Reading strategies
When you research a topic for an essay, or work on a large project like a thesis, you have to read and consider a lot of academic material.
This section suggests ways of:
- Coping with reading lists and
- Adopting effective reading strategies – Skimming, Scanning and SQ3R
Coping with reading lists
When do you do your reading?
When do you think you do your best reading?
How much time do you spend doing your reading? Per subject? Per week?
Where do you do your reading?
Do you have a dedicated mental and physical space for your reading?
Have you set realistic time frames, for example, how much time do you and your tutors expect you to give to academic study?
You may find that you read different types of texts at different speeds.
Tip: Make reading time in your timetable and set yourself tasks for different subjects
Scanning
This skill is not reading in the strict sense of the word. It is an ability to locate facts quickly and to find answers to specific questions. Scanning is similar to looking through a telephone book. It requires short bursts of high levels of concentration
Tip: Firmly fix in your mind what you are looking for – close your mind to everything else.
Skimming
Skimming is reading quickly by skipping details, minor ideas and examples:
- Read the introduction carefully
- Read the first and last sentences of each paragraph and anything that looks like a summary or conclusion
- Look at sub-headings
- Scan or glance over paragraphs for other important ideas or info, but mostly skip the detail
- Read the conclusion
SQ3R
When you use this skill you will be doing all of the following:
- surveying
- questioning
- reading
- reciting and
- reviewing
Also see our ASU flyers on:
Critical reading (54KB |PDF)
Effective reading (52KB |PDF)
Notes from texts (54KB |PDF)
Reading and Note-taking for Science Students (53KB |PDF)
Useful Links:
Effective reading strategies (TLU website )