Learning to efficiently read research and scholarly writing is a skill that will help greatly with managing your time and workflow. Instead of spending time thoroughly reading every word in dense scholarly articles, learn to strategically approach reading to pull out the most relevant pieces of the writing, and quickly evaluate a source’s overall methodology and approach. This module will help you read scholarly writing more efficiently. There are many different ways to go about reading, and no one technique will work for everyone. With time and practice, these strategic reading techniques will get easier and more natural.

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Learning Goals

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Read scholarly texts for comprehension and meaning
Read scholarly texts more efficiently
Improve confidence in reading scholarly texts
Know where to go for additional help.

Reflect

Ask yourself these questions about how you currently read and think, so that you can try one of the approaches offered in this tutorial.

Do you read start to finish?
Do you highlight and make notes in the text?
Do you see what others have to say about it?
Do you skim or do deep reading?
What do you do when you don’t understand something you’re reading?

Look it up online
Move on and hope to understand it later in a larger context
Find a different article to read on the same topic
Watch explanatory videos on YouTube or social media