3. Strategies for Academic Reading

Fairburn. G and Fairburn. S. [2001:101] Reading at University: a Guide for Students.
4
Ways of taking notes from your reading
In addition to the techniques discussed last week for taking notes while listening:
8
Strategies for reading longer texts: SQRRR
• Surveying to get a general idea of what the text is about using contents page, headings, sub-headings, diagrams, abstracts, introductions, conclusions/summaries, topic sentences, key words • Questioning - making questions about what you want to get from the text • Reading the text differentially - faster in some places which don’t deal with your questions, more slowly in other places where you need to understand material relating to your questions • Recalling reflecting on what you have learnt - mind maps may be useful here • Reviewing - i.e. check your knowledge & what you still don’t understand - need to reread
*Adapted from Fairburn & Fairburn 2002
5
Recording your reading: what to record
Don’t just copy very lengthy notes.
Your notes should record:
– the main points of what the author is saying
• • • • • Reading & underlining Labelling & heading pages Linear notes Key wording Diagrammatic/pictorial notes
N.B. Please do NOT write on library books!!!
Adapted slightly From Fairburn. G and Fairburn. S. [2001:98] Reading at University: a Guide for Students.Buckingham: OUP 2
Keeping a Record of your reading
Strategies for Academic Reading
1
Why do we take notes from our reading?
• To remember the main points in the text and jog your memory later on
• To give you quicker access to important facts & knowledge in an easier format • To link new knowledge to what you already know • To help you understand what an author is saying • To make a record of points you may use in an assignment • To ensure that you are always clear about the source of ideas –to avoid plagiarism.
9
Reading subskills/ strategies
• Adapting ways of reading depending on purpose: skimming, scanning, search reading, careful reading, inferring • Predicting content: by skimming title, headings, sub-headings and the abstract/ synopsis, contents page. • Skimming to check relevance of content by skimming introduction and conclusion to identify main focus of the article/ book. • Determining most likely location of relevant information in a text. by analysing genre (and so be aware of structure of the text), skimming headings and sub-headings, then first and last sentence of paragraphs or in a book, the index and/ or contents page.
There are three key aspects of keeping records of reading:
1. Recording the content of your reading.
2. Recording where it comes from i.e. keeping a full set of bibliographic details of each source you read. 3. Ensuring that it is clear whether your notes are paraphrasings of the original, or if you have used the original wording.
– what you think about what the writer is saying
*See Fairburn & Fairburn 2002:99 ** See Rowntree [19xx]
6
Putting it into practice
You are going to read a section of an article titled ‘Improving Reading Speed’ As you read, deploy strategies as you feel appropriate such as: underlining highlighting making notes in margins/ one phrase summary of paragraph in margins making notes in a notebook (including reference for the source) etc. Discuss with your partner what you understand to be the relationship between reading speed and comprehension.
3
Taking notes on the content of reading
When taking notes • Do you keep the book open and take notes as you read or do you read first & take notes on the 2nd or 3rd reading? • Do you take notes with the book closed?
Effective Reading
The more you read, the better you will read Because: • Lexical range will broaden; • Reading speed will improve;
• You will become more familiar with different types of text and therefore better at analysing structure and predicting content. This is why we ask you to keep your reading journal
Assess your reading speed.
• Read the article you are given at your normal speed.
• Do not stop to check words you don’t understand – guess meaning from context. • When the timer stops, draw a line on your paper to see where you got to. • Continue reading until you have finished the article. The article is approx 2000 words long. Calculate how many words you read in 10 minutou read.