Using Text Features for Information — I can use headings, bold words, and pictures to find information in a short text. - Adult Literacy Beginner

SECTION 1

Why Text Features Matter

A long time ago, books and papers did not have headings, bold words, or pictures. Readers had to read every single word to find information. This took a lot of time. Over the years, writers began adding new tools to help readers. These tools are called text features. Text features are marks or pictures in a text that help you find and understand information quickly.

Long Ago • Plain Text Only

Early books and papers were written in long blocks of text. There were no headings, bold words, or pictures to help readers find information fast.

1450s • The Printing Press

The printing press made it easier to print books with different sizes and styles of text. This led to titles, headings, and bold words becoming common in printed books.

1800s • Pictures in Books

New printing methods made it possible to add pictures, drawings, and charts to books. This helped readers understand new topics more easily.

Today • Text Features Everywhere

Websites, apps, and e-books use headings, bold words, and pictures all the time. These features help readers find information fast, wherever they are reading.

This lesson answers a simple question: when you read something short — like a flyer, a news story, a work memo, or a page in a book — how can you find the information you need without reading every word? The answer is to use text features — they work like signs that point you straight to the information you need.

SECTION 2

Core Principles & Definitions

Text features are marks and pictures that writers add to help readers find information faster. Instead of reading every single word, you can look for these helpful clues first. The three text features in this lesson are headings, bold words, and pictures. Learning to use these three will help you find information in almost any short text.

Headings Tell You the Topic

A heading is a title above part of the text. It tells you what that part is about. Read the heading first. It helps you decide if that part has the information you need.

Bold Words Mark Key Terms

A bold word looks darker and thicker than the other words. Bold words show you the most important words or facts in the text. They help your eyes find the key information fast.

Pictures Show and Explain

A picture — like a photo, drawing, or chart — shows an idea from the text. Pictures can make hard ideas easier to understand. The words under a picture, called a caption, often give extra information too.

Scanning Before Reading

Effective reading starts with scanning — looking quickly at the headings, bold words, and pictures before you read the whole text. Scanning helps you know what the text is about before you start reading closely.

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KEY TAKEAWAY

Think of text features like signs in a big building. Headings are like the signs above each room — they tell you what is inside before you go in. Bold words are like labels on important items — they show you what matters most. Pictures are like windows — you can see inside at a glance. Just like you would look at signs in a building, always look at text features before you read.

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Visual Explanation — Anatomy of a Text Page

The picture below shows a sample page. It has labels for the three text features: headings, bold words, and a picture with a caption. Look closely at the picture. Notice where each feature is placed. This will help you scan for these features on your own.

This picture shows the three text features marked on a sample article about healthy eating. The headings (purple) sit at the top of each part. The bold words (pink) stand out inside the paragraphs. The picture with a caption (cyan) gives a quick visual summary of the topic.

Look at the picture again. The heading "Healthy Eating Habits" is the biggest text. It tells you the main topic. The second heading, "Why Water Matters," starts a new topic. The bold words — "whole grains," "five servings," and "water" — point out the most important facts. The picture and its caption give a quick visual summary. Good readers scan the heading, bold words, and picture first, before reading every sentence. This makes reading faster and easier.

SECTION 4

How to Use Text Features — A Three-Step Way

Using text features well is not about reading more — it is about reading smart. Here is a simple three-step way to find information: Preview, Locate, and Read. First, you preview the text by scanning the headings, bold words, and pictures. Second, you locate the part that likely has your answer, using the headings as a guide. Third, you read closely in that part, using bold words and pictures to find the exact detail you need. This three-step way works well for memos, articles, letters, and other short texts.

Phase 1 — Preview

Before you read any full sentences, look down the page and read only the headings. Ask yourself: "What topics does this cover?" Then look at any pictures and captions. Ask: "What do the pictures show?" Last, look for bold words. Ask: "What key words does the writer think are important?" This quick scan takes about thirty seconds for a short text. After scanning, you already have an idea of what the text is about.

Phase 2 — Locate

If you have a question in mind — for example, "How much water should I drink each day?" — use the headings to find the part most likely to have the answer. In our sample text, the heading "Why Water Matters" points you straight to the right part. You do not need to read the "Healthy Eating Habits" part at all for that question. This saves time.

Phase 3 — Read Closely

Once you are in the right part, read it carefully and let bold words guide your eyes. The bold word "water" tells you that you are in the right place. The sentences around it give you the answer. If a picture is in that part, look at it too — the caption may repeat or add to the information. This close reading goes faster because you already found the right part of the text.

The three-step way in action. Step 1 scans all text features. Step 2 uses headings to find the right part. Step 3 reads closely, guided by bold words and pictures.

SECTION 5

Other Text Features You May See

Headings, bold words, and pictures are the three text features in this lesson. But there are other text features too. The table below shows some common ones and what each one does.

