Active+Reading+Tips

**Active Reading Tips**


===Reading for college is unlike much of the reading you might have done up until this point. It requires you to focus in and pay attention to the details given to you in the text. These tips will help you read and comprehend your assignments for this class and beyond. ===

**__Before You Start Reading__**
=== · __Make sure that you’re in a comfortable environment where you can study__. Reading on your bed might not be the best place to study because you might be tempted to fall asleep. Instead choose a place where you can sit up and have a workspace so that you are able to pay attention to what you are doing. === === · __ALWAYS have a dictionary close by while you’re reading__. You might come across some words that you don’t know, or aren’t familiar with, it could cause you to misunderstand an entire passage. If you read near your computer, I’d recommend using the Oxford English Dictionary (OED Online), which can be found in our online library databases. === === · __Be sure to have at least a pencil and two highlighters with you.__ Don’t be afraid to annotate what you’re reading. Sometimes things won’t make sense—you might want to underline it so that you can ask the professor a question about it. You might come up with ideas about the reading—writing them next to the text can help you remember during class discussions. Be prepared to annotate! ===

**__While You Read__**
=== · __Think about the title.__ Titles are always important. They catch our attention and often refer us to the reading in some way. How does the title connect to the reading? What did you learn from the title? === === · __Read any introductory material__. You might not think that it’s important, but introductory material provides information that helps you understand what you’re reading. It also offers points for you to think about before you start reading. === === · __Annotate the Reading__. Remember how I mentioned to grab two highlighters? Here’s the trick: use one for passages that you find to be important or interesting and use the other to highlight passages that you think are confusing or that you have questions about. In either case, make sure to briefly write a note that reminds you what you were thinking and why it is important. You also might consider underlining the thesis idea of what you are reading. ===

**__After You Read__**
===Once you finish reading, you should write down a few sentences that tell you what the reading is about and how it connects to what you are doing for that particular class. You might ask yourself, “Why did my teacher make us read this?” and “How can I potentially use this?” in order to make this reading more useful to you. ===