Active reading

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Simply reading and re-reading the course material in an unfocused way takes more time than you can afford, and it isn't an effective way to understand and learn. Active reading helps you get to grips with the content and can save you time in the long run.

Reading for study takes time, because understanding requires the development of your thoughts and ideas in response to the text.

The style of most OU course texts includes in-text questions and self-assessed questions that test your understanding, and these give you in-built cues to make your study active.

Try these techniques to make your reading active

	Underline or highlight key words and phrases of text as you read. When you return to the text to take notes, or to research an assignment question, you can easily see which points you identified as important at the first reading. Be selective, as too much highlighting on a page won't help you.
	Make annotations in the margin to summarise points, raise questions, challenge what you’ve read, jot down examples and so on. You can do this in books or etexts. This takes more thought than highlighting, so you'll probably remember the content better.
	Read critically by asking questions of the text. Who wrote it? When? Who is the intended audience? Does it link with other material you've studied in the course? Why do you think it was written? Is it an excerpt from a longer piece of text?
	Use index cards and add points to them as you read. You can use them to cross reference parts of the course, to collect examples, or to keep track of course themes.
	Try using sticky notes if you don't want to mark the text. Jot brief notes on one and add it to the page, partly sticking out so you can identify the page.
	Test yourself by reading for half an hour, putting the text away and jotting down the key points from memory. Go back to the text to fill in gaps.
	Look for ‘signposts’ that help you understand the text - words like ‘most importantly’, ‘in contrast’, ‘on the other hand’.
	Explain what you’ve read to someone else.
	Record yourself reading the course material or your notes, and listen to the recording while you’re travelling or doing household chores.