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How to Read When You Have to Write

Dr. Eric Drown

In order to get the most out of your time spent reading, you will have to set ambitious reading goals. Figure 1 lays out some of the key differences between basic and advanced reading goals. Figure 1: Basic and Advanced Reading Goals Basic Reading Goals Read to store and retrieve information Advanced Reading Goals Read to be conversant to be able to speak about the details (and the relationships among them) and general effect of a text without referring to it Read actively take notes, ask questions, make connections, paraphrase key points Read to explore, inquire, consider, question, criticize, analyze Read to do something to/with the text evaluate, synthesize, create, write Read to understand nuances and to assess views. Read to locate gaps in the conversation, to find places to comment and respond Read texts as part of an inter-textual dialogue or field Read systematically Read to understand a position that is different from ones own

Read passively Read to absorb Read to understand Read for the gist

Read each text in isolation Read impressionistically Read to agree or disagree

Analysis and Interpretation In order to read to fulfill these more advanced goals, you may need to alter your reading habits. In particular you will need to take an analytical approach to reading your sources in order to interpret them. By interpretation we mean the process by which you come see the significance, meaning or implications of the ideas, data, and questions with which you are working. Analysis and interpretation are notoriously fuzzy terms. But its not hard to be concrete about the process to use to generate them. Lets begin by understanding what it means to read analytically towards an interpretation. To read analytically is to attend to, understand, assess, and comment on 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The sequence of writerly moves a writer uses to make an argument. The relationship between claims made and the evidence and logic used to support them. The significance and implications of specific keywords or phrases a writer chooses to convey his or her view. Patterns in data, ideas, methods, or perspectives. Anomalous data, ideas, methods, or perspective once a pattern has been established. The explicit or tacit organizing binaries or oppositions in the piece.

Reading analytically also means 7. 8. 9. To uncover and reveal the tacit values and assumptions that anchor a writers perspective. To understand the larger contexts in which specific data or phenomenon are relevant. To explore and reveal the implications of the data, ideas, or methods.

While it may seem that reading analytically requires you to pay attention to a lot, the following paragraphs provide

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you with a step-by-step reading and note-taking process that will maximize your chances of reading analytically. 1. Approach the text with the right mindset in the right environment. It can be easy to check out of a reading that on first blush seems dull or irrelevant, is hard to follow, or is on a complex subject matter. Dont let yourself take the easy way out! Why? Because it will make your life as a writer considerably more difficult if you do. Try to focus hard, knowing that the work you put in up front will pay off with time saved, less stress, and better results at the end of the project. Create a single-tasking environment. Limit distractions by refusing to open your internet browser, IM, email program, or Skype. Turn off your computers modem/wireless receiver. Silence your phone. If you have to listen to music, make sure its music without words (you dont want the language center of your brain to multitask when youre working on new or complex material made entirely out of words). Better yet, try playing a white noise loop through ear buds to shut out distracting sounds. Once youve created a single-tasking environment, work actively to pay attention, understand, and respond to the material being presented. Concentrate on understanding what is being conveyed whatever the deficiencies of the piece of writing. Try to connect what youre reading to what you already know (through personal experience or other reading youve done on the subject). Think about how what youre reading possibly changes what you think about the topic on which youre working. Assess the uses and limits of the ideas to which youre listening for your own writing project. 2. Use pre-reading strategies: Survey the reading and develop questions and interests to guide your reading. Activate what you already know about the topics, whether from other reading or life experiences. When you survey a text you scan the table of contents, introduction, chapter introductions, headings, or summaries to pick up a shallow overview of the text. From your survey develop a small set of initial questions or lines of thought that youll to try to answer or think through as you read. Also locate areas of particular interest (topics or subtopics, but also specific page ranges) to which youll give your best attention. Before reading the text carefully, consider what you already know (or think you know) about the topic of the text. By creating expectations about youre reading, youll notice when the writers line of thought diverges from your expectations and see those moments as interesting, puzzling, troubling, ambiguous or suggestive, as moments with which youll need to come to terms. 3. Mark up your texts. It is vital that you convert all readings about which youre going to write from electronic to paper format. There is no electronic substitute for marking up a reading using a pencil. The simple act of making marks on the page focuses your attention and promotes an active and dynamic approach to your reading that is absolutely essential if you are to write effectively about what you read. In the next paragraph, Ill to describe some basic marks and types of margin comments. But before I do, I want you to notice how they focus your attention more on the flow of the intellectual conversation, than on the specific pieces of information or materials the writers use to have the conversation. Remember, youre reading to further the conversation, not merely to acquire and retain information. In order to participate in the conversation, you have to be able to use the cues (words) on the page to realize (literally, make real, three-dimensional) the exchange of ideas embedded in the text. How do I mark up a text? Here are some basic marks and margin comment types that will help you make the conversation come to life: Underline essential and supporting questions and label which supporting questions go with each essential question; Circle key concepts, then define concepts and terms in your own words in the margin; Double-underline compelling passages and make margin notes about how you could use them in your own project;

