Effective writing depends on deep, mindful reading. In college, you’ll start to encounter longer and more complicated texts. These texts differ in many ways from what you’ve become familiar with as a student. They use a different vocabulary. They feature complex sentence structure, and they often present ideas and information in a way that appears distant or clinical. These texts appear overwhelming to those not familiar with their discourse conventions.
These new types of texts call for a different set of reading strategies. In fact, you’ll see in college that different processes exist not only for writing but also reading and processing information. Mindful reading is about adapting the way you process information in different situations.
The strategies outlined below all play a part into mindful reading. When you read mindfully, you’re trying to go beyond passive absorption of a text. Passive reading may work for things we read for pleasure, but it usually results in lower comprehension and less understanding of a text’s purpose. Research and academic texts call for active engagement.
These strategies are based on Ellen Carillo’s open-access textbook, A Writer’s Guide to Mindful Reading.
Context
Think about what type of text (genre) it is, and why the text matters. Who is the author, and why did they write it? Who were they addressing? How does the topic effect others? Why are you reading it? What is your purpose (entertainment, assignment, curiosity, research)? What do you plan to do with the text?
Schemas
A schema refers to a worldview or overall orientation you have, based on your prior knowledge and experiences. Your schema influences how you respond to a text. Think about your prior observations, experiences, and readings. How can the current text connect to those by extending, challenging, or deepening what you already know?
Pre-reading
It often helps to preview a text before diving in. This helps you identify what information it contains, and its relevance. Examine the title, subtitle, abstract, and author. Skim through and look at section headings, any bold or italicized words, and also charts and graphs. Doing this creates a mental framework.
Identify your Role
You won’t be the target audience of everything you read. Some articles address experts in other fields. However, you can still gather some useful information or perspectives from these sources.
Converse with the Text
This is a metaphor for active reading and annotation. Think about your response, how you react to arguments and evidence, and how this reading can effect the way you think about the issue.
Non-linear Reading
Linear reading refers to the way we often read texts like novels or short stories. We read from start to finish, and enjoy the progression of the plot and character development. It wouldn’t make sense to skip around in fiction. However, academic texts are designed to be read in both a linear and non-linear fashion. They multiple sections, some addressed to very specific readers, and not others. Researchers often read the introduction, discussion, and conclusions of articles first. If you’re not the target audience, you might not need to understand everything about methods or analysis. These sections are intended more for other researchers, or skeptical readers.
Synthesis
Don’t try to memorize or retain all the details of a text. Comprehension tests might promote this unhealthy view of reading. Instead, determine the main points. Break down the main points into smaller, contributing claims. Identify the supporting evidence. Synthesizing texts in this way helps you remember the key information and ideas.
Paraphrase/Summarize
Put the text into your own words, succinctly. A summary contains a description of the overall text’s purpose and arguments. A summary can also include paraphrase–more detailed descriptions of individual claims and supporting evidence. Many researchers keep files where they create summaries of articles and books they plan to incorporate into their own work.
New Words
Many articles you’ll read present new words, and sometimes familiar words in new contexts. It’s a good idea to mark these words by highlighting or circling them. You can do this with digital tools like Adobe, if you’re not reading printed material. Sometimes, you may need to stop and look up words. Other times, you can simply mark them and move on. As you practice reading, you’ll get better at determining which words are central to a sentence’s meaning, and which ones less so.
Says/Does
Pay attention not just to what author say, but what they do. For example: using statistics to support a point, driving home an argument with an example, explaining why an issue matters, critiquing existing research, siding with one source against others.
Annotation
Take notes, highlighting key information, recording your thoughts while reading, underlining parts you don’t understand or disagree with. This helps you process the key points. It also creates a “map” that makes second readings easier.
Outlining/Mapping
Make a list of bullet points and headings to summarize a text’s key points and evidence. You can also create a mind web or chart to represent important information. By mapping a text, you’re transcribing information from a textual to a visual mode, representing the argument in a way that may be easier and quicker to grasp its main points.
The End Goal
The strategies help because they place you into an active role, as a producer as well as a consumer. The summaries, outlines, notes, and annotations you create serve as their own forms of knowledge. By creating that knowledge, you’re interacting with texts in a more meaningful way. This greatly enhances your comprehension, but also puts you in a better position to determine the meaning of these documents to you and your own purposes.