Reading for college classes is not the same as casual reading for pleasure. On this page are some suggestions for reading successfully for college courses.

READ SLOWLY

College classes require a lot of reading. Take the time it requires to do the reading well. Rushing through the reading to be able to say that you completed the assignment is not the way to succeed. You must read slowly - especially difficult texts - and you must re-read.

RE-READ

Just as the process of academic writing requires rewriting, so, too, does the process of academic reading require re-reading. Furthermore, it may be beneficial to think of re-reading someone else's writing in the same way that you think of revising your own. See "advice on writing" for the distinction between rewriting and revising.

ACTIVE READING

Be an active participant in the reading process. Don't just hear what the author has to say, but engage in a conversation with the author.

ASK QUESTIONS

"Why do you want to tell this story?" is perhaps one of the most important questions to ask your author. Every author (translator, editor, etc.) has an agenda. Do you know (or can you guess) what agenda your author has? How will this affect your interpretation of the text?

What is the author's thesis?

ASK COURSE SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

Many texts, especially rich and complex texts, can bring up a multitude of questions. How do you know which questions to ask? The answer is two-fold: (1) ask the questions that interest you, and (2) try to determine the purpose for which the professor assigned the reading. Consider the following:

What are the goals of the course? How does this text further them?
Have there been any clues in the lectures for what to look for in the reading?
How does this text relate to other texts you have read for this course?

ARGUE

Don't assume that the author is correct. Have you seen evidence that would suggest otherwise? Do you think the author's argument is logical?

INTRODUCTIONS, FOOTNOTES, ETC.

Read the introduction. It may seem like more work to read the introduction to a text, but in the long run it will save you much frustration. Often introductions provide you with the answers to some of the above questions. Often they provide the context for the work (especially useful when reading primary texts from civilizations with which you are unfamiliar). Introductions are tools to make it easier to read the rest of the text; take advantage of them.

Take a look at the footnotes. Sometimes they just indicate the source of the information, but sometimes they provide further explanation or evidence.

Be aware of appendices. What information is the author supplying in the back of the book that is not being supplied in the text? This might be useful information for you.

Read the title. Reading the title is often an easy way to figure out what a text is about, and yet students often skip the title. Read the title and, before you even start reading the text, ask questions about it based on the title.