Distance Learning Support Kit: Welcome

Studying at university does entail extensive reading and much of the material will be intellectually challenging. It's not surprising that many students initially feel overwhelmed by the amount of reading that's required of them.

Because of the reading requirements at university, students regularly enquire about the usefulness of enrolling in speed-reading courses. Unfortunately, however, there are no easy answers or quick fixes to deal with the large amount of reading at tertiary level study. Instead of a speed reading course, it's far better if you develop strategies that are appropriate for the type of reading you'll undertake in your studies. The good news is that these can be quite easily learnt and only require focus and practise.

To develop effective reading strategies for university study, first of all you need to understand the motivation behind your reading, or in other words, the reason why you are reading. To make this clearer let's look at the differences between two different styles of reading, namely reading for academic purposes and reading for leisure.

Example

When reading a novel, most people start at the beginning of the book and continue progressively up until the concluding page (some people do sneak a look at the ending but most try to resist this temptation). Even if you take a break in your reading, you'll eventually pick up where you originally left off.

Academic reading on the other hand begins with a firm purpose in mind. This means that more often than not you won't need to read a book from cover to cover, or if you do, you may not read it in the order that it's written.

At university, the reason why you are reading will therefore determine what and how you read. For example, when you are reading an academic text, you may be looking for a variety of things such as:

Academic reading therefore needs to be highly selective. It also needs to be relevant to the task at hand.