. This rule has two parts: first, find the important words. And second, determine the meaning of these words.
Describe the first step of Rule 5 – Finding the Key Words. (p. 100-102)
Most of the words an author uses are not important. What is meant by this is most of the words used by an author are going to be unimportant words that everyone uses in everyday life, and so readers should have no difficulty understanding them in context. Some words, however, are more important than others. These are words that the author uses that may be a word of common speech, but has a definitely special sense. Some of these words have meanings however that differ in time and place, and may not be equally familiar to readers in daily usage. This is especially true of more archaic terms – words that are not used much in current usage, or that may have been used differently in earlier times.
In reading passages from a book, words that you the reader have no trouble with are probably used in ordinary ways by the author. Words that give you trouble when reading a passage are usually the important words (though not always). If you are familiar enough with the author, you may find you do not struggle with any of the words the author uses. So, you may find some important words by the fact that they are not ordinary words for you.
Another way to spot important words are typographical stresses that the author may use – quotation marks or italics, something that calls attention to certain words. They may then discuss the way in which they intend to use these words.
Every field of knowledge has its own technical language, and searching for subject specific terms is another way of finding important words.
One more way to find important words is to identify new words, or words that may have been taken from common speech and made into a technical term. Words that are typically used by others in one way, but the author is pointing out that they use in a different way, may also be considered important words.
Describe the second part of Rule 5 – Finding the Meaning. (p. 106-107)
After identifying important words used by the author, we need to determine whether these words are being used in a single sense, in which case the word stands for a single term, or if the meaning of the word shifts from place to place in the book (so that the word stands for several terms).
For those words that have several meanings, you should try to see how they are related. Consider the places where the word is used, and see if the context of each use gives a clue in how the meaning shifts.
So, to find the meaning of a word you do not understand, you need to use the meanings of the other words in the context that you do understand. If we know what every other word means in the context of a particular sentence, we can then determine what the meaning of the unknown word is. The process by which you acquire meanings is this – you operate with meanings you already possess.
Distinguish between vocabulary and terminology. (p. 109)
Recall that one word can represent several terms (meanings). An author’s vocabulary are the important words that they use. The terminology are the important meanings of each word (terms) that are used.
How are synonyms defined, using ‘word’ and ‘terms’? Why do authors choose to use synonyms in their writing? (p. 110)
We understand that single words can have multiple meanings or terms. We can also have single terms that have multiple, distinct words that refer to that single term. We know these words as synonyms – words that are different but have the same meaning.
** Note – assume much of the content following each discussion question is a paraphrase and comes from the book How to Read a Book.
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