Chapter 10 - How to Survive Academic Reading: Targeted Research and Active Reading

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Printable Handouts and Checklists

Below are some easy to print handouts and checklists, which you can use to help improve your study.

Activity: Using your university library

Top 10 sites for creating outlines

Web Links

Leeds University tutorial on academic reading (60 mins): Overwhelmed by the amount of reading you have to do and not sure how to manage it? Try this on-line tutorial http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/tutorials/reading_tutorial/player.html

Our interactive desk shows how to organise yourself for study – and reading

http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/TLTC/learnhigher/desk/desk.html Our writing space has links to our NoteMaker resource; a free write tool – so that you can practise quick writing about what you read; referencing resources; and much more. Explore it and see how useful it can be to you http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/TLTC/connorj/WritingGroups/

Critical reading towards critical writing http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/reading-and-researching/critical-reading

How to read an academic article http://www.lenmholmes.org.uk/students/how2read/how2read_a.htm

How to read a research article http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/495/howtoread.html

Internet Detective: tutorial on finding and evaluating information http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/

For Summarising information http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/busdev/hq1001nc/ecdl/summarizing.htm

Referencing http://www.staffs.ac.uk/personaltutoring/writingreferences.php

Harvard system http://slb-ltsu.hull.ac.uk/awe/index.php?title=Harvard_system_of_referencing

Avoiding plagiarism: Tutorial (also available via writing site) http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/TLTC/learnhigher/Plagiarism/

This allows for a messy, private online notemaking space http://www.evernote.com/

Or try Cornell notes http://coe.jmu.edu/learningtoolbox/cornellnotes.html

Or visual notes http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html

Have you thought about making notes on a Prezi website? http://prezi.com

Here's one constructed by some recent graduates http://prezi.com/ssuuvqkdx9uz/uni/ A student's thoughts on active reading – from an evolving essay http://anessayevolves.blogspot.com/2007/02/active-reading.html

And (with thanks to Alice Gray):

If you want to develop speed reading skills try the following resources:

a. Short Burst Learning (accessed August 2011): http://www.speedreadingcd.com/reading-test.htm to find your current reading speed

b. Doyle, D. (2010) Glendale Community College: Self Pacing Methods http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/methods.html for five useful methods (accessed August 2011).

If developing a technique http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/busdev/hq1001nc/ecdl/summarizing.htm

Author:Tom Burns & Sandra Sinfield

Pub Date: March 2012  

Pages: 472

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