Reading Skills Main Page | General Strategies for Effective Reading | Reading a Text for the First Time | Re-Reading
Reading Difficult Passages | Reading Your Colleague's Papers | Reading Your Own Papers

Reading Skills: General Strategies for Effective Reading

These are strategies that you can use every time you read, and for every part of the reading process.

• Give yourself enough time to read the essay. Keep a reading log for your writing class. Note the time you start, the time you stop, what you read, and how many pages you've read. After a few weeks, you'll have a good idea of how much time you need to complete a reading assignment.
• Remember that effective reading always involves rereading. Schedule time to come back and re-read an assignment later, after a break, or after you've finished your pre-calc problems.
• Be smart about when and where you read. If you tend to fall asleep while reading, try sitting at your desk instead of lying down. If you are distracted by your roommate watching your favorite T.V. show, plan to get your reading done before your show comes on. Observe your own reading habits, figure out what time of day you concentrate best, and then schedule your reading during that time.
• Always read with a pencil and paper nearby. If you turn a page, and then turn another without having written anything down, you are probably not getting the most out of your reading time.
• Read with a college-level dictionary or the internet (www.dictionary.com) accessible. If you don’t own a college-level dictionary, invest in one now. You should have one in college.
• As you read keep a list of words and phrases that you don't know. Look words up in the dictionary. Don't just copy definitions from the dictionary—compare the definitions with the context in which you found the word, and try to make sense of the word in context. Jot down notes in your own words to help you remember the meanings of everything you've looked up.
• Keep a list of words and phrases that you do know, but that don't seem to make sense in the context of the essay you are reading. Look these up as well, and think about whether an author is using familiar words in an unfamiliar way. If so, consider what effect this use of language has on your understanding of these words or phrases?
• While you are reading, mark parts of the text that you find:
  • important
  • interesting
  • confusing

  This will help you in class discussion and in drafting your paper.

• Develop a system for marking the text that works for YOU! Some people like to highlight in bright colors, others like to underline in pencil, and still others prefer to use lots of sticky notes. Some people take lots of notes in the margins or on sticky notes, and others prefer to take notes in a computer file. Experiment with different systems until you find a way that is uniquely yours, and that helps you the most.
• While you are reading, summarize important ideas in your notebook. Remember, summary is part of the reading process. Your teacher may ask you to be able to summarize passages of text in order to use them critically in your papers. Be prepared. Summarize as you read.
• While you are reading, jot down questions about anything you don't understand. In general, the more difficult you find a text, the more questions you should write while you are reading.

If you find your concentrating wandering, take one of these steps immediately:

• Write more while you are reading. Strong readers find that the more notes and questions they write while reading, the better they understand what they are reading.

• Backtrack to a part of the text that you understood well before you lost concentration, and reread from there.

• Try reading out loud for a while.

• Try standing up, or even walking around the room while you are reading.

• Take a short break—go for a walk, practice yoga, play your guitar, shoot some hoops, condition your hair, download a cool image for your bulletin board, drink a glass of cool water, stare out the window at the fall leaves, or do whatever you find relaxing for 10 or 20 minutes, then come back to work.

• Remember that good readers always re-read. No-one understands a text after reading it through just once. Effective reading involves re-reading parts of the text as you go, and re-reading the whole text several times.