Reading Strategies.

Know your destination: Read with purpose

Introduction:

If you are traveling to an unfamiliar destination, you may spend some time researching it in advance to make sure you get the most out of your trip. You will want to consider the purpose of your journey: is your primary objective to sightsee, to visit friends and family, or to attend an event like a concert or a sports game? You may also spend some time reading guidebooks and articles about the area, or talking to people you know who live or have visited there, to help you decide which local attractions to see.

Informing yourself before setting off will make you a better reader as well. Take some time to consider the purpose of your reading, and it will help you be alert in advance for the things you most definitely don't want to miss. Understanding why you are reading, which varies each time you sit down to read, is one of the best ways to improve your reading.

Your "guidebook": How to read purposefully

activity two

We read for many different purposes. You may be reading strictly looking for information, you may be reading to analyze a research article and decide how to use it in your own research paper, you may need to work through a business document to evaluate it, you may be reading literature. So, each time you sit down to read, you need to ask yourself two questions:

Remember to go back, after you read, and review your purpose for reading in the first place. If you were reading to study for a test, can you now predict what some of the questions on the test might be, and do you now have answers for the test questions you predicted? If you were reading to determine whether or not to use a particular source in a research paper, have you now made that decision, recorded it in your research log, and moved on to either re-reading to take notes or finding an alternate source?

Probably the most important step you can take to improve your reading is to keep in mind that there is a reason that you are reading. Identifying this reason is an important part of the pre-reading process which will make your reading more efficient. Remember to ask yourself why you are reading, and let your answer shape the way you read.