Often, students don’t have a clear idea of purpose when doing academic reading. You will open a book or article and start reading at the beginning. But what are you reading for?
- What role does the reading play in the context of the course?
- Why were you asked to read it?
- And why at this point in the semester?
In high school, you were are usually expected to do the reading you were assigned in a given night. Often, the author’s purpose and the teacher’s purpose were aligned, and your teacher would likely walk you through what and why the reading was important to help you understand it as a component of the particular topic or discipline you were focusing on at that time.
In college, assigned readings are resources. They are often used to help you think critically about a topic or provide additional - sometimes critical- information that the professor wasn’t able to cover in class.
This changes what you need to do as a student when you are assigned a reading. You may not need – or be expected - to read every word of a given assignment. But you do need to know what and why you need to read it, and then excavate it for the most important information.
In college, your readings may:
- Explain key concepts introduced in class in more depth and detail.
- Give important background not covered in class, which is necessary to understanding class content and other readings
- Provide crucial vocabulary and technical concepts necessary for understanding the topics.
- Help formulate important questions to explore particular course topics
- Raise essential issues that will be discussed in class
- Provide answers to questions formulated in class or other readings
College level academic reading involves identifying a clear purpose and a set of reading tasks. Before you start reading, ask:
What's the purpose of this assignment?
What steps do I need to take to accomplish this purpose?
Develop an Overall Reading Strategy for a Course
- Use the syllabus and/or introductory class notes and determine:
- What are the course objectives?
- What is the type and structure of reading assignments?
- If there are multiple readings, what is the purpose for each one in the context of the course, and what is the relationship between among them (e.g., one reading with main concepts and another with case studies illustrating these concepts)?
- When will you need to read each one for best understanding?
At the end of each class week, reflect. Write down notes and ideas about material, questions, issues etc. covered in your class/studying that week.
