1. Chapter 13: Textbook Highlighting and Marking
College Reading and Study Skills,
Ninth Edition
by Kathleen T. McWhorter

2. Objective:
In this chapter you will learn how to identify what is important in a textbook chapter and develop a system of highlighting and marking.
LEARNING PRINCIPLE: You can make studying textbooks easier if you are selective about what to learn.

3. How to Highlight Textbooks
Read first; then highlight.
Read the boldface headings. Use the headings to form questions.
After you read the section, go back and highlight the parts that answer your questions.

4. How to Highlight Textbooks
As you identify and highlight main ideas, look for facts to support them. Highlight these facts.
Do not highlight complete sentences. Highlight only enough so you can see the important parts and so your highlighting makes sense
when you reread.

5. Aspects of Effective Highlighting
Highlight the right amount. (No more than one-quarter to one-third of each page.)
Develop a regular and consistent highlighting system.
Will you mark only main ideas or details?
Will you highlight terminology?
Use color, brackets, and asterisks to separate main ideas and details and to mark main ideas.

6. Aspects of Effective Highlighting
Highlight accurately. The information should convey the content of the passage.
Make your highlighting understandable for review.

7. Marking a Textbook Circle unknown words.
Number lists of ideas, reasons, etc.
Place asterisks next to important ideas.
Draw arrows to show relationships.
Write comments in the margin.
EXAMPLES:

8. Marking a Textbook
Writing summary words or phrases in the margin is one of the most valuable types of textbook marking.
This is especially effective in passages that contain long and complicated ideas.

9. Summary Questions
Why should you highlight and mark chapters when you read them?
What guidelines should you follow for effective highlighting?

10. Summary Questions
Why should you supplement your textbook highlighting with marking?
Why do highlighting and marking work as a way to prepare for study?

11. Take a Reading Road Trip!
Take a trip to SEATTLE and visit the Annotating Textbooks and Taking Lecture Notes module on your CD-ROM.