READING CLOSELY AND ACTIVELY

Annotate- This is the secret to understanding what you read.  Underline, circle, color, make notes, use whatever code you can devise to alert yourself to important information in a book.  Have a writing instrument in one hand and your book in the other, only then should you begin reading!

Restate the major points in a nutshell.  And not just in your head, but in the margins of the book.  This is a process called close reading.  It means you know what you have just read at every level of meaning.

You know that experience you have when you are reading and your mind shoots off and makes a connection to an experience you’ve had?  This is called active reading, because now you are seeing similarities or differences between your experiences and the writer’s experiences.  Now, you and the writer are having a conversation; note that conversation in the margin of the book or on paper.  Hooray! You have become a participant in an exchange of ideas, which is the real reason you are in college!