Improve Your Reading

Before reading a book for detail, it is important to look at the information that can be gathered from a study of the book's cover, preface, index and table of contents.

Look at the cover. Who is the author? What are the author's qualifications? When and where was the book published? Is it a recent publication? Was it published in another country and so perhaps the ideas are not relevant? A book on gardening in Britain published in England may not be relevant for an essay on gardening in Australia. Look at the preface if there is one. The preface will outline the author's purpose. Are the ideas, as outlined in the preface, relevant to your requirements? Look at the table of contents. What are the chapter headings? Does the book contain chapters which will be of use to you? Look at the index. Are there words which look interesting and relevant?

Anderson, Durson and Poole say that "Pre-reading is a technique that can help you to get the basic points of a written passage, an article or a book, after a quick look. It helps you to gain the most from your reading in the shortest amount of time." Pre-reading will help you to become familiar with the book's main ideas and general structure. This information will help you decide whether you should begin reading in more detail.

Once you have decided that a piece of material is appropriate, the next step is to skin the parts you think are the most appropriate. Skimming is the technique of allowing your eyes to travel over a page very quickly, stopping only here and there to gain an idea. When skimming you should read a few words in each paragraph; read the first sentence; scan the paragraph for key words that may tell you who, what, when, where, how many or how much; and then, perhaps, the last sentence. In particular you should be looking for the author's main arguments and any evidence used to support these arguments.

Scanning is the technique of looking very quickly over a piece of reading matter to find the answer to a specific question. Scanning is slightly more positive and specific than skimming. Scanning involved searching for particular pieces of information, facts and examples. When you are scanning you let your eyes run down a page looking for a specific idea or piece of information.

Once you have selected a text or piece of material as relevant for your requirements you then need to settle down to reading in detail those chapters or parts which are most relevant to you. Underline the main points as you read so that you can quickly refer back to them. Perhaps mark supporting evidence — in another way — red underline for main argument, blue underline for supporting arguments. Don't get carried away with your markings. They should serve as reminders when you come back to the material and allow you to make quick comparisons with other pieces of material.