Targeted Reading
Knowing what you are reading is sometimes as important as knowing what you’ve read. That’s because not all reading requires the same methods and approach. How you read a novel for leisure should be different from how you read journal articles for an essay. Knowing the difference can save you hours of unnecessary effort.
At university you’ll need to become adept at surveying or skim reading (and ideally speed reading too), which is useful for developing an overall impression and overview of a work, identifying essential/core information, and finding several specific points. This technique is then repeated across multiple sources (ranging from entire books to chapters and journal articles).
Once you have formed a broad overview of the relevant material it’s important to engage in more deliberate reading and finer analysis of relevant passages and chapters, which can involve cross-checking information, defining concepts, understanding terminology, comparing viewpoints, and taking notes. This type of reading is generally slower than skimming or survey reading.
Reading Goals
Before you commence with your reading, determine what it is you are reading for. Consider asking yourself what it is that you hope to ascertain: is it specific information, something to quote, or an overall understanding of your topic? If it’s just a quote, for instance, you can scan more quickly, but gaining understanding requires a more moderate pace.
Develop an agenda or a wish list that helps you identify what you are reading for, which will help your brain to filter out non-essential information. This will improve your overall reading efficiency.
It can also be helpful to keep track of how much you’ve already gleaned (such as keeping a running tally or developing a bank of research quotes) and deciding ahead of time how much research you may need. Perhaps thirty quotes or ten pages of notes is sufficient. Developing a sense of how much reading is enough (at least in preliminary form) is important, because a common mistake in writing essays is to dedicate too much time to reading and research and not enough to composition. Sometimes it is much easier and faster to come back to research in order to satisfy a specific need rather than try to cover everything all at once at the beginning. Be sure to record the bibliographical details for each item you read, along with page numbers for notes and quotes, which will save you time at the end when you write your essay.
Select The Right Sources
Use reading lists wisely and selectively. The first thing to do is to divide your reading into primary, secondary, and tertiary or specialised categories. Primary material usually comes in book-length or chapter form and is useful for building your general knowledge and confidence with a topic. Begin with core texts, textbooks, general introductions (like Oxford’s Very Short Introduction series) and anything designated essential on a reading list. It is often prudent to read the introduction and conclusion to any academic material before reading it from back to front (this often applies to individual chapters as well), because it is common practice to assert and reassert important information in these places. Primary reading should normally require 40-50% of your allotted reading and researching.
Secondary reading often represents 30-40% of your time and usually represents a deeper focus on specific themes or topics that you identified in your primary reading. These will usually be found in journals and articles, and specific chapters or passages in books. Likewise, your tertiary or specialised reading should be left until last, representing about 20-30% of your efforts. This is where you want to scour the index and footnotes/endnotes of books, review relevant abstracts, and look for finer details that add specific value to your essay.
Contact Think Tutors
Taken together, these three tips should help improve your reading and research skills. Don’t forget to get in touch with Think Tutors to discuss how we can further hone these and other skills.