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How to Read When You Have to Write Dr. Eric Drown

In order to get the most out of your time spent reading, you will have to set ambitious reading
goals. Figure 1 lays out some of the key differences between basic and advanced reading goals.

Figure 1: Basic and Advanced Reading Goals

Basic Reading Goals Advanced Reading Goals

Read to store and retrieve information Read to be conversant – to be able to speak about
the details (and the relationships among them) and
general effect of a text without referring to it
Read passively Read actively – take notes, ask questions, make
connections, paraphrase key points
Read to absorb Read to explore, inquire, consider, question,
criticize, analyze
Read to understand Read to do something to/with the text– evaluate,
synthesize, create, write
Read for the gist Read to understand nuances and to assess views.
Read to locate gaps in the conversation, to find
places to comment and respond
Read each text in isolation Read texts as part of an inter-textual dialogue or
field
Read impressionistically Read systematically
Read to agree or disagree Read to understand a position that is different from
one’s own

Analysis and Interpretation

In order to read to fulfill these more advanced goals, you may need to alter your reading habits.
In particular you will need to take an analytical approach to reading your sources in order to interpret
them. By interpretation we mean the process by which you come see the significance, meaning or
implications of the ideas, data, and questions with which you are working. Analysis and interpretation are
notoriously fuzzy terms. But its not hard to be concrete about the process to use to generate them. Let’s
begin by understanding what it means to read analytically towards an interpretation. To read analytically
is to attend to, understand, assess, and comment on

1. The sequence of writerly moves a writer uses to make an argument.

2. The relationship between claims made and the evidence and logic used to support them.
3. The significance and implications of specific keywords or phrases a writer chooses to convey his
or her view.
4. Patterns in data, ideas, methods, or perspectives.
5. Anomalous data, ideas, methods, or perspective once a pattern has been established.
6. The explicit or tacit organizing binaries or oppositions in the piece.

Reading analytically also means

7. To uncover and reveal the tacit values and assumptions that anchor a writer’s perspective.
8. To understand the larger contexts in which specific data or phenomenon are relevant.
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9. To explore and reveal the implications of the data, ideas, or methods.

While it may seem that reading analytically requires you to pay attention to a lot, the following
paragraphs provide you with a step-by-step reading and note-taking process that will maximize your
chances of reading analytically.

1. Approach the text with the right mindset in the right environment. It can be easy to check
out of a reading that on first blush seems dull or irrelevant, is hard to follow, or is on a complex subject
matter. Don’t let yourself take the easy way out! Why? Because it will make your life as a writer
considerably more difficult if you do.

Try to focus hard, knowing that the work you put in up front will pay off with time saved, less
stress, and better results at the end of the project. Create a single-tasking environment. Limit distractions
by refusing to open your internet browser, IM, email program, or Skype. Turn off your computer’s
modem/wireless receiver. Silence your phone. If you have to listen to music, make sure it’s music without
words (you don’t want the language center of your brain to multitask when you’re working on new or
complex material made entirely out of words). Better yet, try playing a white noise loop through ear buds
to shut out distracting sounds.

Once you’ve created a single-tasking environment, work actively to pay attention, understand,
and respond to the material being presented. Concentrate on understanding what is being conveyed
whatever the deficiencies of the piece of writing. Try to connect what you’re reading to what you already
know (through personal experience or other reading you’ve done on the subject). Think about how what
you’re reading possibly changes what you think about the topic on which you’re working. Assess the uses
and limits of the ideas to which you’re listening for your own writing project.

2. Use pre-reading strategies: Survey the reading and develop questions and interests to guide
your reading. Activate what you already know about the topics, whether from other reading or life
experiences. When you survey a text you scan the table of contents, introduction, chapter introductions,
headings, or summaries to pick up a shallow overview of the text. From your survey develop a small set
of initial questions or lines of thought that you’ll to try to answer or think through as you read. Also locate
areas of particular interest (topics or subtopics, but also specific page ranges) to which you’ll give your
best attention.

Before reading the text carefully, consider what you already know (or think you know) about the
topic of the text. By creating expectations about you’re reading, you’ll notice when the writer’s line of
thought diverges from your expectations and see those moments as interesting, puzzling, troubling,
ambiguous or suggestive, as moments with which you’ll need to come to terms.

3. Mark up your texts. It is vital that you convert all readings about which you’re going to write
from electronic to paper format. There is no electronic substitute for marking up a reading using a pencil.
The simple act of making marks on the page focuses your attention and promotes an active and dynamic
approach to your reading that is absolutely essential if you are to write effectively about what you read.

