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Reading Strategies & Tips

Reading is a foundational learning activity for college-level courses. Assigned readings prepare you for taking notes during lectures and provide you with additional examples and detail that might not be covered in class.  Also, according to research, readings are the second most frequent source of exam questions (Cuseo, Fecas & Thompson, 2007). 

Reading a college textbook effectively takes practice and should be approached differently than reading a novel, comic book, magazine, or website. Becoming an effective reader goes beyond completing the reading in full or highlighting text.  There are a variety of strategies you can use to read effectively and retain the information you read.

Consider the following quick tips and ideas to make the most of your reading time:

  • Schedule time to read. Reading is an easy thing to put off because there is often no exact due date.  By scheduling a time each week to do your reading for each class, you are more likely to complete the reading as if it were an assignment.  Producing a study guide or set of notes from the reading can help to direct your thinking as you read.
  • Set yourself up for success.  Pick a location that is conducive to reading.  Establish a reasonable goal for the reading, and a time limit for how long you’ll be working. These techniques make reading feel manageable and make it easier to get started and finish reading. 
  • Choose and use a specific reading strategy.  There are many strategies that will help you actively read and retain information (PRR or SQ3R – see the handouts and videos).  By consciously choosing a way to approach your reading, you can begin the first step of exam preparation or essay writing.  Remember: good readers make stronger writers.
  • Monitor your comprehension. When you finish a section, ask yourself, "What is the main idea in this section?  Could I answer an exam question about this topic?" Questions at the end of chapters are particularly good for focusing your attention and for assessing your comprehension. If you are having difficulty recalling information or answering questions about the text, search back through the text and look for key points and answers. Self-correction techniques like revisiting the text are essential to assessing your comprehension and are a hallmark technique of advanced readers (Caverly & Orlando, 1991).
  • Take notes as you read. Whether they’re annotations in the margins of the book, or notes on a separate piece of paper. Engage with the reading through your notes – ask questions, answer questions, make connections, and think about how these ideas integrate with other information sources (like lecture, lab, other readings, etc.)

Want to dive in a little deeper? Take a look at Kathleen King's tips below to help you get the most out of your reading, and to read for success. You'll see that some are similar to the tips above, but some offer new approaches and ideas; see what works for you:

  1. Read sitting up with good light, and at a desk or table.
  2. Keep background noise to a minimum. Loud rock music will not make you a better reader. The same goes for other distractions: talking to roommates, kids playing nearby, television or radio. Give yourself a quiet environment so that you can concentrate on the text.
  3. Keep paper and pen within reach.
  4. Before beginning to read, think about the purpose of the reading. Why has the teacher assigned the reading? What are you supposed to get out of it? Jot down your thoughts.
  5. Survey the reading. Look at the title of the piece, the subheadings. What is in the dark print or stands out? Are there illustrations or graphs?
  6. Strategize your approach : read the introduction and conclusion, then go back and read the whole assignment, or read the first line in every paragraph to get an idea of how the ideas progress, then go back and read from the beginning.
  7. Scan effectively: scan the entire reading, and then focus on the most interesting or relevant parts to read in detail.
  8. Get a feel for what's expected of you by the reading. Pay attention to when you can skim and when you need to understand every word.
  9. Write as you read. Take notes and talk back to the text. Explain in detail the concepts. Mark up the pages. Ask questions. Write possible test questions. Write down what interests or bores you. Speculate about why.
  10. If you get stuck: think and write about where you got stuck. Contemplate why that particular place was difficult and how you might break through the block.
  11. Record and explore your confusion. Confusion is important because it’s the first stage in understanding.
  12. When the going gets difficult, and you don’t understand the reading, slow down and reread sections. Try to explain them to someone, or have someone else read the section and talk through it together.
  13. Break long assignments into segments. Read 10 pages (and take notes) then do something else. Later, read the next 10 pages and so on.
  14. Read prefaces and summaries to learn important details about the book. Look at the table of contents for information about the structure and movement of ideas. Use the index to look up specific names, places, ideas.

