 Becoming an Active Reader Critical reading and thinking skills require active read- ing. Being an active reader means you have to engage with the text, both mentally and physically. ■ Skim ahead and jump back. ■ Mark up the text. ■ Make specific observations about the text. Skimming Ahead and Jumping Back Skimming ahead enables you to see what’s coming up in your reading. Page through the text you’re about to read. Notice how the text is broken down, what the main topics are, and the order in which they are cov- ered. Notice key words and ideas that are boldfaced, bulleted, boxed, or otherwise highlighted. Skimming through the text beforehand will prepare you for what you are about to read. It’s a lot like checking out the hills and curves in the course before a cross-country race. If you know what’s ahead, you know how to pace your- self, so you’re prepared to handle what’s to come. When you finish your reading, jump back. Review the summaries, headings, and highlighted informa- tion in the text. Notice both what the author high- lighted and what you highlighted. By jumping back, you help solidify in your mind the ideas and informa- tion you just read. You’re reminded of how each idea fits into the whole, how ideas and information are con- nected. When you make connections between ideas, you’re much more likely to remember them. Marking Up the Text Marking up the text creates a direct physical link between you and the words you’re reading. It forces you to pay closer attention to the words you read and takes you to a higher level of comprehension. Use these three strategies to mark up text: 1. Highlight or underline key words and ideas. 2. Circle and define any unfamiliar words or phrases. 3. Record your reactions and questions in the margins. Highlighting or Underlining Key Ideas When you highlight or underline key words and ideas, you are identifying the most important parts of the text. There’s an important skill at work here: You can’t high- light or underline everything, so you have to distinguish between the facts and ideas that are most important (major ideas) and those facts and ideas that are help- ful but not so important (minor or supporting ideas). Highlight only the major ideas, so you don’t end up with a text that’s completely highlighted. An effectively highlighted text will make for an easy and fruitful review. When you jump back, you’ll be quickly reminded of the ideas that are most important to remember. Highlighting or underlining major points as you read also allows you to retain more information from the text. Circling Unfamiliar Words One of the most important habits to develop is that of circling and looking up unfamiliar words and phrases. If possible, don’t sit down to read without a dictionary by your side. It is not uncommon for the meaning of an entire sentence to hinge on the meaning of a single word or phrase, and if you don’t know what that word or phrase means, you won’t understand the sentence. Besides, this habit enables you to quickly and steadily expand your vocabulary, so you’ll be a more confident reader and speaker. If you don’t have a dictionary readily available, try to determine the meaning of the word as best you can from its context—that is, the words and ideas around it. (There’s more on this topic in Lesson 3.) Then, make sure you look up the word as soon as possible so you’re sure of its meaning. – HOW TO USE THIS BOOK– x Making Marginal Notes Recording your questions and reactions in the margins turns you from a passive receiver of information into an active participant in a dialogue. (If you’re reading a library book, write your reactions in a notebook.) You will get much more out of the ideas and information you read about if you create a “conversation” with the writer. Here are some examples of the kinds of reac- tions you might write down in the margin or in your notebook: ■ Questions often come up when you read. They may be answered later in the text, but by that time, you may have forgotten the question! And if your question isn’t answered, you may want to discuss it with someone: “Why does the writer describe the new welfare policy as ‘unfair’?” or “Why does the character react in this way?” ■ Agreements and disagreements with the author are bound to arise if you’re actively reading. Write them down: “That’s not necessarily true!” or “This policy makes a lot of sense to me.” ■ Connections you note can be either between the text and something that you read earlier or between the text and your own experience. For example, “I remember feeling the same way when I . . .” or “This is similar to what happened in China.” ■ Evaluations are your way of keeping the author honest. If you think the author isn’t providing suf- ficient support for what he or she is saying or that there’s something wrong with that support, say so: “He says the dropping of the bomb was inevitable, but he doesn’t explain why” or “This is a very selfish reason.” Making Observations Good readers know that writers use many different strategies to express their ideas. Even if you know very little about those strategies, you can make useful obser- vations about what you read to better understand and remember the author’s ideas. You can notice, for exam- ple, the author’s choice of words; the structure of the sentences and paragraphs; any repetition of words or ideas; important details about people, places, and things; and so on. This step—making observations—is essential because your observations (what you notice) lead you to logical inferences about what you read. Inferences are conclusions based on reason, fact, or evidence. You are constantly making inferences based on your observa- tions, even when you’re not reading. For example, if you notice that the sky is full of dark, heavy clouds, you might infer that it is going to rain; if you notice that your coworker has a stack of gardening books on her desk, you might infer that she likes gardening. If you misunderstand what you read, it is often because you haven’t looked closely enough at the text. As a result, you base your inferences on your own ideas and experiences, not on what’s actually written in the text. You end up forcing your own ideas on the author (rather than listening to what the author has to say) and then forming your own ideas about it. It’s critical, then, that you begin to really pay attention to what writers say and how they say it. If any of this sounds confusing now, don’t worry. Each of these ideas will be thoroughly explained in the lessons that follow. In the meantime, start practicing active reading as best you can. Begin by taking the pretest. – HOW TO USE THIS BOOK– xi . the meantime, start practicing active reading as best you can. Begin by taking the pretest. – HOW TO USE THIS BOOK– xi