Tips for Reading Efficiently

And other information about today’s tasks.

Survey The Information

Look at the information (Chapter Headings, Summaries, Questions at the end of the chapter) for an idea about the structure.

Avoid Reading Out Loud (or moving your lips)

This causes you to read at the rate of your speech which can slow you down. You can read more than 2 times faster than you can speak.

 

Avoid Reading Every Word

Do not focus on every word/letter as you are reading. This is another way that will slow down your reading rate significantly.

Take in groups of words

 Instead of reading each word separately, train yourself to understand a group of words at once. This requires less eye movement, which in turn makes reading much faster

Mark first, clarify later

After reading a paragraph, a couple of pages, or a section, stop to clarify your quick markings.

Staples eReader test

to discern deeper meanings to identify subtle implications to examine structure and its effect to discover hidden assumptions

and biases to understand the text’s tricky

ways of transmitting meanings and influencing readers

Analysis: reading and writing

Pay attention to openings and closings – these are “privileged positions.”

Think carefully about repeated info or ideas.

Look closely at any oppositions or conflicts.

How?

Try to list any unstated assumptions that might guide the author to think the way he or she does.

Can you think of anyone who might not share these assumptions?

Why?

How?

The DetailsWhy did the author choose to

title the piece the way he or she did?

Are there compelling details – how do these color your sense of where the author is trying to take you as a reader?

The most important strategy for reading analytically is the habit of constructing a context by situating the text alongside others that seem relevant. Strong analytic readers do this unconsciously and out of sheer habit all the time, drawing, as they do, on vast reserves of past reading experiences.

“Teaching Analysis.” Tulane University. 9 Sept. 2013. www.tulane.edu/~writing/pdfs?TeachAnalysis.pdf>.

How you improve analytical abilities:

Read The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents efficiently. (hint: There are large sections---perhaps compelling---that can be considered supporting detail.

Skim Of Plymouth Plantation (p.71), looking for connections to the other texts we have read.

Task: compare/connect texts

Reflect and write:

Use the Word/Sentence strategy. For Jesuit Interactions and Of Plymouth

Plantation:Select and copy 3 sentences from

each. These should be sentences that you feel are essential to an analysis of the text.

Select and copy 5 words from each. These should also be essential.

BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS AND DEFEND YOUR SELECTIONS.