Write an article based on this "Ask questions before you begin. Take your time. Write in the margins. Summarize what you have read. Use online study guides after reading. Tell someone about the reading."
Asking yourself some pre-reading questions can make it easier for you to retain what you read. Before you start reading a text, determine what you need to discover from the text. Some instructors will provide students with a list of questions to help them stay focused as they read. You might ask your instructor about good questions to keep in mind as you read. You can also develop your own questions. For example, you might simply ask, what is the focus of this chapter? Give yourself plenty of time to read and take breaks as needed. It is better to go slowly when you read a text than to rush through it and have to re-read it later on. Make sure that you provide yourself with plenty of time to read and understand what you read. For example, if you have to read 40 pages of a book by Friday, start reading on Monday and just read 10 pages per night. Don't put off reading until Thursday night. Making notes in the margins whenever you encounter something important is more effective than highlighting or underlining the passage. Try reading with a pen in your hands instead of holding a highlighter. You can write key words in the margins, ask questions, or comment on something that just happened. Writing summaries of what you just read can help you to commit the information to memory as well. After you finish reading a chapter of a book or a short story, take a minute to write a brief summary of what you just read. In your summary, don't worry about including every little detail. Instead, try to provide a nice overview of the action. You also might want to include a paragraph where you discuss your ideas about the reading. For example, if something surprising happened in the chapter, you might talk about how you reacted to it and why. Summaries are also a good place to record information about symbols, themes, and characters. For example, you might note that the author uses nature symbolism to describe certain characters. There are many online guides that you can utilise in order to better comprehend the literature that you're assigned to read. Websites like SparkNotes and CliffsNotes provide summaries, character analyses, interpretations, helpful hints, essay tips and more for many different books. Read these after completing your reading assignment to feel more confident in understanding the material. Don't rely solely on reading SparkNotes or CliffsNotes. Reading only these guides will usually not give you enough information to be successful. Teaching someone else about the text that you have been reading is a great way to commit the information to memory as well. Try telling a classmate or friend about the chapter you just read. When you tell someone about the reading, try to summarize the main ideas and explain anything that might be difficult to understand if you have not read the book. Make sure that you explain the reading in your own words. Don't just repeat parts of what you read word-for-word.