Active Reading Skills focuses on essential skill areas for college-reading success, and improves students' reading through concise instruction, and extensive practice and testing. Each chapter focuses on a specific reading and thinking skill, and contains exercises that get students applying the learned skill to textbooks and ends with a vocabulary enrichment exercise.

Essential Reading Skills focuses on the four essential skill areas for college-reading success (active reading and thinking, vocabulary development, literal and critical comprehension, and organizational emphasis) and improves students' reading through concise instruction, and extensive practice and testing. Each of the eleven chapters focuses on a specific reading and thinking skill, and contains exercises that get students applying the learned skill to textbooks and ends with a vocabulary enrichment exercise.