6. Academic Reading

Contents

Academic reading differs from reading everyday texts. A novel or newspaper article is usually read from front to back. For scholarly texts, on the other hand, there are various reading techniques that enable targeted evaluation in different ways and sequences. How you read texts is therefore predetermined by the type of text. When reading academic texts, a conscious decision should therefore always be made as to how to read them.
Furthermore, in contrast to everyday or leisure reading, academic reading involves keeping an active and productive reading attitude, in which the findings are already documented and processed during reading. These already form important building blocks for the subsequent writing process. Common techniques are:

Annotating and marking important passages, e.g. by underlining, making notes in the margin of the text (NEVER in books borrowed from the library!). This is time-saving, but can quickly become confusing.
Making excerpts (this can be a collection of literal quotations as well as a summary in your own words, possibly with critical commentary). This is time-consuming, but is much more precise.
Various forms of graphic presentation (e.g. tables or mind maps)

The documentation of excerpts and own thoughts during reading should always be conscientious and complete, for example by recording the exact reference. Nothing is more annoying than having to search a book or even several books for a quoted passage because you did not note the page number, author or title!

Cursory reading

Not all texts found during research have the same relevance for your work. The first step is to ascertain which texts are really relevant to the research question. The reading technique required for this is called cursory reading. It helps to know how academic texts are generally structured. Almost all texts contain an introduction and a conclusion in which essential content, methods and findings are explained. Monographs and edited volumes have a table of contents and a blurb or short description, while essays or chapters in edited volumes have abstracts, in which the key aspects of the texts are summarized briefly and concisely. A sensible first step is to evaluate these components, as it is usually easy to see whether the text generally fits the research question.

Selective Reading

Another technique is selective reading. If you only need a partial aspect or a single piece of information from a text, this can be easily found in digital texts using the full text search for keywords or names. In most printed publications there are indexes which list the pages on which names of people and important terms can be found. It is also sometimes sufficient to read a specific section, chapter or paragraph. However, it is advisable to at least skim the rest of the text in order to contextualize the passage in question appropriately.

Exercise

Intensive reading

Texts that are particularly relevant for an academic paper must be fully understood. This is done by so-called intensive reading. There are various ways of systematically applying certain reading strategies, for example through different reading steps that are always carried out in the same order (e.g. the SQ3R method by Francis Robinson). What all these systems have in common is that they have a preparation and follow-up step.

In preparation, information about the context of the text is obtained and reading goals are formulated. In the case of longer texts in particular, it also makes sense to get an overview of the structure of the entire text. After all, it is not only the individual pieces of information that are necessary for understanding the text as a whole. Conversely, individual pieces of information can often only be fully understood once you are aware of their function within the overall argumentation structure. Here too, the technique of cursory reading can be used to prepare for the actual reading.

Various aspects are important in the central phase of reading:

The exact comprehension of the content, structure and argumentation of the text.
A critical attitude towards the statements: Are all the criteria for scholarly rigor fully met? Is the text possibly outdated due to new research findings? In particular, statements that are adopted in your own work should be checked and categorized using other sources if possible.
Comprehensible documentation of all findings: The statements in the text should be clearly separated from your own thoughts on the text. Remember to note the exact position from which you obtained your findings (e.g. include page numbers).

In the final phase of follow-up work, it is important to relate the individual pieces of information from the text sections you have read to the text as a whole and to your research project. In addition, it is usually necessary to reduce your own notes to the essentials and structure them clearly.

Exercise

Whether the division of the reading process into three phases described here makes sense or is even necessary each time depends on the individual case. The choice of reading techniques also depends on the preferences of the person reading and on the type and length of the text. Three aspects are particularly important in academic reading:

The clear documentation of all findings
A critical attitude towards the text
Conscious and planned control of the reading process (systematic reading)

6. Academic Reading

Cursory reading

Selective Reading

Intensive reading

Further reading