(Reading strategies by Dr. Kathleen King. Many of the above ideas are from a lecture by Dr. Lee Haugen, former Reading specialist at the ISU Academic Skills Center. https://www.ghc.edu/sites/default/files/StudentResources/documents/learn...)

Curious to learn more? Check out our Reading video, and hear what we have to say!

9 Effective Reading Strategies For Quick Comprehension

Whether you are a veteran at reading or just starting to get into adult reading for the first time, you know that reading isn’t quite the same as before. It might be taking you more time to process what you are reading, or maybe you’re looking to speed up your reading overall. Whatever the case may be, what’s truly blocking you from getting up to the right reading speed is the lack of a reading strategy.

I’ve been there plenty of times before, and thanks to the various reading strategies I’ll be talking about, you can devise a reading comprehension strategy to make you understand and read things faster than before.

Here are nine effective reading strategies for quick comprehension:

1. Read With a Purpose

The first strategy that I’d suggest employing is to read with a purpose. This is my go-to strategy for quick comprehension. As I’ve expressed in the past, life is very fast-paced, and reading a book allows me to slow down as I give myself fully to the book, regardless of the genre.

The reason I approach my reading this way is that if your brain is distracted or unable to process the information presented, then you’ll lose that information.

Another way you can look at this is to read with a purpose in mind. You’ll lose that information if you don’t focus on that purpose for reading.

Knowing how to read with a purpose is a matter of grouping books into three categories:

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  • Books that strengthen a skill – These books are packed with knowledge consolidated over the years that you can quickly access.
  • Books that share success stories and allow you to learn about a person’s struggles and failures – Even though your circumstances are different, reading about a big name in a field you’re interested in humanizes the process you’re going through right now.
  • Books that let you experience life in a different way than yours – These books provide profound insights into other life experiences and help you understand people on a deeper level.

By grouping books into these categories, you have a clear purpose for reading each book and processing information in that manner.

2. Previewing

I’ve read many books over the years, of course, and one thing you’ll quickly find is that many authors—in non-fiction books specifically—will talk about similar concepts. While an author’s view will be different, some concepts are consistent across the board.

This is where this strategy truly shines as this is all about previewing a text and tapping into what you already know about the subject. While a book or an article could expand your knowledge of something, this can speed up your reading time and understanding because the author is talking about something you’re already familiar with.

There’s no point in reading over something you already know, so it’s easier and faster to move on to how the author uses that information instead.

3. Predicting

Expanding from previewing, the idea with this is that you’re making predictions about what the book or article you’re about to read is like. It sets up expectations.

For example, when you read the title of this post, you expect reading strategies to make comprehension easier. You’re not expecting anything else but that.

This same concept holds true with any book you read. Of course, you’ll make adjustments to your prediction as you read through, but like previewing, you are still brushing over pieces of information that you’re already familiar with or that you expected to be there.

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4. Identifying the Main Point

Every book has a summary to entice readers, but you can provide more in-depth summarization as you’re going through chapters of a book. If you’re looking for faster comprehension of a book, you must find the main idea that the book is presenting to you. Furthermore, by putting it into your words, you’ll have a better grasp of it.

The main point of the book could also be explained in the preface section. Most non-fiction books are set-up in a way where they explain their arguing points of why something matters and why you should continue reading. From there, they’ll discuss what the book contains.

Oftentimes, the main point is in there and you can use that as a blanket statement for the rest of the book. Knowing the main point of the book allows you to put information into context. They’re explaining this concept because it ties into the main point they’re trying to convey.

This saves you a lot of time on reading since if you’re even somewhat familiar with the topic, you can gloss over information with the other methods. Furthermore, you’ll be able to retain this information better as you can describe the main point of a book in a single sentence in the future.

