STS 2411 Chapter 2: Academic reading

• School: York University
• Department: Science and Technology Studies
• Course: STS 2411
• Professor: James Elwick

Document Summary

Academic reading involves layers of: asking questions, reflecting on relationships among parts of the text, interpreting meaning, making connections with other readings, refining your topic and purpose. Active reading is more like a discussion between you and the material, and therefore involves repeated questioning, critiquing, re-examination and development of ideas. The benefits of active reading include: more efficient reading and studying time, greater concentration and focus while you read, improved understanding of key information. Sq4r prompts a reader to survey, question, read, respond, record, and review material. This method can be used for reading any type of material at any stage of your research assignment. The first step in the sq4r method of active reading is to survey or scan a resource, keeping in mind your topic and the purpose of your assignment. The purpose of surveying is to gain a general sense of the authors" ideas and their relationship to the topic.