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How to get good reading habits

How many times do you have to read a text to fully understand it? And what is the best way to read a long academic report? Here is a guide on how to get the best reading habits.

Table of Contents

- Reading academic text with efficiancy

- The researcher’s best advice to good note-taking

- Create a study plan

Reading methods

Reading academic text with efficiancy

It can be quite an upheaval to sit with heavy books and long academic texts on very specific topics and with some rather difficult concepts that you may never have heard of before.

For many students, the reading load is a pain point. Academic texts are often of a high professional level and the structure itself is also different. Therefore, many students cannot simply transfer the way they are used to reading texts from previous education.

Marianne Hagelia is the author of the book, Digital Study Techniques, and a researcher at Østfold University College in Norway. She points out:

Research articles are read differently from many other texts. You must read the summary, introduction and conclusion. You don't have to read everythin in the middle. Read that when it is necessary.

Marianne Hagelia, Østfold University College

According to Hagelia, there are many lecturers who forget to tell youthis, but it is an important point, since you can go down a rabbit hole when dealing with such an extensive text.

The most important thing is to have a grasp of the central concepts and conclusions, and when working with the subject, you can look up the relevant places in the text itself.

The researcher's five-point guide to reading an academic text

1. Preparation

Skim the text to get an overview: Read the summary, introduction and conclusion.

Check the key words and the table of contents to understand the main topics.

2. Active reading

Highlight important passages and key words.

Take notes in the margin or on separate paper to reinforce your understanding.

3. Division

Read the text in stages and take breaks to better process the information.

Prioritise reading the introduction, conclusion and the most relevant sections. It is better to get a handle on these than to drown in information overload.

4. Reflection

Ask questions about the purpose and relevance of the text.

Discuss the content with fellow students to gain deeper insight.

Repitition

Create a study plan

You probably know it well. It’s almost exam time, and you have a backlog with a lot of texts you need to chew your way through.

You clear a day and clear all distractions and hit the books.

One big reading day works poorly. It is much better to read little by little, down to 5 minutes at a time. Better to read a little many times a day than to read a lot in a few days.

Marianne Hagelia

She also recommends that you get a curriculum made so that you can get through the syllabus in a proper way without too many “big reading days”.

Here, ChatGPT can possibly be of help in getting your days structured. The most important thing is to stick to the syllabus and believe that what the teacher has chosen is the most important.

For many, it is tempting to do a lot of searches on the web about the various topics.

Many students put too much work in online searches, but it is more important to read the syllabus. When you search the web, you may think that you are searching the ENTIRE web, but Google will only give you certain results, and far from all academic texts that are available online.

Marianne Hagelia

Furthermore, sticking to the syllabus, you may well feel that it is necessary to read a text more than once to get it all.

But Hagelia does not recommend that at all.

It is much better to sit down immediately after completing a text, relate to the text, wonder, and perhaps write down some questions.

If you think this article gave you insight into study techniques, you might find more inspiration in our other articles, such as these below:

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