Consider how you could work consciously towards an effective compromise in the choice and sequencing of your reading strategies for different reading purposes in your academic study. Try answering these questions.

 

Could you make more use of scanning as a way of checking rapidly whether a new text is likely to have some relevance for your reading purpose, or whether it can safely be rejected?

Could you make more use of skimming to establish how centrally relevant a new text is to your reading purpose, or whether you can safely just summarise what you have skimmed?

Could you make more use of intensive reading for centrally relevant texts, to explore in depth the content and the development of the authors’ argument?

How could you minimise your chances of investing the time to read intensively texts that turn out to be only marginally relevant to your reading purpose?

How could you minimise your chances of missing important content or steps in the development of authors’ argument in a text?

How could using a sequence of two or all three main reading strategies help you to achieve some of your reading purposes more effectively than relying on one strategy alone?

Overall, what is the single most important thing you could do to achieve a more effective compromise with your reading strategies in your academic studies?

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