Good reading strategies help you to read in a very efficient way. Using them, you aim to get the maximum benefit from your reading with the minimum effort. This section will show you how to use six different strategies to read intelligently.
Strategy 1:Knowing what you want to know
The first thing to ask yourself is: Why you are reading the text? What do you want to know after reading it? Once you know this, you can examine the text to see whether it is going to move you towards this goal.
Strategy 2:Knowing how deeply to study the material
Where you only need the shallowest knowledge of the subject, you can skim material. Here you read only chapter headings, introductions and summaries. If you need a moderate level of information you can scan the text.
Strategy 3: Active reading
When you are reading a document in detail, it often helps if you highlight, underline and annotate it as you go on. This emphasizes information in your mind, and helps you to review important points later.
Strategy 4:How to study different sorts of material
Different sorts of documents hold information in different places and in different ways. By understanding the layout of the material you are reading, you can extract useful information much more efficiently.
Strategy 5:Reading ‘Whole subject' documents
When you are reading an important document, it is easy to accept the writer's structure of thought. This can mean that you may not notice that important information has been omitted or that irrelevant detail has been included.
Strategy 6:Using glossaries with technical documents
If you are reading large amounts of difficult technical material, it may be useful to photocopy or compile a glossary. Keep this beside you as you read. It will probably also be useful to note down the key concepts in your own words.