Reading Skills:

Improving the Effectiveness of Reading

Activity
Collected Notes
October 28, 2002

CONTENTS
1 Reading: Introduction

2 Tasks involved in reading

3 Comprehension

4 Avoiding Bad Habits in Reading

4.1 Examples of Bad Habits . . . .
4.2 Minimizing Bad Habits . . . . .
4.3 Reducing stress . . . . . . . . .
4.4 Increase concentration . . . . .

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5 Tips on Reading
5.1 General Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2 Rapid Reading Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3 Six Effective Steps in Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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6 Note Taking
6.1 Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2 Dont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3 Using note-cards (or similar media) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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REFERENCES

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DRAFT

Notes
1

READING: INTRODUCTION
Fact on reading activity (Brown et al., 1995):
it can easily swallow up all of your time
it must be approached in different way
Reading techniques should (Brown et al., 1995):
be flexible
be adapted to our needs
According to (Redway, 1991), it is important to:
set the objectives before reading
be able to know where to find the right information
know how to interpret the information

TASKS INVOLVED IN READING

It is argued in (Redway, 1991) that a good and effective reading activity is a simultaneous
process of many tasks including (but not limited to):
visual cognition of symbol
preparation for recall
retention
integration
assimilation of symbol into meaningful images for comprehension
Effective reading should make full use of both hemisphere of the brain (connected each other
by corpus callosum):
Left side brain: mostly used for sequential or linear processes
logic
analysis
reasoning
writing
reading
math
speech
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DRAFT

Notes
languages
Right side brain: for simultaneous or parallel processes

faces
wholeness music

synthesis
recognition
rhythm
intuition

pattern
creativity concept

image space (3D)

3

COMPREHENSION

Effective reading should lead to good comprehension of reading materials. Following (Redway,
1991), in order to acquire good comprehension proficient reader must be able to:
select what is needed
understand what is needed
retain and recall new information acquired from reading materials
connect this new information with the old ones
update knowledge consciously by establishing and maintaining the connection between
new and old information
4

AVOIDING BAD HABITS IN READING

Ineffective reading usually comes as a result of practicing bad habits. Such habits usually hinders
the speed at which readers collect information from the reading materials as well as grasp the
information to get a good comprehension of the materials read. Therefore, readers are required
to make an effort to minimize these habits in order to get the full benefit of their reading
activity.
4.1

Examples of Bad Habits

Subvocalized
Read one word at a time
Re-read the passage due to concentration/meaning loss

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DRAFT

Notes
Problems in remembering
Difficulty in maintaining focus on the page
Concentration wandered off
4.2

Minimizing Bad Habits

Handling complex materials:

Start reading the material as soon as possible
Divide the material into manageable chunks; by doing this,
we increase the probability of retaining the material in a long term
we prevent the new learning material from interfering with the old ones
Take five minutes break after 20-30 minutes of reading activity
Give yourself a reward after achieving your intermediate objectives
Commit yourself to deadlines
End reading at the allotted time
4.3

Reducing stress

There are two types of stresses that we have to manage:

Pressure Pressure can be beneficial to readers. Pressure would affect hormones by creating
an imbalanced proportion of it in the body through
increase in the production of certain growth hormones and adrenaline resulting in
an increase in metabolic rate
decrease in other hormones
Prolonged exposure to this imbalance would lead to
high blood pressure
low body resistance
Ability to manage pressure is reflected in stability zones:
having your family with spouse as an acting partner
take refugee in daily activity, reading, exercising, etc
Strain Strain can be negative to readers. It reduces flexibility as well as heightens tension.
Daily exposes to strain such as anxiety, fatigue, and harassment is damaging.

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DRAFT

Notes
4.4

Increase concentration

The way people concentrate is very subjective. Hence, to increase concentration during reading
activity, reader must be able to identify which method gives optimal results:
choosing the best time of day to read
picking up the most comfortable environment for reading
lighting: either using daylight or other artificial comfortable lights
temperature: around 20 240 C, while it is also known that for most people brain
works optimal in 180 C
posture: using (ergonomic) chair that gives minimum strain on muscles
reducing distraction
external : by filtering out disturbing external distraction.
internal : by reading within prescribed times to maintain concentration and stop as
soon as attention starts to laps. When leaving, it is also a good practice to summarize
what we have read by writing it on a piece of paper or simply just memorizing it in
mind.

