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Test Yourself!
Speed v. Comprehension
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There are two ways to measure effective reading - speed and comprehension. Generally, the more
speed you have, the lower your comprehension. However, if you are familiar with the subject
matter or know the author well, then you can generally pick up the pace of the reading without
sacrificing comprehension. Pre-reading is a strategy that achieves that goal.
For most people, comprehension falls off sharply the more quickly a person reads. Assuming all
other factors are constant, a student has to put in a certain amount of hours reading in order to get a
B average.
Pre-reading gives you an edge by building comprehension into the equation. Thus you start out
knowing a few things about the case before actually reading, thereby allowing you to read faster
and retain more information. In math terms, the curve shifts before falling off. With pre-reading,
the same student as above can put in fewer hours and still maintain his B average.
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Test Yourself!
Pre-reading Strategy
By pre-reading the case, you can decide whether to skim, skip or read a section. This dramatically
reduces the time you spend reading unnecessary material.
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Step 1: Pre-reading
Pre-reading gives you the gist of the case to determine whether to skim, skip or thoroughly read a
case. Pre-reading is not skimming. Skimming is a more thorough reading of the material than prereading. You should resist the impulse to skim the entire case as you pre-read. Think of pre-reading
as a superficial skimming of the material.
Pre-reading a 10-page long case in the typical casebook should take no longer than two to three
minutes. However, that scant three minutes will take a three page-an-hour reader to ten pages-anhour almost immediately. A ten page-an-hour reader can leap to twenty pages-an-hour with a little
practice.
HOW TO PRE-READ
Pre-reading consists of the following steps.
Step 1: Read the case name.
Step 2: Read the first paragraph or two to understand who the parties are and the
issue that brought them to court.
Most cases will give the procedural history, parties and issues in the first two
paragraphs.
Step 3: Read the first sentence of each paragraph.
By reading every topic sentence of every paragraph you should get an idea of the
structure and general direction that the case is going towards.
Step 4: Read the last paragraph or two so that you understand the holding and
disposition of the case.
Not every holding will be given in the last two paragraphs, but the author usually will
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The overview all comes down to getting the big picture sooner. Once you have an overview of a
case, you know enough of the contents to read the case quickly and easily. There are four things
that you identify as you pre-read.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Outcome
Elements of the Case
Legal Concepts
Evolution of Reasoning
Outcome: By knowing the outcome, you have a ready context for the reasoning. Although the
suspense is gone, you know where the judge is going with his or her application of the rule.
Elements of the case: You've identified where the judge actually talks about the procedural history,
facts, statement of rule, reasoning, holding, etc. See Chapter ___ for more detail on the structure or
elements of a case. You should have an easier time going straight to a particular section in order to
mentally brief a case.
Legal concepts: Instead of having each legal concept revealed to you one by one, you have the big
picture ahead of time. A typical Contracts case, for example, might discuss many different rules all
in the context of one issue. By knowing that three distinct rules come into play, you pinpoint the
most relevant rule ahead of time.
Evolution of Reasoning: Typically, a judge will step through a case such that he or she cites the
development of a rule from the common law through the debates in the legislature when the current
law was originally passed. Some of this is superfluous for your purposes.
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Skimming: Skimming is different from pre-reading. Skimming means you are reading everything
lightly - giving it the once over. In skimming, you don't read every word, but you do scan every
sentence. Instead of reading words as a single element, you read phrases. You use skimming when
you are basically familiar with the material but need more information than what you got out of the
overview.
Reading: Reading doesn't mean that you have to read every word. For most people, the mind is
quicker than the eye. The mind typically gets bored if you read every word. By training your eyes
to go quickly over each sentence, you can learn to read faster. It takes practice, and it's beyond the
scope of this book to offer exercises in speed reading cases. There are many fine speed-reading
books available. It pays to learn and practice speed-reading the summer before law school. Once
the semester starts, you will be hard pressed to read every assignment during your first semester.
However, if you haven't taken the time to learn how to speed-read, then you can still benefit from
the easy to learn pre-reading strategy.
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Test Yourself!
Test Yourself!
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