Tips for effective reading
Throughout your career as a student you will be required to read a variety of texts and gather material for assignments. Here are some guidelines for effective reading.
1. Preview
2. Question
3. Take notes
4. Summarise
5. Review and reflect
1. Preview
When skimming, you should follow the procedure below, adapting it to your purpose.
· Read the title.
· Note the writer's name.
· Note the date and place of publication.
· Read the firSt paragraph completely.
· Read sub-headings and first sentences of remaining paragraphs.
As you read, pick up main ideas, key words (words that tell you who, what, when, where, how many, and how much), and transition markers (words like 'however', 'alternatively', 'additionally', and so on), which suggest the direction of ideas in the text.
2. Question
Effective reading is active reading. To turn reading from a passive into an active exercise, always ask questions.
To do this, you must be clear about the purpose of your reading. If you are reading a text which you will be critiquing in detail, your questions will be different from those you would ask if you were reading a number of texts for background information. If you are gathering material for an essay, formulate some tentative ideas about the approaches you might take, modifying them as you accumulate material.
As you read, list all the words about which you are uncertain; look them up in the dictionary and write down their meanings.
3. Take notes
Some reasons for taking notes are:
· to maintain attentiveness as you read,
· to focus your attention,
· to familiarize yourself on a given subject,
· to analyse the assumptions and strategies of the writer,
· to provide you with a summary of the material.
Some hints for taking notes:
· Always record bibliographical details of the text from which you are taking notes.
· Write on one side of the paper only.
· Leave a wide margin for comments and cross-references.
· Use headings, subheadings, and diagrams.
· Keep notes brief enough to make sense to you.
• Make sure they're legible.
4. Summarise
Making a summary from your notes has two main benefits.
· It allows you to test yourself on your understanding of the material you have been reading.
· It provides you with a compact account of the text for further reference.
5. Review and reflect
It's important to review and reflect upon what you've read. This enhances your understanding and helps you to commit important facts and ideas to your long-term memory.
The SQ3R technique
SQ3R stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. It is a proven technique to sharpen textbook reading skills. In college, you'll frequently be assigned multiple chapters for several different courses in books that can be quite complicated. SQ3R helps reading purposeful and meaningful, so that you use your time most effectively. Here's how this strategy works.
Survey
Get an idea of what the chapter is about by reviewing the highlights:
Read the title, headings, and subheadings.
· Take note of words that are italicized or bold.
Look at charts, graphs, pictures, maps, and other visual material.
Read captions.
Read the beginning and end of the chapter.
Question
As you survey the text, ask a question for each section. Ask what, why, how, when,
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76 • Soft Skills
Tips for effective reading
Throughout your career as a student you will be required to read a variety of texts and gather material for assignments. Here are some guidelines for effective reading.
1. Preview
2. Question
3. Take notes
4. Summarise
5. Review and reflect
1. Preview
When skimmin~ you should follow the procedure below, adapting it to your purpose.
· Read the title.
· Note the writer's name.
· Note the date and place of publication.
· Read the first paragraph completely.
· Read sub-headings and first sentences of remaining paragraphs.
As you read, pick up main ideas, key words (words that tell you who, what, when, where, how many, and how much), and transition markers (words like 'however', 'alternatively', 'additionally', and so on), which suggest the direction of ideas in the text.
2. Question
Effective reading is active reading. To turn reading from a passive into an active exercise, always ask questions.
To do this, you must be clear about the purpose of your reading. If you are reading a text which you will be critiquing in detaiL your questions will be different from those you would ask if you were reading a number of texts for background information. If you are gathering material for an essay, formulate some tentative ideas about the approaches you might take, modifying them as you accumulate material.
As you read, list all the words about which you are uncertain; look them up in the dictionary and write down their meanings.
3. Take notes
Some reasons for taking notes are:
· to maintain attentiveness as you read,
· to focus your attention,
· to familiarize yourself on a given subject,
· to analyse the assumptions and strategies of the writer,
· to provide you with a summary of the material.
Some hints for taking notes:
· Always record bibliographical details of the text from which you are taking notes.
· Write on one side of the paper only.
· Leave a wide margin for comments and cross-references.
· Use headings, subheadings, and diagrams.
· Keep notes brief enough to make sense to you.
• Make sure they're legible.
4. Summarise
Making a summary from your notes has two main benefits.
· It allows you to test yourself on your understanding of the material you have been reading.
· It provides you with a compact account of the text for further reference.
5. Review and reflect