Category	Feature	What It Does	Example
Organizes the Text	Heading / Subheading	Tells you the topic of a section so you can find the right part	"Safety Steps" above a part of a work manual
Organizes the Text	Table of Contents	Lists all the headings and page numbers so you can find things fast	The front page of a book that lists chapter names
Changes How Words Look	Bold Print	Shows key words or important facts in a sentence	The word "photosynthesis" in bold in a science article
Changes How Words Look	Italics	Shows a title, a new word, or a word from another language	The word "E. coli" written in italics
Shows a Picture	Photos / Drawings	Shows what the text is talking about	A photo of a coral reef in an article about the ocean
Shows a Picture	Charts / Diagrams	Shows numbers or steps in a visual way	A bar chart showing rainfall each month
Shows a Picture	Captions	Explains what a picture shows, and sometimes adds new facts	"Picture 3: The water cycle" under a diagram

Common Text Features

This lesson focuses on the three features that help beginner readers the most: headings, bold words, and pictures with captions. As you get better at using these, you will start to notice other helpful features too, like tables of contents and captions. They all do the same job — they help you find information fast.

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REAL-WORLD APPLICATION

Think about reading a restaurant menu. The headings ("Appetizers," "Main Dishes," "Desserts") help you find the right part. Bold or big words catch your eye. Pictures of food show you what a dish looks like. You do not read a menu word by word from top to bottom — you scan it. Reading a short text works the same way.

SECTION 6

Worked Example — Finding Information in a Short Text

Let's look at a full example using a short work memo. Imagine you get this memo at your job. Your task is to answer this question: "What time does the new parking policy start?" Instead of reading the whole memo, we will use the three-step way to find the answer fast.

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SAMPLE MEMO

COMPANY UPDATE — January 2025 New Office Hours Starting February 1, office hours will change from 8:00 AM–5:00 PM to 9:00 AM–6:00 PM. Please adjust your schedules accordingly. Parking Policy Changes Effective March 15 at 7:00 AM, all employees must display a new parking permit in their vehicles. Permits are available at the front desk. Holiday Schedule The office will be closed on February 17 for Presidents' Day. [Picture: Image of new parking permit sticker]

Finding the Parking Policy Start Time

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Step 1 — Preview the Text Features

Before reading full sentences, scan the memo for text features. You quickly see three headings: "New Office Hours," "Parking Policy Changes," and "Holiday Schedule." You also notice some bold words and a picture of a parking permit. This scan takes about ten seconds.

Mental map: three parts — office hours, parking, holidays
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Step 2 — Locate the Right Section

Your question is about parking, so you look at the headings and go straight to "Parking Policy Changes." You skip "New Office Hours" and "Holiday Schedule" because they do not match your question.

Right part found: "Parking Policy Changes"
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Step 3 — Read Closely Using Bold Words

In the "Parking Policy Changes" part, you see the bold words "March 15 at 7:00 AM." Bold print tells you this is the most important detail in the section. The sentence around it confirms this is when everyone must show a new parking permit.

Answer: The new parking policy starts on March 15 at 7:00 AM.
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Step 4 — Check the Picture for Confirmation

The picture of the parking permit shows you that this part is about parking. It does not give the exact time, but it confirms you are reading the right section.

Picture confirms: this part is about the parking policy

Notice that you only had to read one part of the memo closely. By using headings to find the right part, bold words to spot the key detail, and the picture to double-check, you found the answer fast. This is the main benefit of using text features.

SECTION 7

Strengths and Limitations of Text Features

Like any reading strategy, using text features has both strengths and limits. Knowing both sides helps you become a flexible reader — you will know when text features help and when you need to read the whole text closely instead.

Strengths	Limitations
Saves time — you can skip parts you do not need	Not every text has headings, bold words, or pictures
Gives you a quick idea of the text before you read closely	Headings can sometimes be unclear, like "Important Information"
Shows you the key words the writer thinks are important	Bold words do not explain themselves — you still need to read the sentence around them
Pictures make hard ideas easier to picture and understand	Some pictures are just decoration and do not add new facts
Works for many kinds of texts: memos, articles, manuals, websites	Only using text features can make you miss details in the full text

Strengths and Limitations of Using Text Features

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KEY TAKEAWAY

Text features are like the GPS in a car. They help you get to the right place fast. But they do not replace reading — once you get to the right part, you still need to read it carefully to understand it. The best readers use text features to find the right spot, then read closely to understand it.

SECTION 8

Using This Skill in Everyday Life

The skill of finding headings, bold words, and pictures will help you every time you read. You will use it to read bills, job forms, medicine labels, appointment letters, and more. The more you practice scanning for these three features, the faster and more confident you will become as a reader.

