Effective reading

To become an effective reader ask yourself:

• Why am I reading?
• What should I read?
• What form will it take?
• Where do I find it?
• Is it worth reading?
• How can I speed read?
• How can I speed read and remember?
• What reduces my reading speed?
• What should I record?

Why am I reading?

• Complete understanding
• General impression
• Generate ideas
• Analyse or critique
• Specific information/fact finding
• Pleasure
• Remember and recall

What should I read?

Tip: If you are going to use what you read in your work, make sure you accurately record, and later acknowledge, the source.

Tip: Check recommended reading lists.
If titles are not available don’t despair - Finding information will help you track down books, journal articles, web sites and other kinds of material in the library and online

Understand that all research is linked so that once you find one source this opens up other complementary/contradictory work

Is it worth reading?

Remember you can waste a lot of time reading materials in too much detail that later proves useless

Reject any materials that do not fit your needs

How can I speed read?

If it passes the above tests then ‘surface read’ by:

• scanning - take a chapter or article and scan it for a piece of information as you would a telephone directory or dictionary.
• skimming –to get an overall understanding of the text, skim (don’t read) every page looking for the ‘signposts’, for example, summary/abstracts, introductions/ headings/boxes, diagrams/tables.

Ignore chunks if not relevant

How can I speed read (and remember)?

Try SQ3R:

• Survey - Use surface reading techniques (scan, skim, above) to find out if material is relevant.
  
• Question - "What topics does this chapter cover?"
  
• Read the selected material carefully to find meaning and to make sure you understand all the important ideas.
  
• Recall/Write - Test your knowledge of what you have read. Summarise it in your own words.
  
• Review - Look back at the text to see how well you remembered.

What reduces my reading speed?

• Unfamiliarity with topic/concepts
• Slow recognition of material
• Low attention span
• Word by word reading
• Lack of focus - inability to identify the relevant material
• The effort to remember everything rather than to remember selectively
• Density and complexity of the text

What should I record?

Use a scrapbook approach – record:

• Author, title, date, publisher, place of publication (and page number) of all sources. You will need this for your references.
• Key terms and their definitions
• Key theorists, their theories and dates
• Main aims, objectives, findings and conclusions of papers & reports
• Main arguments/ideas for and against
• Important quotes
• Good ideas/thoughts

Next: Note-taking

Updated: 28 October, 2008 | Effective Learning Service | Legal