5. Questioning

While you are preparing to read a book, another key reading strategy is to have questions in mind. This may require you to briefly skim through the book and ask yourself questions based on what you skimmed. Questions can stem from various sentences or even the titles or headlines that authors use.

By creating questions, you then begin to focus on answering those questions. Naturally, this brings comprehension quickly as the book ought to be equipped to answer those questions.

How you go about asking these questions is up to you. You could think of them and hold onto them, or you could consider writing them on the right margin of the page where you got that question. As you read through the book, you could mention the answer on the left margin or underline the answer and note the page number underneath the question you asked.

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6. Inferring

This is all about reading between the lines—a skill that not many people have or are hesitant to use. Inferring is a reading strategy that can seem like it would backfire as people’s interpretation of something could be off from what the author intends to convey. But that’s further from the truth as inferring is a process of learning and something you can develop over time.

It’s fine if you’re wrong about things as inferring encourages more of discovering and absorbing information on a deeper level. This naturally increases your comprehension of a topic.

Inferring, in the end, is all about drawing your own conclusions. An author presents information that you can then deduce for yourself and develop all kinds of questions. What do they mean by this? How does this fit in with everything else they’ve said thus far?

Again, even if you’re wrong with the answers to those questions later on in the book, there’s still knowledge to be gained. The answers that you have created could spark new questions or understanding. And when an author presents something different from yours, then your knowledge still expands with that in mind.

If you happen to be right, then you save yourself a lengthy explanation, which cuts down on reading time and comprehension.

7. Visualizing

Visualizing covers the creative side of things and is one of the more thrilling methods of quickly comprehending something. Even if you’re reading a non-fiction book or article, visualizing is still a helpful tool.

The idea is to be crafting, drawing, or making mental images of the information that you have. If the author outlines a system for you to use, look at the various aspects of that system. Visualize yourself performing these specific actions. Things like these keep you invested in learning and understanding more since you’re using both sides of the brain to digest information.

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Visualizing also keeps you invested because it answers the question, “how is this relevant to me?” We read books because of specific emotional or personal reasons and visualizing can help you in answering that question, especially how you see it fitting in your life.

8. Monitoring/Clarifying

Stemming from inferring and predicting, monitoring/clarifying as a reading strategy is taking your deductions and comparing them to what you are actually reading. In many cases, your understanding of something can be different from what the author is stating, and from that comes a deeper understanding of the information. This can also stem from questioning strategies as you are searching for clarity in those answers.

9. Searching

The final reading strategy stems from questioning where you are looking for answers—similar to clarifying. The difference between searching and clarifying is that clarifying is designed for a general understanding.

For searching, you’re looking to find information that backs up and reinforces what you wish to be learning about. This puts you in a situation where you’re defining things that you’re uncertain about, and it allows you to solve problems that you still have with the text.

Final Thoughts

Comprehending what you’re reading involves having a system of reading strategies that you can easily tap into. Effective readers will employ several of these strategies to rapidly understand what they’re reading.

As such, I would strongly encourage you to employ these methods and experiment. Find out what works for you and develop a reading strategy that works best for you.

More Essential Reading Strategies

  • 4 Effective Strategies To Remember Everything You Read
  • How to Read Faster: 10 Ways to Increase Your Reading Speed
  • 16 Skills To Make Your Reading More Productive

Featured photo credit: Seven Shooter via unsplash.com

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Five Strategies for Effective Reading *

Today, any curriculum involves studying a lot of literature, writing various projects, participating in various conferences and competitions. Without training in an educational institution, at the Olympics, when entering a university or college, there is nothing to do.

Not every person manages to quickly study the resource and remember the most important things. Therefore, Dishelp specialists decided to talk about the most popular reading techniques that will significantly increase the efficiency of preparation, taking into account the minimum time spent.

The role of reading in a person's life

Reading is not just a skill that a person develops at the beginning of his life and uses it until the end of his days. Reading is an opportunity to develop, correspond to the time, be erudite and ready for any changes.

