Effective Reading Strategies summary

EFFECTIVE READING STRATEGIES UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM LIBRARIES

At a Glance The right reading environment

Navigating a reading list

Reading actively

Reading efficiently

Recording your reading

The right reading environment 

Have reference texts (e.g., Thesaurus, career theories site, dictionary, etc.) to hand even if you don’t use them. This could help limit your distractions.

Top tip Finding the right reading environment will be a personal preference, but will limit the amount of distractions you have.

Ask yourself, “where do you focus best?” (e.g., comfy chair, silent space, home or office). Then “what time are you most focused?” (e.g, morning hours or later in the day). Plan your reading time for those times and locations.

What other distractions do you need to be mindful of? How can you reduce those distractions? For example, I like to listen to music when I read but it can’t be anything too familiar as I find myself singing along or thinking about the next gig I’m going to.

Put your phone into focus mode or out of sight. Use a timer to break the tasks up into shorter chunks with regular breaks(Pomodoro technique).

Try and read in natural light as this reduces eye strain, especially if you’re reading on a screen for a long time! Finally, make sure you’re sitting comfortably; fidgeting to find the right spot can really break your concentration and focus on the texts.

Navigating the reading list It’s not possible or advisable to read everything on the list!

Make the Essential reading your priority, then from the Optional list choose: What interests you (i.e., Do I care about this topic to read more about it?)

What’s accessible to you (i.e., Do I have the time, skills or resources to read this?)

What’s helpful to you (i.e., How will I use this for my next assignment?)

You don’t need to read the whole book or article from start to finish!

Read the introduction and the first chapter, then head to contents and pick out what’s relevant for you at this time. See the reading actively section for some ideas on knowing what’s useful.

Reading actively 

Reading should be an active search for information, not just passively absorbing the words.

Top tip

Keep questions in mind to help you read actively: Before you start reading a source, think about what you want to know from it. Some ideas for you: Has the module guide got any key questions in its description?

General questions. e.g., “What central arguments are being made in this?”

Create questions from what interests you. e.g., “How does this link into LMI?”

Create questions derived from an upcoming task. e.g., “What do I need from this for my summative assessment, part 1?”

Use the geography of the source: You don’t have to read a source from start to finish. Use the contents page to find information that’s relevant to you. e.g., The abstract, introduction, relevant subtitled sections, indexes or appendices, the conclusion or summary.

Skimming these can help you quickly decide if the source is relevant for you at this time. Don’t waste time reading things that aren’t relevant! ,

Efficient reading Come across a tricky word or concept? Follow this: Underline the word that’s tripped you up and come back to it later. Resist the urge to immediately find the answer. Keep reading.

Read the first and last sentence of the paragraph. This might give you a clue on what the concept means.

Are there any footnotes, text boxes, diagrams to help explain it?

Use the glossary or index for related phrases to help you make sense of it.

If it still doesn’t make sense from the source material, use another source to read about the concept (e.g., Wikipedia - although don’t reference it!)

If all else fails, ask a friend. They might have a different insight or experience to help explain it.

You don’t have to fully understand everything that you read: Remember that academic journals or articles aren’t written for students. It’s a way for one academic researcher to tell another what they’ve been up to.

If it all feels hard, frustrating and difficult, try to remember that it’s not your inadequacy as a student, but the author’s writing style and context. Keep what’s useful, discard what isn’t.

Recording your reading

Remembering something is not the same as understanding it.

Top tip

Top Tips ALWAYS put the page numbers in the margin when you paraphrase or direct quote. You will need this for referencing, and if you don’t note down the page number you’ll never find the idea or quote again!

Use subheadings or key ideas to structure your notes.

Put direct quotes into quotation marks or indent the text so you know what it is.

Keep all the referencing information at the top of the page (Title, author, date etc.).

Use different colours to show what the thoughts of the author are compared to your own thoughts or analysis of what you’ve read.

Reading matrices A matrix or a concept map can keep track of information, thoughts and ideas linked between themes.

Some examples are below:

Author

Reference info

Aims and/or methodology

Results, Conclusions or summary Practicing this

Brene Brown

Grounded Theory of Meaningful Connection...

approach leads to A practical toolkit to more emotionally

My comments This builds on other connection strategies from social work,

counselling and actively listen to connected psychology. and empathise with conversations, a client builds trust and can Limited by client’s help with goal reception of the setting. approach, could fall short if...

Coverage of general principles of cultural diversity and multiculturalism, the process of cross-cultural service delivery, and cultural

Jerry V Diller

Cultural identity not just restricted to information on students better minority groups. If specific client understand their we reflect on our populations. The own prejudices so Cultural Diversity own backgrounds author builds a they can be more a primer.... and experiences general effective counselors then we can better understanding of when working with connect with what cultural culturally-different people who may diversity is and why clients. seem different to us. it is important. He considers the related dynamics of prejudice and racism, as well as the meaning of culture and cultural differences.

Or you could set out your matrix like so:

Diller helps

Author and Reference

What they say

What I think

Review and summarise your reading To check if you understand what you’ve read try some of these strategies: 1. Summarise a printed or physical article or book on a Post-It note and stick it to the front. Makes reviewing it for later assignments much easier!

2. Record an audio summary on your phone. This switches cognitive mode and helps absorb what you’ve read.

3. Explain the main points to someone who hasn’t read it. If they understand your summary chances are you do too!