LibGuides: Reading in College: Ask Questions

Be Intentional about Your Reading

Before you read, take the time to ask yourself a few questions about how, when, and where you plan to engage with the text. Be intentional! The more you read college-level writing, the more you'll learn what works best for you.

See three useful questions below, inspired by the Academic Resource Center at Harvard University.

Ask Yourself...

Before you read, ask yourself about the purpose of the reading.

Why did the professor assign this reading?
What do you need to do with the information in the reading?
- Will you write a discussion post response?
- Are you using the reading as evidence in a paper?
- Something else?
What do you want to get out of the reading?

Asking these questions before you begin will help you focus your efforts. Also take the time to read any questions that assignment itself asks. For instance, if you're writing a discussion post about an author's thesis, it's good to know to look for the thesis ahead of time!

Make an active decision about how you're going to approach the reading. For example:

"I'm going to highlight possible quotations I can use in my art history paper."
"I'm going to focus on understanding the main ideas of each paragraph."
"I'm going to track the author's arguments using a mind map."

Also consider your location and timing:

"I'm going to read this article for the first time on Monday, so that if I need to, I can reread it before my discussion post is due on Wednesday."
"I'm going to read this chapter in the library, which is less distracting than my apartment.

Not all readings require the same amount of time, even if the page count is identical. A five-page personal essay probably requires less time and concentration than a five-page article on the theories and methods of art history.

Budget time for:

rereading tough passages (or even the whole text)
looking up unfamiliar words
thinking critically about the author's argument.

As you allocate your time, keep your reading goals in mind.

If your assignment asks you to think critically about a reading (for instance, to compare and contrast two authors' viewpoints), you'll likely need to allot more time.