Once you've found and evaluated an information source on your topic, it's time to engage with it!
Remember: Not ALL the text may be relevant to your need. Think about your purpose for reading
- Are you reading for a general understanding of a topic/concept?
- Are you reading for some specific information for an assignment?
Take a look at the skim reading method in the box on the right. This will help, especially for longer readings.
Making sense of a text
Good authors will organise their information in a systematic way.
Here are some typical ways that information may be organised in a text:
Past ideas to present ideas
Steps or stages of a process or event
Most important point to least important point
Well-known ideas to least-known ideas
Simple ideas to complex ideas
General ideas to specific ideas
The largest parts to the smallest parts of something
Problems and solutions
Causes and results
Now that you know about these practices you can start using them in your own writing too!
Keep thinking while you're reading:
Find the main idea
Find supporting details
Make connections
Find cause and effect
Think about the author's purpose
Make predictions
Infer meaning
Distinguish between facts & opinion
Visualize for meaning
Use context clues
KEEP A DICTIONARY HANDY - AND USE IT! It will help expand your vocabulary for writing as well.
