Reading for Comprehension

The first learning outcome of ENG 100 is “Read college-level critical, creative, and technical texts for comprehension.”

Having successfully navigated your way through the K-12 school system, you probably assume that this is an easy educational hurdle. Sure, you’ll need to hear what, exactly, “college-level” is, but, heck, you’re in college, and you’ve been reading since you were a kid. So, really, this should be a cakewalk!

Actually, college-level reading isn’t a cakewalk, and achieving full comprehension will take real work over time.

To comprehend college-level texts, you need to slow down

No, really. . .

Slooooooooooow dooooooooooown.

The “need for speed” only applies when we’re dealing with truly basic elements and information we already know. Automatic recognition of words, for example, is a precondition of fluency. Students who can process the word “snail” more quickly than a picture of a snail are on their way toward reading success. As you learn to read, the swiftness of your accurate movement through written text is indeed a marker of your progress.

The same is true at more advanced levels, but this general statement is implicitly qualified by textual particulars. Longer texts will always take more time to read (because there’s more to get through), and density can confound comprehension. The only way a reader can accurately and efficiently move through a complex (or even moderately complex) text is to already know something about the content or information being conveyed in the text itself.

Let me repeat that: the only persons who can very “quickly” and “effectively” comprehend what they read are those who have already mastered much of the knowledge/content conveyed in what they are reading.

Remember that old adage “you can’t run before you can walk”? That totally applies here. All the “tips,” tricks,” and “techniques” for increasing reading speed won’t help you one whit if you are unfamiliar with the vocabulary, don’t possess the background knowledge on which the writer relies, and are unsure of genre.

Know who can “speed” through Darwin’s On the Origin of Species? An evolutionary biologist. Know who can’t? You (unless you’re a trained evolutionary biologist, in which case, I’m going to ask you why you’re consulting a handout meant for English students).

Ok, you’re committed to slowing down–now what?

1. Determine what you’re reading and why. Identify the type of writing you are reading (is it a newspaper article? a scientific study? a novel? a political treaty? etc.) and your purpose for reading it (are you supposed to learn new material from it? use it in research? offer a critique? react to individual portions? etc.). You don’t want to approach a sonnet assuming you can extract a concrete finding or result, and you should never take creative liberties with a scientific abstract (trust me on this).
2. Secure your reading space and time. You can’t perform deep reading if you can’t focus. Find a comfortable space, free from distractions, where you can cloister yourself with your written material. Make sure you set aside enough time to get a substantial amount of reading done (starting and stopping can break concentration and hinder retention).
3. Use only the reading strategies that are appropriate for a “deep dive.” No skimming, scanning, or browsing here! You want to methodically move through your piece. Feel free to break-up the reading into manageable chunks that you can keep track of (select paragraphs, sections, chapters, etc.), but remember to mark where you left off and make notes of where you are and what you know. The goal here is to retain what you read, not just watch words go by.
4. Annotate difficult and important passages. This can be done on physical pages as well as electronic documents. (If you need help finding electronic annotation tools, come to me–I’ll help you find the ones you need!)
5. Look up words you don’t know. If you like the material feel of a book, invest in a good print dictionary. Otherwise, Dictionary.com, Merriam Webster’s, or Britannica is just one internet search away.
6. Highlight the main points for reference. You know all those textbooks that have bold headings and underlined passages? Those are written works with important points pre-highlighted for you. You will want to be able to independently identify the most important parts of your reading and mark them for future reference. (This will be especially helpful if you are required to create an outline of the text.)
7. Review and summarize. Keep track of what you have read and make sure you are able to express main ideas in your own words. If you can’t effectively summarize the piece, you haven’t comprehended it, so your work is not yet done.
8. Make connections. Draw on what you know, bringing in relevant information that will help you understand the piece. No writer is ever able to explain every last element. There are always “gaps” that the writer expects the reader to fill in (like the basics of American history, a functional understanding of human emotion, a rough understanding of interest rates, etc.).
9. RE-READ. I cannot stress this enough. You need to re-read. And then get in the habit of reading again. You’ll be surprised by what you notice the second and third time around, and pleased by your deeper understanding.

And, because I know you’re really going to bridle at #9, I want to remind you what humans do when they learn–they repeat and perform the same operation again and again, until they get it right. We effectively function through revisitation, and, heck, we often enjoy it. How often have you, for example, watched your favorite movie or listened to your favorite song?

I’ll end with a few short videos on reading. The first recaps much of the information on this page. The second highlights why close reading of complex texts is an important skill to possess.