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Study Techniques

Reading Skills

Reading effectively is an important part of studying at university. Successful academic reading involves applying your reading skills and strategies and learning to be critical of what you read. Effective reading involves an active rather than passive approach. We read passively when browsing a magazine or reading a novel, i.e. we don’t necessarily ‘think’ all that much about what we are reading; we let the words guide the way. To read actively, however, is to comprehend and critique the text as you go, and this is a crucial element of reading for your assignments.  

Reading for Assignments

When reading for an assignment, a 'Systematic' approach should be taken:  

  1. Select a book or article from your resource list or literature search.

  1. Decide what you need to find out. What are the gaps in your knowledge? What do you already know? Write down some questions to focus your reading. 

  1. Check authors, publication date, contents and index pages to determine relevance. 

  1. Reference in full so you won’t have trouble referring back to the source when compiling reference list or bibliography. 

  1. Skim-read relevant sections and compare with other material before taking notes.  

  1. Record page numbers with any notes you take. 

Reading Critically

As a student, you may underestimate your ability to question the information and views of published authors, however, it is always important to challenge what you read; nothing should be taken at face value. There are many reasons published information should be critiqued. For example:  

  • The author’s expertise – Is the author an expert in the field? Are they suitably qualified to be writing on the matter. In spite of having qualifications and expertise it is impossible for an author to know absolutely everything about complex fields of study.

  • Time and place – It is possible that the resource you are reading is out of date or superseded by revised theories. It is important that the information you use to inform your assignments is up to date and relevant to the country/situation you are interested in. 

  • Ambiguity – If any of the information is unclear more attention must be paid to it.  

  • Consistency – Does the author stick to their point of view. Is their stance on the matter clear and consistent? If you find flaws in an author’s argument, do not accept it. 

  • Unintelligent use of language – Is there any questionable terminology used to suggest the author may not be suitably knowledgeable about the topic? 

  • Generalisation – It is not possible to know everything about a topic but where authors generalise their ideas, it is important to treat these as suspicious until proven otherwise. 

  • Use of ‘evidence’ - What evidence has an author used and what have they omitted?  

  • Consensus – Phrases such as ‘we all know that’, or 'it is clear' should be treated with concern as it suggests the author does not have appropriate evidence and is instead appealing to consensus.  

  • Authority – Just because an expert supports a view, does not mean it is correct. Experts can also have gaps in their knowledge or bias in their views. Even experts should provide good evidence to back up their points. 

  • Common sense – If an author tells you it is ‘common sense’ to accept a point, challenge it, as ‘common sense’ is not a universal phenomenon – neither is it an academic line of reasoning.  

Reading a Journal Article

The initial reading of an article is not designed to be detailed but to familiarise yourself with the article, its content and key points and help you decide whether it is going to be of use to you and worth reading in more depth. The idea is to read the article quickly (also known as skimming) in order to find out what it is about and how it is organised.

  • Start with the title and abstract of the article to make the initial decision on relevancy and usefulness to your topic.
  • If it does, then look at the following sections of the article in this order to further refine your decision as to whether to use it or not,
    • Introduction
    • Conclusion and discussion
    • Results
    • Methods
    • References
    • Labels on tables, images, diagrams etc

Reading Strategy

Before you start your initial reading, you need to think of what you want from the article and what keywords or terms you hope to find. Think of two or three terms that describe what you want to know, and as you skim, keep an eye out for those terms. Skimming without knowing what you hope to find can cause drowsiness and lack of attention, defeating the purpose of skimming.

  • Look for keywords/terms that are related and applicable to your topic/assignment question/research area 

  • Initially, just read the first sentence of each paragraph. This introductory sentence usually describes what information will follow in that paragraph, if the start of a sentence holds no promise of it giving you the information you want, skip to the next sentence.

  • When skimming over a longer section of text, move your eyes vertically as much as you move your eyes horizontally. In other words, you move your eyes down the page as much as you move them from side to side.

  • Highlight or underline anything that looks relevant. Don't worry if you don't full understand it on your initial reading you can come back to it later.

  • Don't take detailed notes. The initial reading stage is to to gain an overview of the content and to determine whether the article is useful and worth looking at in more depth.