Advice for Students: How to Read Like a Scholar. Gideon at Scholastici.us had some advice for students recently, saying that when it comes to scholarly reading, there really is no substitute for hard work, for actually sitting down and reading. Most the time in school what you need to do is very simple:Sit down with the book, a pen and paper, and perhaps a computer… And from that point, you read. That’s it. You go through and read the book, you underline important points and passages, pay special attention to introductions and conclusions, be sure to note special terminology, names and dates and that’s it. Maybe afterward take notes on the text.There is a time for technology and clever tricks. There is also a time for elbow grease. This is good advice, and yet it’s incomplete. Reading as an academic exercise involves not just gleaning the content form a book or essay but engaging with it. While reading, students should keep the following questions in mind: What is the author trying to say?
Here’s how you do it: Skim the book. Back to School: Keep an Academic Reading Journal. Aside from partying, the thing you’re probably going to do most in college is read. Assuming you’re at all serious about your education, you’ll read so much that words will come out your ears. Unfortunately, much of what you read will also go pouring out your ears, or so it will seem looking back.
One of the best habits you can develop in college — or even in high school, if you have the discipline — is to keep an academic reading journal. This is more or less what it sounds like: a journal recording everything you read, with an added layer of academic analysis. The idea is, you record what you read, key ideas and quotes from the text, and your own reflections on the work, allowing you to fairly accurately recreate your initial reading at a later date, pershaps a much later date. Why do this? There are several reasons. Creating the Academic Reading Journal A full bibliographic citation. One last thing. IWTL How to Study Effectively : IWantToLearn. Study Guides and Strategies.