Active reading

To be an active reader we should:

• Underline or highlight key words and phrases of text as you read. When you return to the text to take notes, or to research an assignment question, you can easily see which points you identified as important at the first reading. Be selective, as too much highlighting on a page won't help you.
•  Make annotations in the margin to summarise points, raise questions, challenge what you’ve read, jot down examples and so on. You can do this in books or etexts. This takes more thought than highlighting, so you'll probably remember the content better.
• Read critically by asking questions of the text. Who wrote it? When? Who is the intended audience? Does it link with other material you've studied in the course? Why do you think it was written? Is it an excerpt from a longer piece of text?
• Try using sticky notes if you don't want to mark the text. Jot brief notes on one and add it to the page, partly sticking out so you can identify the page.
• Test yourself by reading for half an hour, putting the text away and jotting down the key points from memory. Go back to the text to fill in gaps.
• Look for ‘signposts’ that help you understand the text - words like ‘most importantly’, ‘in contrast’, ‘on the other hand’.
• Explain what you’ve read to someone else.
• Record yourself reading the course material or your notes, and listen to the recording while you’re travelling.

Activity

Text 1: This text says that pubs will be closed because of cruelty ti animals (Crayfish in this case). This means that animals also have rights and cruelty towards them is illegal. Fishing crayfish with claws is prohibited. This matters because this is a world-wide issue and it should be solved.

Text 2: This text says that both Mrs. Joe and her brother were raised up "by hand" and so, her reputation was to have a heavy hand. This means that they might be raised up in a strict way and they were or were going to be the same.

Tex 3: The text tells us that about a group of people drowning, which means that they didn't know how to swim. This matters because many people don't know how to swim and metaphorically, people sink in their own lies and have no protection at all.