3.-Strategies-for-Academic-Reading

StrategiesforAcademicReading1Whydowetakenotesfromourreading?•Torememberthemainpointsinthetextandjogyourmemorylateron•Togiveyouquickeraccesstoimportantfacts&knowledgeinaneasierformat•Tolinknewknowledgetowhatyoualreadyknow•Tohelpyouunderstandwhatanauthorissaying•Tomakearecordofpointsyoumayuseinanassignment•Toensurethatyouarealwaysclearaboutthesourceofideas–toavoidplagiarism.AdaptedslightlyFromFairburn.GandFairburn.S.[2001:98]ReadingatUniversity:aGuideforStudents.Buckingham:OUP2KeepingaRecordofyourreadingTherearethreekeyaspectsofkeepingrecordsofreading:1.Recordingthecontentofyourreading.2.Recordingwhereitcomesfromi.e.keepingafullsetofbibliographicdetailsofeachsourceyouread.3.Ensuringthatitisclearwhetheryournotesareparaphrasingsoftheoriginal,orifyouhaveusedtheoriginalwording.3TakingnotesonthecontentofreadingWhentakingnotes•Doyoukeepthebookopenandtakenotesasyoureadordoyoureadfirst&takenotesonthe2ndor3rdreading?•Doyoutakenoteswiththebookclosed?Fairburn.GandFairburn.S.[2001:101]ReadingatUniversity:aGuideforStudents.4WaysoftakingnotesfromyourreadingInadditiontothetechniquesdiscussedlastweekfortakingnoteswhilelistening:•Reading&underlining•Labelling&headingpages•Linearnotes•Keywording•Diagrammatic/pictorialnotes*AdaptedfromFairburn&Fairburn20025N.B.PleasedoNOTwriteonlibrarybooks!!!Recordingyourreading:whattorecordDon’tjustcopyverylengthynotes.Yournotesshouldrecord:–themainpointsofwhattheauthorissaying–whatyouthinkaboutwhatthewriterissaying*SeeFairburn&Fairburn2002:99**SeeRowntree[19xx]6PuttingitintopracticeYouaregoingtoreadasectionofanarticletitled‘ImprovingReadingSpeed’Asyouread,deploystrategiesasyoufeelappropriatesuchas:underlininghighlightingmakingnotesinmargins/onephrasesummaryofparagraphinmarginsmakingnotesinanotebook(includingreferenceforthesource)etc.Discusswithyourpartnerwhatyouunderstandtobetherelationshipbetweenreadingspeedandcomprehension.Assessyourreadingspeed.•Readthearticleyouaregivenatyournormalspeed.•Donotstoptocheckwordsyoudon’tunderstand–guessmeaningfromcontext.•Whenthetimerstops,drawalineonyourpapertoseewhereyougotto.•Continuereadinguntilyouhavefinishedthearticle.Thearticleisapprox2000wordslong.Calculatehowmanywordsyoureadin10minutesandthenhowmanywordsperminuteyouread.8Strategiesforreadinglongertexts:SQRRR•Surveying-togetageneralideaofwhatthetextisaboutusingcontentspage,headings,sub-headings,diagrams,abstracts,introductions,conclusions/summaries,topicsentences,keywords•Questioning-makingquestionsaboutwhatyouwanttogetfromthetext•Readingthetextdifferentially-fasterinsomeplaceswhichdon’tdealwithyourquestions,moreslowlyinotherplaceswhereyouneedtounderstandmaterialrelatingtoyourquestions•Recalling-reflectingonwhatyouhavelearnt-mindmapsmaybeusefulhere•Reviewing-i.e.checkyourknowledge&whatyoustilldon’tunderstand-needtoreread9Readingsubskills/strategies•Adaptingwaysofreadingdependingonpurpose:skimming,scanning,searchreading,carefulreading,inferring•Predictingcontent:byskimmingtitle,headings,sub-headingsandtheabstract/synopsis,contentspage.•Skimmingtocheckrelevanceofcontentbyskimmingintroductionandconclusiontoidentifymainfocusofthearticle/book.•Determiningmostlikelylocationofrelevantinformationinatext.byanalysinggenre(andsobeawareofstructureofthetext),skimmingheadingsandsub-headings,thenfirstandlastsentenceofparagraphsorinabook,theindexand/orcontentspage.EffectiveReadingThemoreyouread,thebetteryouwillreadBecause:•Lexicalrangewillbroaden;•Readingspeedwillimprove;•Youwillbecomemorefamiliarwithdifferenttypesoftextandthereforebetteratanalysingstructureandpredictingcontent.Thisiswhyweaskyoutokeepyourreadingjournal