COLLEGE PAPERBUDDY IS NOW AVAILABLE!

The majority of blog posts on this website are dedicated to all things writing in college. Most college writing, however, is based on reading. From class handouts to textbooks, class syllabi are full of reading assignments throughout the term. In addition to homework, students need to read articles and books in order to take notes for their research papers. All of this reading might seem pretty daunting. Not many people have the time to carefully read book after book when they’re a full-time student, employee, caretaker, social butterfly, etc.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a magical way to transfer the words from books into our brains. (In lieu of reading for college exams during our first semester of college, my roommate slept with textbooks under her pillows the night before finals claiming to learn the material through osmosis. Once final grades were posted it was apparent that this plan didn’t work out so well. True story!)

There are, however, ways to speed up the reading process and focus on the key points in the material. Below are some tips to follow when reading and taking notes for a research paper. (Note: These tips can also be applied to other college reading assignments.)

• Read the introduction and conclusion: The introduction and conclusion are both important as they contain information that summarizes what the chapter, article, etc., are about. The conclusion is especially important as the key points are restated.

• Read the topic sentences of each paragraph: Traditionally, the first sentence of a paragraph is the most important as it states the main point of the paragraph (i.e., what it is that the following sentences will strive to prove or support). Sometimes, though, the very first sentence of a paragraph might not be as important if it is primarily used as a transition from the preceding paragraph. Therefore, it’s best to read the first couple of sentences. After reading these sentences, the rest of the paragraph can be quickly skimmed for statements and quotes that could be used for the research paper.

• Read  sentences that contain bold-faced words: Whenever a word is bold faced, then it means that the word is important. The writer of the text is basically saying, “Hey, you, look over here!” Read any sentences that contain bold faced words. (This is especially helpful when reading for an exam!)

• Read the chapter/section summary: If a book, textbook, or article has a chapter or section summary, then it is usually a good idea to read this section, because this is typically where the writer or editor synthesizes all of the important information from the previous pages.

• Skim through the glossary and other textbook cheat sheets: If a book or textbook contains any glossaries, review guides, or other types of academic cheat sheets, then it is often helpful to scan through these documents. (This might be useful when studying for an exam if the instructor uses these review guides as the basis of their test questions.)