In the next paragraph, I’ll to describe some basic marks and types of margin comments. But
before I do, I want you to notice how they focus your attention more on the flow of the intellectual
conversation, than on the specific pieces of information or materials the writers use to have the
conversation. Remember, you’re reading to further the conversation, not merely to acquire and retain
information. In order to participate in the conversation, you have to be able to use the cues (words) on the
page to realize (literally, make real, three-dimensional) the exchange of ideas embedded in the text.
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How do I mark up a text? Here are some basic marks and margin comment types that will help
you make the conversation come to life:

 Underline essential and supporting questions and label which supporting questions go with
each essential question;
 Circle key concepts, then define concepts and terms in your own words in the margin;
 Double-underline compelling passages and make margin notes about how you could use them
in your own project;
 Draw a Block around passages that are complicated, challenging or hard to understand, then on
a separate sheet of paper, try to paraphrase them until you understand them;
 Jot down the ideas, examples, and lines of inquiry that occur to you as you read;
 Draw lines or make cross-references to forge connections and comparisons between
sections of the reading, or between the current reading and others you have read previously;
 Make margin notes about the uses and limits of particular concepts or passages for your
own work.

It’s particularly important to track the writerly moves the writer is making. Is he or she offering
Background? Mark it. The table below presents some common writerly moves for which to be on the
lookout.

 Offering Background  Countering Another Writer’s Argument

 Analyzing an Exhibit  Making an Argument
 Interpreting an Exhibit  Defining Terms
 Borrowing Expert Authority  Describing a Method
 Extending Another Writer’s Argument  Criticizing Another Writer’s Method
 Presenting Another Writer’s Argument  Revealing Tacit Values or Assumptions

Keeping track of a writer’s moves will enable you to better see the conversation in his or her text. By
understand how he or she is making use of his or her sources, you can distinguish between what they say
and what he or she says in response and consider your response to all the voices in the text.

What else should I do while reading? Keep track of your intellectual response to the reading: Are
you skeptical of some of the ideas or arguments presented? Does some way of approaching a problem or
object of analysis seem particularly interesting or puzzling? Is something confusing or suddenly
particularly clear. Write it all down. Keep track of the questions, ideas, problems, potential
forwards/counters, personal experiences that percolate in your brain as you read. These will be the
foundations on which you come to terms with the piece.

How often should I be taking notes? You should probably be taking notes at least once or twice a
page (but not much more) throughout the reading.

When you’re finished reading, immediately write a healthy paragraph right on your printout (or
on the first or last page of your chapter, right in the book if you own it) documenting both the basic
substance of the writer’s project and line of thought and your initial intellectual responses to it. Record
the essential ideas, concepts, or claims that you want to forward and/or counter, and explain how and
why. Describe how reading this text changed your thinking (furthered it? nuanced it? redirected it?
complicated it? confused it?).

4. Transfer your margin notes to a word-processing program after reading. we recommend

transferring notes only after you read, rather than as you go, because the act of transferring your notes
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from the page to the word-processor helps solidify your encounter with the text. You remember more of
what you read and develop a deeper more sophisticated response to the text by revisiting your margin
notes in the act of transfer.

What should I transfer to the word processor? You don’t need to transfer everything. In fact, you
want to be selective to start winnowing important stuff from trivial (even if interesting) stuff.

Transfer everything that went into your “healthy paragraph” in step 3. Why? Because when you
wrote that paragraph you started to develop your own response to the material. You began to integrate
new ideas and information with old, and started to think about how your own project will be impacted by
engaging this particular text in conversation. As you revisit your notes in light of other readings and
further work on your own piece of writing, you’ll add to, revise, rethink, and respond to this initial
response (so be sure to record the date of your initial reading, and each time you revisit your notes). By
tracking the development of your thought as you revisit and rethink your response to a reading in light of
further reading and thinking, you’ll have a history of your engagement with the ideas and lines of thought
that are the substance of the conversation you and all the other writers are having. When you write your
paper you’ll rely on the history of your encounter with other conversationalists to formulate your own
entry into the conversation.

What else should I transfer? After transferring that first “healthy paragraph,” transfer only the
most important concepts (especially ones named with specialized terms), conversation-changing insights,
passages, or examples, and lines of thought you might want to emulate or deploy in your own writing
projects. Don’t worry about capturing data or statistics—they’re on paper and easily retrievable. If you
need one or two specific pieces of information, go back and make a note on the first page of the reading
indicating where exactly in the essay the data is (page number) and, here’s the crucial step, explaining the
meaning and implications of the data. Unless you write down what the data means to you, you will surely
forget what you found interesting, useful or troubling about the data.

This may seem an intensive approach to reading. And it is. But remember, you’re not just reading
to understand a fact, remember it, and select the right option on a multiple choice exam. You’re reading to
respond to this text (and others) in writing. You need to cultivate and record a complex intellectual
response to the text in order to engage it in the asynchronous communication form that is academic
writing.