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Draw a Block around passages that are complicated, challenging or hard to understand, then on a separate sheet of paper, try to paraphrase them until you understand them; Jot down the ideas, examples, and lines of inquiry that occur to you as you read; Draw lines or make cross-references to forge connections and comparisons between sections of the reading, or between the current reading and others you have read previously; Make margin notes about the uses and limits of particular concepts or passages for your own work. Its particularly important to track the writerly moves the writer is making. Is he or she offering Background? Mark it. The table below presents some common writerly moves for which to be on the lookout. Offering Background Analyzing an Exhibit Interpreting an Exhibit Borrowing Expert Authority Extending Another Writers Argument Presenting Another Writers Argument Countering Another Writers Argument Making an Argument Defining Terms Describing a Method Criticizing Another Writers Method Revealing Tacit Values or Assumptions

Keeping track of a writers moves will enable you to better see the conversation in his or her text. By understand how he or she is making use of his or her sources, you can distinguish between what they say and what he or she says in response and consider your response to all the voices in the text. What else should I do while reading? Keep track of your intellectual response to the reading: Are you skeptical of some of the ideas or arguments presented? Does some way of approaching a problem or object of analysis seem particularly interesting or puzzling? Is something confusing or suddenly particularly clear. Write it all down. Keep track of the questions, ideas, problems, potential forwards/counters, personal experiences that percolate in your brain as you read. These will be the foundations on which you come to terms with the piece. How often should I be taking notes? You should probably be taking notes at least once or twice a page (but not much more) throughout the reading. When youre finished reading, immediately write a healthy paragraph right on your printout (or on the first or last page of your chapter, right in the book if you own it) documenting both the basic substance of the writers project and line of thought and your initial intellectual responses to it. Record the essential ideas, concepts, or claims that you want to forward and/or counter, and explain how and why. Describe how reading this text changed your thinking (furthered it? nuanced it? redirected it? complicated it? confused it?). 4. Transfer your margin notes to a word-processing program after reading. we recommend transferring notes only after you read, rather than as you go, because the act of transferring your notes from the page to the word-processor helps solidify your encounter with the text. You remember more of what you read and develop a deeper more sophisticated response to the text by revisiting your margin notes in the act of transfer. What should I transfer to the word processor? You dont need to transfer everything. In fact, you want to be selective to start winnowing important stuff from trivial (even if interesting) stuff. Transfer everything that went into your healthy paragraph in step 3. Why? Because when you wrote that paragraph you started to develop your own response to the material. You began to integrate new ideas and information with old, and started to think about how your own project will be impacted by engaging this particular text in conversation. As you revisit your notes in light of other readings and further work on your own piece of writing, youll add to, revise, rethink, and respond to this initial response (so be sure to record the date of your initial reading, and each time you revisit your notes). By tracking the development of your thought as you revisit and rethink your response to a reading in light of further reading and thinking, youll have a history of your engagement with the ideas and lines of thought that are the substance of the conversation you and all the other

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writers are having. When you write your paper youll rely on the history of your encounter with other conversationalists to formulate your own entry into the conversation. What else should I transfer? After transferring that first healthy paragraph, transfer only the most important concepts (especially ones named with specialized terms), conversation-changing insights, passages, or examples, and lines of thought you might want to emulate or deploy in your own writing projects. Dont worry about capturing data or statisticstheyre on paper and easily retrievable. If you need one or two specific pieces of information, go back and make a note on the first page of the reading indicating where exactly in the essay the data is (page number) and, heres the crucial step, explaining the meaning and implications of the data. Unless you write down what the data means to you, you will surely forget what you found interesting, useful or troubling about the data. This may seem an intensive approach to reading. And it is. But remember, youre not just reading to understand a fact, remember it, and select the right option on a multiple choice exam. Youre reading to respond to this text (and others) in writing. You need to cultivate and record a complex intellectual response to the text in order to engage it in the asynchronous communication form that is academic writing.