Reading effectively

It's normal to find reading academic texts challenging. Journal articles and academic textbooks deal with complex subject matter and it can take time to develop a good understanding of this material. It can be helpful to break up time spent on reading by making notes and doing some draft writing. Moving between reading and writing will help you to work out the meaning of what you have read, what you think about the ideas you have read about and how you can use them in your written work. The ideas below will help you to think about ways to manage your reading, making sure that you are reading effectively.

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5 QUESTIONS for reading effectively:

Use these basic questions before, during and after reading to help you focus on how you might use the information you're reading.

Why am I reading this?
What questions could I ask to find the information I need?
How does this text answer these questions?
Do I need to read anything else?
How can I use this?

The video features tutors from the Learning Enhancement Team talking about how you might use these questions to make your reading effective.

Engage with what you are reading

Asking questions of the text that you are reading is a good way of maintaining focus. Questioning what you are reading will also help you to understand how what you are reading might fit into your assignment. You'll find more information about how to use questions to think critically about what you're reading in the Using Sources section of this resource.

Reading effectively Study Guide

Plenty of tips to help you be more focused in your reading.

Reading academic texts slides

You can talk to Learning Enhancement Tutors about effective reading in tutorials or at Helpdesks. See the Learning Enhancement Team webpages for more information.

Make notes from your reading

Find a style of notes that helps you to understand what you have read and to think about how you can use ideas in your writing.

Here you can see some examples of the kinds of notes that might help you.

Further help

If you would like to speak to a Learning Enhancement Tutor about reading effectively, you can make an appointment for an individual tutorial. Information about tutorials and workshops to help you read effectively can be found on the Learning Enhancement Team's webpages.

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