If you find looking up words slows you down, make a mark next to each word you need to look up, and return to all these words when you've read through a complete section of the essay. If you are reading some time before the class meeting, you may find it helpful to review your reading on the day or the day before the essay is discussed in class. Beginning Theory . After reading the text thoroughly, try to fill in the answers to the following questions. If you can do so, you are entering into a dialogue with the text, evaluating it, rather than just accepting its thesis unquestioningly.
Most theoretical essays introduce new vocabulary to describe new concepts that they explore.
A useful strategy, having read the essay, is to note down the new vocabulary introduced which seems central to the argument of the essay, and to attempt, in your own words, to produce a dictionary definition in plain, simple English for each new item of vocabulary.