Effective Reading Strategies Academic Advising Office

Content Why Reading is important? Why to Read? Q&A with students Why to Read? Difference between reading for school and for university assignments Reading Strategies: Previewing Annotating Outline, summarize, analyze Contextualize Reading in a Foreign Language

Most importantly good reading skills lead to academic success Why to read? Expose yourself to new things Self Improve-ment Improve Understan-ding Preparation to Action Tools of Communi-cating Boost Imagination and Creativity Gain Experience from Other People Most importantly good reading skills lead to academic success

School vs University University readings are more sophisticated Students required not only read the text, but rather critically engage with it The amount of reading is much greater than in school

How to read effectively? Critical reading-active engagement with texts – is essential to your academic success at AUCA and to your intellectual growth Reading strategies: Previewing Annotating Outline, summarize, analyze Contextualize

Previewing Previewing enables you to develop a set of expectation about the scope and aim of the text. Determine how long the assigned reading is Thus how much time and energy you are going to spend on it What do headings, abstract, or other introductory material tell you? Abstract – super helpful when you are doing a research and you need data for it. Abstract gives you a very short overview of the paper, thus when you are looking for data abstracts will save a lot of your time. Headings – very helpful, when you have questions known before starting the readings. You can right jump into the right sections for the answers

Previewing Is the author already known to you? How does the disposition or layout of a text prepare you for reading? Is the material broken into parts/subtopics, sections, or the like? Are there long and unbroken blocks of text or smaller paragraphs or “chunks” and what does this suggest? How does this help you understand the argument of the text? If you know the author and what he writes about, this makes it easier for you understand the text. Since he/she might be referring to his previous works etc.

Annotating Annotating puts you actively and immediately in a “dialogue” with an author and the issue and ideas you encounter in a written text. It is also a way to have an ongoing conversation with yourself as you move through the text and to record what that encounter was like for you. Active reading

1. Throw away your highlighter Throw away your highlighter: it gives the illusion of active reading Distracts you from business and comprehension (if only highlighting) Those bright lines you put on a page one day can seem strangely cryptic the next.

2. Mark up the margins of your text with words and phrases: What to write Ideas that occur to you Notes about things that seem important to you The relation to class discussion Questions Advantages This will keep you conscious of the reason of the reading Useful during reviews for exams

3. Symbol system 4.Ask questions Develop your own symbol system: * for key idea or ! for surprising, absurd, bizarre create your personalized symbols for indicating Example: you could have a mark for identifying the quote to you in your paper Useful for searching through the text quickly and for preparation for exams 4. Ask questions Get in the habit of hearing yourself ask questions: “What does it mean?” “Why author draws this conclusion?” Things you do not understand Issues you would like to ask the teachers (write on the margins)

Outline, Summarize, Analyze Take the information apart, look at its parts, and then try to put it back together again in language that is meaningful to you. The best way to determine that you’ve really gotten the point is to be able to state it in your own words.

Outline Outlining enables you to see the skeleton of an argument: the thesis, the first point and evidence (and so on), through the conclusion. You can outline informally just on the margins on the margins of your readings

Summarize, Analyze Summarize: Analyzing In a sentence or a paragraph write up the connections between ideas Analyzing Adds an evaluative component to the summarizing process – it requires you not just to restate main ideas, but also test the logic, credibility, and emotional impact of an argument. You need to reflect on the argument. Questions to consider: What is the writer asserting? What I am being asked to believe or accept? Facts? Opinions? Some mixture? What reasons or evidence does the author supply to convince me? Where is the strongest or most effective evidence – why is it compelling?

Contextualize Take a moment and put it in perspective. When you contextualize, you essentially “re-view” a text you’ve encountered, framed by its historical, cultural, material, or intellectual circumstances When was it written or where was it published? Do these factors change or otherwise influence how you view a piece? Also view the reading through the lens of your own experience.

Reading in a Foreign Language Do not read to learn words, but to explore ideas. Don’t try to understand every word. Try to understand overall meaning Don’t translate every word – only use dictionary if a word keeps appearing in a text and you still don’t understand it Physical books (you can write and highlight) Make notes and underline new words and expressions Don’t just read a book and then forget about it; try to analyze it

Exercise Distribute the readings Go through each of the Reading Techniques

Sources Esl.fis.edu/learners/advice/read.htm Esl.fis.edu/parents/advice/read.htm Susan Gilroy, Librarian for Undergraduate Programs for Writing, Lamont and Widener Libraries. President and Fellows of Harvard College Inspirationboost.com/8-reasons-why-reading- is-so-important www.learnenglish.de/improveEnglish/improver eadingpage.html