How does reading affect a person's life?

Often the study of literature becomes a burden for students. It is difficult for them to assimilate what they read, to understand it (where is the truth and where is the lie), to remember important points. In 70% of cases, children do not like to read books, but without this skill it is impossible to live.

Reading brings certain benefits:

  • Expands the outlook of the individual;
  • Promotes growth in the profession;
  • Helps in solving many problems;
  • Instills certain cultural, ethical and other qualities;
  • Etc.

No wonder they say: whoever reads a lot knows a lot.

Perhaps the only drawback of reading books is the loss of time (when studying literature, it flies by instantly), deterioration of vision (under uncomfortable conditions).

The Art of Efficient Reading

If you treat reading as an unloved thing, then the study of literature will turn into masochism: a person will read only under duress, not getting pleasure from it. This approach is inefficient.

If you perceive reading as a kind of art, you can reach unprecedented heights. This theory allows not only to select interesting literature, but also to easily develop oneself, to discover new horizons.

Rules for Effective Reading

Experts distinguish two positions regarding effective reading:

  • Some believe that it is enough to skim through the text to highlight the essence;
  • Others are convinced that one must read carefully, deeply. This will allow you to understand the meaning of what is written, determine the position of the author, etc.

In fact, the effectiveness of reading each appears in its own way. One is enough to read the material once to remember the most important points, to understand it. Others will have to hit the wall, re-reading the material several times in order to understand it. Each person is individual and perceives information in his own way. What comes easily to some may be incomprehensible to others. The main thing is not to reproach yourself for "stupidity / stupidity" and inaction. Patience and a little effort!

Effective Reading Strategies

DissHelp has compiled 5 of the most common and useful literature study methods used by most students and scholars in their research projects. According to the results of a sociological study, it is these methods that allow you to quickly study the material, understand and remember it.

Strategy #1. Pseudo reading.

Have you noticed that the more material to study, the less important points in it. Sometimes meaningful thoughts can be squeezed into a couple of paragraphs. Long texts often contain the author's judgments, background, examples, details that emphasize the importance of a particular concept or thought, etc. In such cases, deep reading takes a lot of time and effort, so it is enough to skim through the text.

Pseudo-reading involves reading paragraph by paragraph. Here it is important to understand the general meaning of what is written, to determine the structure (what and where is indicated) for orientation. With this reading, it is necessary to write out key words, dates, basic definitions, names, highlight the most important points.

Strategy #2. We read from the end.

At the end of each work, the author sums up everything written above. So why not save time and start learning the material from the end? After all, it is here that the key points and aspects are collected.

The only disadvantage of this strategy is that without special training and basic knowledge of the subject, it will be difficult to understand the conclusions.

Therefore, before using this technique, you need to familiarize yourself with the topic, have a minimal understanding of it, briefly look at the content of the text (understand the structure and train of thought of the researcher). It is also advisable to study the annotation foreword and the opinions of other experts.

Literature Study Methods

Strategy #3. Scanning.

Scanning is a cursory review of all material. In fact, this is the same pseudo-reading, but here it is important to initially highlight: the surnames and names of theories encountered, dates, names, definitions and terms, formulas, etc. If you write them out in the same sequence as they are indicated in the material, you can get a brief project plan.

When using this strategy, it is important to note the following points from the outset:

  • What do you want to know: why are you studying the material?
  • What will be useful to you: what terms, formulas and other points do you need for further development, use?

Scanning text allows you to process it in the shortest possible time, but not always the researcher manages to adequately understand all the nuances.

Strategy #4. We set a goal - we get a result.

This method assumes that even from the beginning of the study of the material, the researcher develops a certain plan:

  • What should he learn?
  • How much time is he willing to spend on that?
  • What result will he get?
  • After the first reading of the material, it is necessary to write down complex and incomprehensible terms, and then study them in more detail with the help of additional literature;
  • After reading the paragraphs / subparagraphs / chapters or the entire text, you need to write out the main points: what the author is talking about, the evidence base, contradictions;
  • Next, we determine how the studied information can be useful to the reader?
  • Determine what you have learned and how you can use it.

