Every year, students must read lots of literature that is above their heads. How do you understand the material better? The following tips are applied not only for students trying to hit the academic books, but for anyone who needs to read with more comprehension and get something new out of this.
Skimming
Look through the material quickly and note basic figures, headings etc. This will take a few minutes and you will get an overview of the text.
Read the paper backwards – from the end to start; this technique will help you stay attentive during reading.
Use your imagination during reading; you will better understand and remember material.
Making Vocabulary
Take a look at your paper the second time and highlight or underline every phrase or word you don’t understand. Do not be concerned if your text becomes full of highlights; still you don’t need to make a sense of the paper just yet.
Now you need to do the next things with the vocabulary:
Find simple phrases and words. Usually, the questions are simply vocabulary, such as nape, occiput or simply back of the head. Biological or medical dictionaries are the best place to look for such definitions. An ordinary dictionary may not be a good enough source, because word definitions may not reflect the author’s meaning.
Try to understand the meaning from the context. For example, words used in a text that describe an experiment often can be specific and understood from the context.
Understanding Every Section
Start connecting the meanings of all words and phrases; some specific terms might remain. Read the whole paper for comprehension.
- Try to understand how context is set in the introduction. Determine the hypothesis of the paper and current study. Learn how author comments on previous and current researches.
- In the methods section, you need to have a clear understanding of each step. Maybe you will better understand it with drawing the procedures on a piece of paper. Write down any questions that appear in your mind; some of them may be simple and others may point to more considerations that you can use in your college papers.
- In the results section, look through the tables and figures and understand them. By the word “understand,” we mean that you can explain something in words or simply redraw it.
- The discussion is usually a very important section, as it contains the author’s summary about the work and its relation to other fields and findings.
If you are stuck with writing a paper, you may choose introductions and summaries from different articles and make your own.
Reflection
When you can summarize the article, you can go to broader questions and make your own conclusion. Keep track of your questions you have during the reading and analyze if they are completely answered. Sometimes even simple questions may lead to deep thoughts.
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