Improve--Your-Reading

ImproveYourReadingBeforereadingabookfordetail,itisimportanttolookattheinformationthatcanbegatheredfromastudyofthebookcover,preface,indexandtableofcontents.Lookatthecover.Whoistheauthor?Whataretheauthorqualifications?Whenandwherewasthebookpublished?Isitarecentpublication?Wasitpublishedinanothercountryandsoperhapstheideasarenotrelevant?AbookongardeninginBritainpublishedinEnglandmaynotberelevantforanessayongardeninginAustralia.Lookattheprefaceifthereisone.Theprefacewilloutlinetheauthorpurpose.Aretheideas,asoutlinedinthepreface,relevanttoyourrequirements？Lookatthetableofcontents.Whatarethechapterheadings?Doesthebookcontainchapterswhichwillbeofusetoyou?Lookattheindex.Arethesewordswhichbookinterestingandrelevant?Anderson,DurstonandPoolesaythat“Pre-readingisatechniquethatcanhelpyoutogetthebasicpointsofawrittenpassage,anarticleorabook,afteraquicklook.Ithelpsyoutogainthemostfromyourreadingintheshortestamountoftime.”Pre-readingwillhelpyoutobecomefamiliarwiththebookmainideasandgeneralstructure.Thisinformationwillhelpyoudecidewhetheryoushouldbeginreadinginmoredetail.Onceyouhavedecidethatapieceofmaterialisappropriate,thenextstepistoskimthepartsyouthinkarethemostappropriate.Skimmingisthetechniqueofallowingyoureyestotraveloverapageveryquickly,stoppingonlyhereandtheretogainanidea.Whenskimmingyoushouldreadingafewwordsineachparagraph;readthefirstsentence;scantheparagraphforkeywordsthatmaytellyouwho,what,when,where,howmany,orhowmuch;andthen,perhaps,thelastsentence.Inparticularyoushouldbelookingfortheauthormainideaandanyevidenceusedtosupportthesearguments.Scanningisthetechniqueoflookingveryquicklyoverapieceofreadingmattertofindtheanswertothespecificquestion.Scanningisslightlymorepositiveandspecificthanskimming.Scanninginvolvessearchingforparticularpiecesofinformation,facts,andexamples.Whenyouarescanningyouletyoureyesrundownapagelookingforaspecificideaorpieceofinformation.Onceyouhaveselectedatextorpieceofmaterialasrelevantforyourrequirementsyouthenneedtosettledowntoreadingindetailthosechaptersorpartswhicharemostrelevanttoyou.Underlinethemainpointsasyoureadsothatyoucanquicklyreferbacktothem.Perhapsmarksupportingevidence-inaanotherway-redlineformainarguments.Donotgetcarriedawaywithyourmarkings.Theyshouldserveasreminderswhenyoucomebacktothematerialandallowyoutomakequickcomparisonwithotherpiecesofmaterial.