Assignment Task:
Task:
SECTION 1 Developing an Effective Reading Style In this section we will: • Provide information about how to make reading active.
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Get Help Now!• Explain why questioning and analysis is part of developing an effective reading style.
• Outline some potential techniques for developing an effective reading style. Reading constitutes a large part of distance learning. This first section aims to encourage the development of an effective reading style that will allow you to make the best use of the course material, prepare notes and understand the main concepts raised during your studies.
Reading and Questioning Reading
Reading is something that most of us do in our everyday lives for a variety of reasons; for pleasure, for work or for study purposes. However, not all reading is the same. For example, reading a novel for enjoyment is very different to reading course notes for study purposes. The difference is that reading for pleasure is largely a ‘passive’ process. In this process, we read what the author has written and use it to formulate pictures or images about what is occurring to illustrate the discussion. We often also read novels without questioning the author’s judgement or criticising the story line or points he or she has made. In this sense reading is a very passive activity. However, in reading for study purposes the process has to be ‘active’ if it is to be effective. ? Information Point As an experiment, Dr. Perry (psychologist), Director of the Harvard Reading-Study Center gave 1500 first year students a thirty-page chapter from a history book to read, with the explanation that in about twenty minutes they would be stopped and asked to identify the important details and to write an essay on what they had read. The class scored well on a multiple-choice test on detail, but only fifteen students of 1500 were able to write a short statement on what the chapter was all about in terms of its basic theme. Only fifteen of 1500 top first year college students had thought of reading the paragraph marked “Summary”, or of skimming down the descriptive flags in the margin. This demonstration of “obedient purposelessness” is evidence of “an enormous amount of wasted effort” in the study skills of first year students. Some regard it almost as cheating to look ahead or skip around. To most students, the way they study expresses “their relationship to the pressures and conventional rituals of safe passage to the next grade”. (Academic Skills Centre, Dartmouth College, 2001) 6 SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS – UNDERGRADUATE
The above illustration shows that if you read without purpose in academic study, or read in a passive way, you will miss many of the main points and ultimately not obtain the information that you need. Likewise, in terms of your actual study time, it will mean that you will have wasted many hours reading while actually retaining and understanding very little. Basically, the idea of active reading is that you actively do something else as well as read to help you retain and comprehend the material. You can make reading active by: • Making short notes as you read. • After reading each paragraph write one short sentence to summarise it.
• Underlining or highlighting key words or phrases.
• After reading the article, put it on one side and re-write out a summary from memory. Another reason for active reading is that you will inevitably come across words, terms and concepts that you do not understand. Indeed, subject areas such as Training and Development or Human Resource Management (HRM) are notorious for developing their own professional jargon. Combine this with new theoretical models and academic language and there will be many issues that you do not understand. To rectify this it is a good idea to list all the difficult points, words or concepts whilst you are reading. Return to the list after your first reading of the article and try to ascertain their meaning by using dictionaries, other readings or by contacting your module leader.
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