Reading strategies
Exploring strategies for reading texts actively will boost your ability to understand and interpret information you come across at university or at work.
How to read academic texts
We read differently depending on what we are reading and why we are reading. To read academic and educational texts efficiently you need to:
find the purpose for your reading
select texts or sections of text relevant for your purpose
focus your reading on relevant texts and sections
read carefully to understand relevant information
Reading with purpose
Before you start reading, it's important to think about your purpose for reading. Having a clear purpose or knowing why you are reading, what you are looking for and how you will use the information means you can be more focused, efficient, and effective with your reading.
The purpose for a lot of your reading at university is to find information related to assessment tasks. Focusing on the wording in the task or the question will help you understand exactly what you are being asked to do. Which means you can do focused reading to find the specific information needed for that task.
Reading strategies to save time
Reading can be time consuming, which is why it’s helpful to learn different reading strategies to make it more manageable. By reading purposefully you can be strategic and selective about what you read. At times you need to read the whole text, but other times you may only need to read certain parts.
Relevant strategy for your need
Using different reading strategies helps you choose texts and locate sections of texts which are relevant to your task. Click on the plus (+) icons to learn what are different reading strategies, what do you use them for, and how to use them.
Activity overview
This interactive image hotspot unpacks four main reading strategies. Each hotspot has the strategy name with an image reflecting the concept. The plus (+) icons below each image can be clicked, presenting information for each reading strategy.
1. Preview strategy
1. What is it:
Previewing looks at structural parts of a text to quickly give you an overview. You can also look for the content words from your task in the title, abstract and headings of the text to decide whether it is relevant for your purpose. Previewing also allows you to locate specific information, identify sections you should read and decide which ones to skip.
2. What do I use it for:
Preview the different structural parts of a text to get an overview.
3. How to do it:
- Read the title first.
- Look at the table of contents and index (in books).
- Read the abstract (in journal articles).
- Run your eyes over headings and subheadings.
- Examine illustrations, graphs, tables or diagrams and associated captions.
2. Skim strategy
1. What is it:
Skimming is quickly reading small amounts of the text. It is different from previewing because skimming involves looking at the body of the text, but it is still a fast process. It allows you to quickly get the main ideas without focusing on details. It can also help you find relevant sections to read.
2. What do I use it for:
Skim read small parts of the body of the text to pick up the main ideas.
3. How to do it:
- Quickly run your eyes over the whole text.
- You do not read the text in full.
- Read the introduction if it is short.
- Read the first sentence of paragraphs (the topic sentence).
- Read the conclusion if it is not too long.
- Note which sections are relevant to your purpose.
3. Scan strategy
1. What is it:
Scanning is when you look for specific information in the chosen sections of the text. It is different from skimming as you are now focusing on details. It allows you to quickly find information relevant to your purpose.
2. What do I use it for::
Scan your eyes over certain sections of the text to find specific information.
3. How to do it:
- After previewing and skimming, revisit the section(s) of the text you selected to read.
- Run your eyes or finger quickly over your chosen sections of the text.
- Look for the keywords, or content words, from your assessment task or question.
- When you locate relevant information, slow down to do deep reading.
4. Deep read strategy
1. What is it:
Deep reading is the final step, after you've previewed, skimmed and scanned. This is when you take time to read slowly and carefully so you can understand the content. This is when you take notes.
2. What do I use it for:
Read slowly and thoroughly to engage deeply with the content.
3. How to do it:
- Read the chosen sections slowly and more thoroughly.
- Ask yourself critical questions as you read.
- You may have to read more than once to clarify your understanding.
- Take notes on the information related to your purpose for reading.
- Note down details of the text for referencing.
Tip
You can start by previewing a text to get a general idea of what it is about. If you can’t see anything that connects with your purpose for reading, then it’s likely this text isn’t relevant to your task and you can skip reading it.
Difficult texts
Sometimes when reading at uni and in the workplace you may come across texts that are difficult to read.
Click on the icons below to see more tips that can help you.
Reading and technology
Some students find it easier to print out the text to read, others prefer to read on the screen. You can also use screen readers to listen to the text being read. There are a range of tools out there.
Click on the links below to access the software and learn more about it.
- Converting text to audio - EBSCOhost, CloudDeakin, default software and other options
- Read and Write – reading on-screen text aloud, checking written work
- Microsoft Translator – translate text, speech, documents, web pages and more
- NaturalReader – converts written text into spoken words
- Speechify app – takes a photo of text then reads it to you
- GhostReader – text to speech app (Mac only)
- Microsoft Office 2019 or Office 365 have access to multiple tools for listening to Word documents. For instructions visit Listen to your Word documents.