This type of information processing makes it possible to understand what has been studied and how to use it in the future.

Strategy #5. We read and write.

It should be noted that this option only applies to drafts. It assumes that the author, as he reads the work (its parts), along the way highlights the main terms and definitions, key points and thoughts of the author. This is done directly in the text using multi-colored highlighters, etc. Agree that spoiling a book in this way is barbaric.

This option is often used by students when preparing for seminars and exams, when they find answers to the questions, print them out, and then study and highlight the most important.

Reading is an exciting and cognitive process that contributes to the development of personality and professionalism, culture and art, and spirituality. Make good use of your free time.

Effective Reading Strategies - Your Foreign Languages ​​

Every student is familiar with this state - you've been reading a textbook for an hour, and suddenly you realize that you don't remember anything from what you read. Panic seizes you - there is so little time before the exam, and the brain refuses to perceive such necessary information.

Sound familiar? So my article is for you.

And I have great news for you! Our teacher's secret. The thing is, your professor doesn't care if you've read the entire book cover to cover. I know it sounds implausible, but I'm not kidding. Never. In fact, if you're going to put into practice the effective reading strategies I've described in this article, you won't have to read every word. Yes, you shouldn't be doing this.

What does the teacher want?

Your teacher just wants you to learn the material you need to know. As a rule, what is written in the curriculum for which your courses or language school, university faculty or college group work. And this means that if you use my tips for reading textbooks, then you will achieve exactly this goal. So, your task is to read to find out, and not to read at all just because it needs to be read. And you should not feel guilty if you skip some paragraphs if you already understand what their author wants to tell you.

Read effectively - read less

If you need to read a textbook or part of it to pass an exam, the best way is to complete this task in the minimum amount of time spent actually reading the material. In order for you to learn maximum useful information in the minimum amount of time, you need to do the following:

  • Read the table of contents carefully and understand what it is all about
  • Organize content in a logical chain
  • View content based on logic
  • Match new concepts from the textbook with information you already know
  • Identify and learn all technical terms, formulas and words that are new to you
  • Think about how you can apply the information in the textbook to real situations

In other words, try to spend your time studying the material, and not just running through your mind every word on the pages, peering into them until they begin to blur from fatigue into a giant mass of incomprehensible grayish characters.

Effective reading strategies if you need to learn a section

As I said before, your teacher doesn't care if you read the whole section of the textbook. He needs you to know the material. And that's exactly what you need. This means that we need to minimize this work called "reading" the textbook and maximize the assimilation of the educational material. To do this, turn your studies into a quiz. This is a four step strategy. See - ask questions - answer - check. Let's break it down step by step.

See

Effective reading starts with devoting some time to actually reading. At this stage, you skim through the material, recognize the subheadings of the sections, look at the photographs, carefully read the introduction and conclusion, and pay attention to the list of questions at the end of the chapter. As a result, you should understand what exactly you have to learn.

Ask questions

Take a piece of paper and make up questions from the subheadings that you have come across in the section of the textbook you are studying. Write them down on paper, leaving enough space underneath. How to make such questions? Here is a simple example. There is a paragraph in the book called "Radio Advertising". Turn it into a question, "What types of advertising for the sake of there are?". Rename the chapter "Printing" to "What is printing?" And so on. So process each heading and subheading of the text you are studying. What? Do you think this is a waste of precious time? You are wrong!

Answer the questions

Concentrate and read the chapter, looking for the answers to the questions you just created in the text. Write the answers in your own words on a piece of paper, right below the questions you wrote in the last step. Be sure to paraphrase what is said in the book. The fact is that people remember your own words much better than the words spoken by someone else.

Check yourself

After you have found all the answers you need in the text, look over your questions again and try to answer them without looking at the text you wrote.

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