Active reading has these goals:
- You can articulate the article's main ideas.
- You can evaluate the material's usefulness for your project.
- You can use the material in your project (if you decided it was useful).
At any point, if you realize that the article isn't useful for your project, drop that article and move on to the next one.
You can active read with the SQ3R method. At each step, you will need to write. You can write physically on a printed copy, or you can annotate a pdf through software like Zotero.
- Survey - Where is this article going?
- Read the title and abstract
- Read topic and subtopic headings and sentences
- Try to identify the main idea or thesis of the article
- Write these notes on the article.
- Questions - What do I want to find out?
- Create a question for each heading a subheading.
- Mark any words/terms you don't know.
- Mark any paragraphs that are confusing and try to explain why they are confusing.
- Ask any other questions that come to mind.
- Write these notes on the article.
- Read - Can I answer my questions?
- Read the article slowly and carefully.
- Answer any of the questions that you asked earlier.
- Look up definitions for words/phrases you didn't know.
- Mark important ideas, paraphrase these ideas, and write why they are important.
- Write these notes on the article.
- Recall - What did I take away from this article?
- On your own, try to remember the major ideas from the article.
- If thinking about the whole article is too hard, then you can first break it down into chunks.
- Write these notes on the article.
- Review - Can I explain the main idea of this article to someone who hasn't read it?
- Look at your previous questions, answers, and notes.
- Check if what you wrote in the Recall step really matches the article's content.
- Try to explain the article to another person, a pet, or an imaginary audience.
