The chapters in this section introduce, develop, and then further explore the notion that reading is not a passive but rather an active process, involving the reader in ongoing interaction with the text. Goodman's chapter introduces the idea that reading, far from being passive, is an active process, with emphasis on both active and process. In presenting his macro model of the reading process, Goodman situates reading within the broader context of communicative, meaning-seeking, information processing. He further highlights both the psycholinguistic aspects of reading (how language and thought interact), as well as the sociolinguistic aspects of reading (language operating in a social context including writers as well as readers). Whether or not one agrees with Goodman that there is indeed a single reading process, or that miscue analysis is the best or even an appropriate way to access this process, Goodman's model sets the stage for approaching reading as an active process.

The chapter by Samuels and Kamil presents an overview of several models of reading, all from the perspective of reading as an active process. Depending on the particular foci or interests of the specific model builders, different aspects of reading as an active process are emphasized in these different models. Samuels and Kamil not only touch on various aspects of a number of models, but they go into some detail on two models in particular – Rumelhart's interactive-activation model, and Stanovich's interactive-compensatory model. In discussing these two models, Samuels and Kamil introduce the notions of top-down and bottom-up processing, and interactive models, models that have interacting hierarchical stages, rather than discrete stages that are passed through in a strictly linear fashion.