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DRAFT

Notes
5

TIPS ON READING

5.1

General Tips

Ten tips on reading given by (Brown et al., 1995):

1. Scanning looking for headings, subheadings, illustration/figures
2. Make good use of contents page and indexes in journals and books
3. You can read faster than you speak
4. Find out whose work to read seriously
5. Identify things youre going to read in detail
6. Take photocopies of important short articles/extracts
7. When reading important material, mark up your photocopies or alternatively, store
main details systematically in a card file
8. Make use of what others have read by reading review sections of existing research
work in the field included in book chapters / journal articles
9. Make full use of abstract collections
10. Build up your personal list of relevant keywords
5.2

Rapid Reading Techniques

These are suggested techniques to increase the speed of reading (Redway, 1991):
1. Give yourself a motivation
establish clear and well-defined objectives
do the reading in short burst
2. Make good use of peripheral vision by taking several words at a time
3. Do not also forget to rest our eyes from time to time by imagining/visualizing good
things, or by focusing on a far point
4. Overcome regression due to jerky movement of eyes (saccades) in backward direction
(backskipping) or large number of fixation on the text because we are not sure of what
we have read while in reality this is very inefficient.
5. Use guide as a pacer
6. Conditioning to increase the speed of reading by incorporating rhythm, e.g. moving
along the lines following heartbeats
7. Maintain your speed by doing a regular practice as short as 5 minutes/day
8. Consolidation to achieve good comprehension while keeping up the high speed in reading
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DRAFT

Notes
5.3

Six Effective Steps in Reading

Effective reading should reflect good practice in learning which can be regarded as pattern
building where new information are considered significant when they fit certain pattern (built
through education and experience). This is the concept of wholeness in reading. In this way,
reading is conducted through jigsaw puzzle approach: starting from the overall look of the
problem, doing the simpler bits first while putting a side those difficult ones, and building up
your pieces by filling in holes in the puzzle. According to (Redway, 1991), the six effective
steps in reading are the following:
1. Recall:
based on what you have known before reading. Jot down few known keywords from the
material. This activity should last no more than 2 minutes.
2. Objectives:
raising questions which are specific and targeted at clear topic. This should be done in
less than 5 minutes.
3. Overview:
locating relevant information in the material based on its structure, presentation, and
content. This should also be done in less than 5 minutes.
4. Preview:
skimming through the material at a glance
rejecting irrelevant information
ignoring what already known

repetition
avoiding padding

familiar information
5. Inview:
detailed understanding through
reading with comprehension
line-by-line
highlighting important points
keep moving through the passage even though we have gaps in understanding the
material
flexibility in choosing reading speed
re-read if necessary

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DRAFT

Notes
6. Review:
note-taking
link to previous knowledge

Variations exist in the way people exercise the above mentioned steps as a response to
different types of reading material presented. For example, in reading journal/newspaper,
steps 4 and 5 can be combined into one single step.
6
6.1

NOTE TAKING
Do
Take notes at the end of all reading steps
Take notes by being selective to the materials you would take in the notes to avoid
unnecessary, irrelevant information
Take notes after different readings to come up with a better connection between newly
acquired information and previously-stored one in the memory to retain the new information in a long-term basis. In this way, previous information stored in memory, which
has become our mental property/knowledge, is continuously updated by the new one.
This practice can also be of great help to achieve good comprehension.
The use of different layouts or sequence suitable to our own knowledge/experience from
that used in the original reading material can also help these tasks

6.2

Dont

Do not do note-taking as we read because this may be inefficient:

time-consuming
unnecessary bulky note
mental laziness
no proof that we have absorb the reading
it may not be necessary
6.3

Using note-cards (or similar media)

Efficiency of the procedure rests on two principles (Berry, ):

atomization of knowledge
absolute reliance the researcher can place on the technique of coding knowledge.
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DRAFT

Notes
REFERENCES

Berry, R. (-). How to Write a Research Paper.

Subject: Research Methodology, Education, Study Skills, Writing Skills.
Summary: Concentrate on what steps should be taken into account when writing up &
publishing a research paper.
Brown, S., McDowell, L., and Race, P. (1995). 500 Tips for Research Students. Kogan Page,
London & Philadelphia. UoE Classmark: LB 2369 / 965909182. ISBN: 0-7494-1767-6.
Subject: Research Methodology, Education.
Summary: Topics covered include the followings:
-information handling
-time and self management
-writing and getting published
-dealing with others
Providing support and guidance in planning, carrying out, writing up and publishing
research findings.
Redway, K. (1991). Heres How: Be a Rapid Reader. NTC LearningWorks, Chicago, IL. CPL
Classmark: 418.4 / 30130 11263 9504. ISBN: 0-8442-2943-1.
Subject: Reading techniques.
Summary: Increase reading effectiveness by mastering the technique of rapid reading, by
exercising the six simple but effective steps in reading.

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