Active Reading: How to Digest a Text

I know this sounds sarcastic, but you would be surprised (or maybe not) how many students try to get away with never opening the assigned reading material for class. The purpose in active reading is to slow down in order to absorb the information the professor is trying to teach you. Some things to keep in mind while reading are:

1. Why did my professor assign this text?

2. How does this text factor into the overall theme of the class?

3. What is the significance of the assigned text? Is there something socially/politically/historically relevant about it?

4. Is this text revealing something about current events? Is it demonstrating a continuation of a certain type of behavior? Does it break from the norm?

(These questions can help with answering the larger implications or the "So What?" of your essay.)

The first read through of the material is to ascertain plot, narrative structure, some of the big themes, and the motivation of the main characters, but don't limit yourself to only these things. You should also start paying attention to the things that grab your focus. Is there a minor character that you are fascinated with? Is there a setting that you are honing in on? A certain scene that you keep thinking about? You also might want to pay attention to where a text is missing information. Are there any blind spots in the presentation? What's the text's bias? You don't need to answer these questions now; you just want to make a note of it if you observe it.

We advise that you take notes as you read (see Annotation and Note-Taking for some helpful tips and resources). Writing down your observations as they occur will help keep the information in your head. Also, the more you write down the more material you will have to reference back to when you move to start brainstorming and forming an argument.

(What if you don't have time to read the entire text? We have some tips on how to effectively skim material on another page. We've all done it. No one reads every word or every piece of assigned literature. Don't worry. You can find shortcuts and still succeed.)

I know, I know, who has time to read something all the way through once, let alone twice, when taking multiple classes and working on multiple assignments. This step is more for essay preparation than for class preparation. When you are writing an essay, you will have to re-read either the entire text over again or at least large sections; this is why it is important to take good notes and make sensible notations when reading. Notes will help with formulating the argumentation of your essay and in finding evidence to support the pre-established claim.

The second read through is primarily about parsing the language utilized within the text. (This is especially true if you are looking at poetry.)

The important thing to remember about language is that the connotation of a word can change over time, so don't forget to reference the Oxford English Dictionary if you are ever trying to figure out the definition of a word in a different century. (You are going to need to log in with the first part of your email username [everything before the @westga.edu] and password to use the OED.) The way words were used in Shakespeare's England are different than how we use them today.

You also want to think about the author's intentionality during the re-read. Why did they write it? Is it in protest of something? Is it to draw the reader's attention to something? Are they informing you about something or misleading you? You will also need to re-evaluate the author's biases here. Have they purposely not explored something? Whose narrative is being privileged? What does that privilege mean? What does it reveal?