Reading, like writing, is an active process. Reading involves three major phases: previewing, reading, and reviewing. Participating in all three stages of the reading process can help you engage with and retain the information you read.

Previewing

Before you start reading:

• Figure out the purpose of the reading
• Look over notes from your professor or prompt for essay
• Note any unfamiliar vocabulary
• Use background knowledge
  • Note any prior knowledge of the subject you may have
• Ask questions
  • Write down any questions you have about the subject prior to reading
• Preview information within the reading, specifically looking for the following:
  • Headers
  • Bolded words
  • Boxes or pull-outs
  • Quotes

Reading

While you’re reading, actively engage with the text (don’t just let your eyes watch the words go by).

• Annotation is recording your interactions with the text as you read. Annotation will help you avoid having to reread sections. You can use a variety of methods to accomplish this, but to effectively annotate you need to notate why a particular part of the text engaged you.

Annotation strategies

• Write your reaction and important details in the margins of the book
• Highlight significant selections within reading
• Create text marking symbols
  • * = Important words, # = Important details, ? = confusing parts
• Use sticky notes to write down information
  • Different colored (or sized) sticky notes can be used to represent different aspects of reading;
    • pink = important words, purple = important details, blue = confusing parts, yellow = connections
      • Post-its can then be moved to notebook or table to help organize your thoughts and questions

Read for responses that answer your questions from the previewing stage

• Look for order of steps or events
• Identify both arguments and counterarguments for your response to the reading
• Collect quotes

What to read for

While these aren’t the only things that you can or should focus on while reading, many of the following questions can help you engage with and think critically about what you’re reading.

• Purpose
  • Determine what information you expect to learn by reading your text
  • What do you think the author wanted you to take from this? Why?
  • How does this text reinforce or illustrate a theme or goal from the class?
• Audience
  • How did you react to the text? Why?
  • Who was this text written for? How do you know?
• Context
  • Why was this text written? What events, policies, etc. is the author responding to?
  • What social, economic, political, etc. issues is this text responding to?
• Evidence
  • How convincing was the argument?
  • What kinds of evidence did the author use? Is the evidence credible?
• Style
  • How was language used to present the argument?
  • What kind of sentence structures, word choices, punctuation choices, figurative language, etc. is the author using?

Reviewing

After you read a text, you should review what you’ve just read or written to engage with what you’ve learned.

• Stop and spend a few minutes thinking about what you read
• Summarize important/relevant facts and details
• Compare and contrast the various ideas presented within the text and within other readings
• Make connections to the prompt
• Visualize how you are going to use the reading to respond to the prompt
• Target the following issues for rereading:
  • Parts of the text you found confusing
  • Words you marked as unknown (it is more effective to look up words and then reread the section rather than looking up the words as you read)
  • Sections you will be using to support your argument or counterargument to ensure you have a critical understanding of the topic