Skill You Learned	Real-Life Use	Example
Reading headings	Finding the right page in a bill or letter	Look for "Payment Due" on a bill
Finding bold words	Spotting important numbers or warnings	A bold due date on a notice
Looking at pictures	Understanding instructions with diagrams	A picture showing how to take medicine
Scanning before reading	Saving time on forms or manuals	Scanning a job application before filling it out

This Skill in Real Life

Keep practicing with things you read every day — flyers, letters, and short articles. Each time, take a few seconds to scan the headings, bold words, and pictures first. This habit will make you a faster, more confident reader.

SECTION 9

Practice Problems

The following five problems will help you practice using headings, bold words, and pictures to find information. Each problem gives you a short text or scenario, a question, and a full answer.

Question 1: CONCEPTUAL

A short article about exercise has three headings: "Benefits of Walking," "Swimming for Fitness," and "Strength Training Basics." If you want to learn about swimming, which heading should you look under, and why?

Show answer

You should look under the heading "Swimming for Fitness." A heading tells the reader what that part of the text is about. Since your question is about swimming, the heading that mentions swimming shows you where the answer is. By going straight to that heading, you skip the parts about walking and strength training, which do not match your question. This is the main idea behind using headings as a guide.

Question 2: BASIC APPLICATION

In a health brochure, you see the following sentence: "Adults should drink at least eight glasses of water per day to stay hydrated." Why did the writer put "eight glasses" in bold, and what does that tell you as a reader?

Show answer

The writer put "eight glasses" in bold because it is the most important fact in the sentence — the exact amount of water recommended. Bold print tells the reader that a word or phrase is a key detail the writer wants to stand out. When you see bold text, treat it as a high-priority fact that likely answers a common question. Here, the bold phrase directly answers "How much water should I drink?"

Question 3: INTERMEDIATE

You are reading an employee handbook. Under the heading "Vacation Policy," there is a paragraph about how to request time off, followed by a picture of a calendar with highlighted dates. The caption reads: "Blackout dates: December 20–31." Your manager asks you which days you cannot request vacation. How do you use the text features to answer quickly?

Show answer

First, the heading "Vacation Policy" tells you that you are in the right part of the handbook. Instead of reading the whole paragraph about how to request time off, you look at the picture — a calendar with highlighted dates — and read its caption. The caption says "Blackout dates: December 20–31," which directly answers the question. This shows how a picture and its caption can hold key information that you might miss if you only read the running text. By using the heading to find the right part and the caption to find the detail, you got the answer without reading the full paragraph.

Question 4: APPLIED

You are a new hire at a warehouse and receive a safety manual with the following headings: "Emergency Exits," "Fire Extinguisher Locations," "Reporting Injuries," and "Personal Protective Equipment." On your first day, a coworker cuts their hand. You need to find out how to report the injury. Describe the step-by-step process you would use.

Show answer

Using the three-step way, you would first preview the manual by scanning all four headings: emergency exits, fire extinguishers, reporting injuries, and protective equipment. Next, in the locate step, you pick "Reporting Injuries" as the heading that matches your situation — a coworker got hurt and you need the reporting steps. You skip the other three parts. In the read-closely step, you go to the "Reporting Injuries" part and look for bold words that might show a phone number, a form name, or a supervisor's title. If that part has a picture — maybe a diagram of the injury report form — you look at that too, since the caption might explain how to fill it out. This step-by-step approach helps you find the right procedure quickly in an urgent moment.

Question 5: CRITICAL THINKING

Consider two versions of the same article about climate change. Version A has no headings, no bold words, and no pictures — just six plain paragraphs. Version B has the same information but includes three headings, bold key words, and two charts with captions. A reader wants to find the predicted temperature increase by 2050. Compare how easy it would be to find this information in each version, and explain why text features help.

Show answer

In Version A, the reader must read all six paragraphs from start to finish to find the temperature number, since there are no clues to guide them. This takes more time and effort, especially if the fact is near the end. In Version B, the reader can scan the three headings to find the part about future predictions, then look for bold words or a chart that shows the number for 2050. This is much faster. Text features help because they let the reader skip the parts they do not need and go straight to the important information. This saves time and makes reading easier.

SUMMARY

Lesson Summary

Summary

In this lesson, you learned that text features are marks and pictures — including headings, bold words, and pictures — that writers add to help readers find and understand information quickly. Headings are titles that tell you the topic of a section. Bold words point out key facts and important terms. Pictures, with their captions, show ideas visually and can add extra information.

The Preview–Locate–Read way gives you a simple plan for using these features: first, preview the text by scanning all its features; then, locate the right part using headings; and finally, read closely in that part, guided by bold words and pictures. This skill will help you read letters, forms, articles, and other texts more quickly and with more confidence.