Reading at University

• Introduction
• Identifying your purpose for reading
• Strategies for faster and more effective reading
• Note-making
• Using the information from your notes
• The advantages of summarising
• Reading critically

Introduction

Reading at university is central to your studies and if you do your reading critically and thoroughly, your assignment and essay work will be greatly enhanced. You will be expected to read extensively throughout your university studies.

Speed reading techniques can be useful; however, fast reading alone is not appropriate for university study. A critical perspective which analyses and evaluates the material is necessary.

These notes give some guidelines for reading more efficiently and also suggest some questions to help you adopt an analytical approach when reading.

Identifying your purpose for reading

• It is important for you to decide your purpose for reading.

  Is it for:	- your general understanding of the topic?
  	- a tutorial?
  	- an assignment?
  	- an exam?

  You will need to read more closely and intensively if you are preparing to write an assignment or for an exam.

• If you decide the material is useful for an assignment:

  • Check that it is from an authoritative source (and not someone's unsupported opinions posted on the internet)

  • Keep in mind the key words from your assignment question and your planned response

  • Follow the strategies below for details and a close understanding of the material for your assignment

Strategies for faster and more effective reading

Note-making

There are many different ways of making notes, but it is always important to record the name(s) of the author(s) and the page number(s) as you read and make notes.

You can also begin to create your reference list at this stage.

• In making notes, some students initially copy word-for-word from the original material or cut and paste from an electronic document. If you use these techniques, it is important to realize that later you will need to summarise the main ideas from these notes in your own words for inclusion in your essay. To avoid plagiarism, you will also need to acknowledge the sources of your information whether you have used quotations or paraphrases.

• Many students also like to photocopy key pages of their reading material so they can underline and/or highlight important points as well as write their own comments and ideas in the margin.

  NOTE: The key points are often found in topic sentences and concluding sentences, with the remainder of the paragraph giving examples and evidence.

• Some students like to group their notes under topic headings as they read, while others prefer to organise them after they have done more reading.

• There are several systems you can use to organise your notes such as the split page or the outline methods, or using concept mapping techniques. (See the information on Taking lecture notes for further information about these systems.)

Using the information from your notes

Depending on your purpose for reading you may want to use your notes for:

• summarising the main points from all the different readings you have done

• looking at the different viewpoints and arguments expressed by different writers

• reflecting on your own understandings of the topic you have been reading about

The advantages of summarising

• Writing ideas in your own words helps your understanding

• Summarising helps you to organise your thoughts

• Summaries help you to remember the most important ideas, the key points

• Summaries serve as the basis for your assignments and for reviewing your work for examinations

If you want to summarise points from writers' work(s) to use as evidence in your assignment, it is most important that you cite your source. Even though you are putting what you have read into your own words, you are still using the ideas of the original author or authors, and their names must be acknowledged.

See the information on Referencing for how to cite your sources correctly.

Reading critically

At university you are not just reading for information, but to develop your own ideas and understandings. To do this you need to understand different points of view and to see how these are supported with evidence.

The following questions are designed to help you analyse and evaluate what you are reading:

• What is the context of the issue - e.g. where has the text come from?

• Is it an authoritative source? (e.g. is it a reputable journal or just someone's opinions which they have posted on the internet?)

• What is the main point or thesis?

• What evidence or argument is used to support this view?

• How valid is the evidence?

• Who is making this assertion? What interests does this view represent? Whose views are not represented?

• How is this writer presenting this view: in what terms, from what perspective? with what sort of language - persuasive, argumentative, authoritative?

• Why is this point of view being presented?

• What does this writer want me, the reader to do - to agree? take action?

• Do other writers agree with these assertions?

In other words, you are trying to discover:

• what the writer is asserting

• how well s/he supports their arguments

• whether you agree or disagree with the arguments, and why

If you accept the assertions, you need to ask yourself:

• Can I use these assertions in my own essay?

If the answer is 'yes':

• Can they be used as evidence to support my argument?

• Or can I use them to show that I have looked at two sides of the question? And, that I have stronger evidence to support my own arguments?

There are many strategies described here. However, as you become more familiar with reading critically, you will find the ones which best suit you and your purposes.

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