Active reading
An active reading approach can transform your view of the literature from a Sisyphean burden into a rich and varied resource to be mined.
Active reading, as described by Adler and von Dorner is actually quite simple and can be summarised in four steps:
- Skim the text. Set yourself a timer – there’s nothing that focuses the mind better than knowing you haven’t much time, so make sure it’s for a short period. For example, 5 minutes for an article, 15 minutes for a book. Yes, really!
- Select what you will skim. You won’t be able to read everything in that time, so you need to extract the “essence”. If you’re skimming an article: read the title, abstract, sub-headings, conclusion. If it looks interesting, take a look at the figures and a few selected paragraphs. If it’s a book: read the title, the table of contents, scan the conclusion chapter (if there is one), if something else in the table of contents looks particularly interesting, read a few paragraphs.
- Write down your key takeaways from this skimming. What is the text about? What is the core message? How is it useful to your topic of interest? This step is crucial.
- Decide whether you need to read any more, or all, of the text, or if you have enough information for where you are now.
- Choose the next book or article based on your takeaway from this reading.
This active approach allows you to cover more ground than when you start with the introduction and read your way through an article or book, it makes it easier to spot links, conflicting ideas or common themes, similarities or differences in vocabulary. Crucially, this all helps you to extract the information that you are looking for. And, since you are keeping a written record, all of this information can then be mobilised when it comes to your own writing.
