As a college student, you are required to do a lot of reading. You have to read articles, stories, poems, analyses, reports, case studies, novels, and textbooks. Of everything you must read, however, textbooks are probably the most time-consuming and the most difficult to comprehend. After all, the reality is that most college textbooks are not only quite long but also quite boring, even at times mind-numbing, mainly because the writing is usually formal and colorless, and everyone knows that when a book is boring it’s harder to comprehend.
As a result, many students, perhaps even you, either put off reading textbook assignments or plod through them at the last possible minute, understanding and retaining little information in the process. This doesn’t have to be the case, though, not if you use a systematic approach. In fact, by following the steps below, you can read a textbook fast and yet comprehend its key points, which are the points you will most likely be asked about in class or on a test.
Improve Reading Speed by Noting Headings and Subheadings
Each chapter in a textbook usually contains headings, subheadings, and sometimes even sub-subheadings, and these provide you with a preview of key points, so pay attention to them. For example, in Chapter 2 of The Resourceful Writer: A Basic Writing Course (1999), by William H. Barnwell and Robert Dees, the first heading is “Writing Is a Process,” and underneath that heading are six subheadings (p. 15-16):
- Gather Your Ideas and Information
- Analyze Your Ideas and Information
- Identify Your Main Point
- Plan Your Writing
- Write
- Revise and Edit Your Writing
Based upon these six subheadings alone, and without reading the information beneath each subheading, you now know the steps involved in the writing process and what you should do when writing a paper. Isn’t that correct? Of course, if you want a more detailed explanation of each step, you can read the information beneath each subheading, but whether or not you do is entirely up to you.
Read Faster by Concentrating on Select Sentences and Paragraphs
In order to finish a reading assignment as quickly as possible, read the first one or two paragraphs and the last paragraph of each chapter, since these establish the chapter’s main focus. Moreover, if the chapter contains headings and subheadings, read the first sentence of enough paragraphs to provide you with insight into the general subject, but also read the last sentence to help put the information into context. (Barnwell & Dees, 1999)
Read a Textbook Faster by Noting Chapter Summaries and Glossaries
When I was a college student, I loved textbooks with chapter summaries because, to be quite honest, they told me basically everything I needed to know, and in case you haven’t noticed, many of your textbooks contain chapter summaries, so take advantage of them. For example, in The Humanistic Tradition: Book 1 (2006), author Gloria K. Fiero includes a concise summary at the end of each chapter, as well as a glossary of key terms; and by reading the summaries and paying attention to the key terms, you can garner the main points and essential information that might be needed for a test.
Here are the first two sentences from Fiero’s summary for Chapter 1, which is titled “Egypt: Gods, Rulers, and the Social Order”:
- Among ancient civilizations, nature and the natural environment influenced the formation of religious attitudes and beliefs. Egypt’s relatively secure location, regular climate, and dependable Nile River encouraged belief in a host of essentially benevolent deities, the most important of which were the gods of the sun and the Nile. (The Humanistic Tradition, 2006, p. 35)
Then, underneath the summary on page 35, Fiero provides the definitions for key terms such as these:
- Cosmology: the theory of the origins, evolution, and structure of the universe
- Hypostyle: a hall whose roof is supported by columns
- Papyrus: a reed-like plant from which the ancient Egyptians made paper
- Obelisk: a tall, four-sided pillar that tapers to a pyramidal apex
As a result, you can read the summary of this chapter and study the glossary and, although you won’t know everything the chapter contains, you will yet know its main ideas, which will allow you to hold your own in class discussions and probably even pass a test.
In conclusion, you don’t have to read every word in a textbook. Instead, by noting headings and subheadings, concentrating on select paragraphs and sentences, studying chapter summaries, and paying attention to key terms, you can acquire enough information to help you discuss assigned readings in class and also to pass a test. Then again, in order to earn a higher test grade, you should also pay attention to the professor’s lecture and make note of any information or terms that he or she emphasizes and/or repeats.
Sources:
Barnwell, H. & Dees, R. (1999) The Resourceful Writer: A Basic Writing Course, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Fiero, G. (2006) The Humanistic Tradition: Book 1, Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Carol Rzadkiewicz - Carol Rzadkiewicz has taught college English for over 14 years and is the author of three published novels and numerous short stories.
