Tips for Active Reading

The single most important skill for successful completion of higher education is reading with comprehension. Since most of your college work will involve reading, the development of your reading skills should be a priority. 

Below is a set of proven reading strategies that will increase your concentration, accuracy in reading, and the development of both short-term and long-term memory. 

1. Use your attention span--whatever it is--as a positive rather than a negative factor. 
All readers experience the exasperation associated with attention drift. Your interest in the subject greatly influences the span of your concentration. While they may read a complete article in a popular magazine with hardly a blink of an eye, most students, however, have difficulty concentrating very long on a page in a textbook. Well, here's a tip: when you begin a reading activity, make a mental note at what point you begin to drift. Then, get up and run the errand, make the phone call, or fix the snack. Whatever the diversion, when you come back to the reading, do so with a commitment to reading with concentration at least the same amount of text you did before before you will allow yourself to drift again. This kind of conscious efforting will result in a gradual lengthening of your concentration and discipline as a reader. 

2. Reduce your reading to a problem of paragraphs. 
It won't be unusual in some courses to encounter assignments totaling 1,000 pages or more, especially in upper-level undergraduate courses. Don't let the overall length of readings intimidate you. Remember that the basic unit of meaning in all expository (explanatory) writing is the paragraph. If you can read one paragraph with understanding, you can master them all! 

3. Read for the main idea in each paragraph. 
The key to mastering reading content is to read for the main idea of each paragraph. After you read a paragraph, ask yourself, "What did I just read?" "What was this paragraph about?" After reading each paragraph, you should be able to fill in the blank of the following sentence frame, "This paragraph is about ________ ." 

4. With a pen--not a pencil, annotate the main idea in the margin beside each paragraph. 
The development of short-term and long-term memory of what you understand in any paragraph depends on how you process that information. Throw the highlighters away! Begin by writing down in no more than three or four words the main idea in the margin beside each paragraph. Click here to see a sample page with annotated text. 

5. Develop a strategy of linear analysis. 
Develop a consistent pattern of marking your texts. Always underline the same type of information. Always bracket the same type of information. Always place in parentheses the same type of information. In other words, everytime you come back to a passage, you will be able to anticipate precisely the kind of information you will find when you see a sentence or phrase that you have marked in a consistent way. 

6. Develop a strategy of margin usage. 
Always place the same kind of annotations in the outside margins, while reserving interior margins for different kinds of information. Identify the most important information on a page at the top for easy reference as you thumb back through your text. 

7. Transfer all marginal notes and their page numbers to note cards. 
The key to remembering what you have read is transferring all your marginal notes to note cards or some other external reference medium. Note cards work well because you can tuck them inside the pages of your textbook for easy retrieval. When you write down an annotation, place the page number where you found that reference initially and then the page numbers of all subsequent references to the same idea or content beside the same annotation. Then, when you sit down to study, begin with a review of your note cards. You will find each annotation and every page where that concept is located in your reading. If you can't remember exactly the content for each page number, it will take you only seconds to thumb your way to that page and only another second or two to scan the text. Immediately, you will recall the key concepts without having to re-read the entire selection! Click here to see a sample notecard. 

8. Never study with anyone who doesn't read actively! 
Don't let other students who haven't taken the time and effort to read as you have waste your valuable time.  Rather, develop a small study group of equally committed students. Together, you will reinforce each other's confidence as readers as well as increase understanding and memory of what you all have read. 

(Return to the Top)