Academic Reading - what's the difference?

“We all do it sometimes: read an article or chapter and not recall much about it.  Scholarly reading is very different from reading for pleasure.  Unfortunately many students don’t recognize the difference and instead try to read a textbook or journal article as if it were a novel.” 

(T. Kuther, www.gradschool.about.com)

Does this quote describe you?  Are you unsure how to read an academic article or book effectively?  Many graduate students find the process of academic reading difficult.  It can often seem like the stack of journal articles you have to read is never-ending.  Plus, the process of critically analyzing and evaluating content may seem very unfamiliar.  In order to help you get through all of the academic reading you have ahead of you, here is a framework that you may find helpful:

Stages of Academic Reading	Questions to Ask Yourself
Determine your reading purpose	What do I want to know? What are my reading questions?
Preview the article	What can I learn by “skimming” the article? What can I learn from the abstract?
Focus on major content	What do I need to “scan” to find? What do I need to read in detail?
Critically evaluate and assess the content	Are there any problems with the research? Does this fit with what I already know? Does this fit with other research?
Record important information	Use: Margin notes?  Outline?  Summary?
Reflect and check comprehension	Did I answer my reading questions? What do I still need to find out? What further research do I need to do?
Organize and file	Where can I file this information? Where can I use this information?

As discussed in the chart, two very important academic reading skills are skimming and scanning. 

Skimming is used when you need to quickly get a sense of what you’re reading, perhaps when you are trying to determine if the article is relevant for your research or to help you get the big picture of the article’s content.  In order to skim, pay attention to: titles and subtitles, diagrams, the abstract and the conclusion.  Don’t worry about details. 

Scanning is used when you are looking for specific information within the article.  To scan, guess where the information is most likely to be and look there quickly for key words. Once you find them, carefully read the appropriate section.

There is no time like the present to begin applying academic reading skills to the articles and books you have on your “to read” list.  If you would like further help developing your academic reading strategies, please email learning@uoguelph.ca to book an appointment with one of the professional staff in Learning Services.

Adapted from GRADUpdATE@uwo.ca

an e-mailout dedicated to helping students succeed in graduate school.