Improving Study Skills: Reading and Note-Taking Techniques Explored

This essay discusses the importance of reading in higher education and explores various effective reading techniques such as skimming, scanning, active reading, detailed reading, and the SPE method. It also covers different note-taking methods, including the Cornell method, sentence method, charting method, and mapping method, highlighting their benefits and drawbacks. The essay emphasizes the significance of these skills for students to extract essential information from various sources, draw conclusions, and enhance their overall learning experience. It concludes that reading and note-taking are crucial for academic success, providing students with the necessary tools to navigate complex materials and improve comprehension.

Study skills for Higher
education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Reading is an important concept that refers to acquiring knowledge and information from
decoded texts. It is a skill that requires an interaction between reader and text. Basically, it is a
procedure of using the acquired information to understand the meaning of texts. As it is an initial
step towards education, it has a major importance . It is inevitable to get knowledge and remain
update. People get information through various sources of knowledge that have written texts like
newspapers, articles in magazines or on various websites. It helps in learning new terms. A
constant reading habit helps in increasing concentration level of individuals. Reading of novels,
journals and different articles helps in enhancing reading skills and it ultimately improves
communication skills by providing individuals with different terminologies and phrases (Bárta
and et. al., 2022).This essay will elaborate the importance of Reading and the best and
effective reading techniques that an individual should follow while reading. The concept of note
taking and the methods to be followed for note taking are also covered under this essay.
TASK
Reading has a major impact on the life of students regardless of their educational stream.
As they have to read various types of materials such as textbooks, web pages, magazines'
articles, case studies, research studies etc., they need to develop an intelligent and effective
reading. There are various reading techniques to fulfil this purpose. These techniques will
provide students with a good reading experience by reading the content wisely. To become more
efficient readers by reading actively, students should follow the best possible reading
techniques.
Skimming is a technique for quick reading. It refers to taking a prior review of the
content by reading its essentials . It helps the individual to understand the essence of the topic
that is intended to be read. This technique helps to save time by reading only the key points
instead of reading the entire description (Cerkes, 2022). It provides the essence of the topic by
reading the major or key points of the content. It is a technique of taking a glimpse of the entire
article or chapter to know the topics it discusses about. This technique is used mainly for taking
the overview of content selected to be read. For example ,reading the review about any product
or service does not require a complete reading. It requires only key points to be read to get the

basic information about the review of product. This technique is mostly used by students to have
a quick review of the chapter by skimming before taking the exam.
Scanning : This technique of reading refers to going through the entire content. It does
not state to read the entire topic thoroughly. It is used to find a particular topic or part of content
that the one is looking for. This is a common technique that everyone uses in the daily life.
Scanning is used for example, in reading the news articles to get the relevant information without
going through the entire article. This technique is not used for reading the academic data or case
studies etc. that require a thorough and active reading of the entire topic. It simply involves
taking a glimpse of the entire content and then reading only the required and relevant content.
For example, extracting the particular subject information from the database of the student can
be done easily through this technique of reading as it does not require to read the entire database
of the student.
Active Reading technique is used when an individual have something complex to read
about. It refers to an insightful and an in-depth reading of the topic. It requires an active state of
mind to read the critical content by relating the ongoing content to already acquired knowledge
and reading experience. It needs taking notes to clearly understand and relate the topic by
solving the associated queries. An in depth understanding of the difficult topic is possible
through this technique. It is used for a new and complex material that contains any content that
has not been read earlier about . It is also used when anyone wants to collect more information
about the material that is being read (Coulter and Onufer, 2022). For example, reading of case
studies requires an in depth reading to formulate decisions by referring to various associated laws
that case studies are based on. If any case study relating to company law is being solved,
knowledge of company law is required to conclude on the related case study.
Detailed Reading technique involves extra efforts to have a detailed and clear
understanding of the material referred. It is opposite of skimming technique as it is a most time-
consuming technique of reading. It requires a detailed analysis of the terms and phrases used in
reading material to understand the exact meaning . It involves integration of the content by
having a detailed analysis and an in depth reading. This technique is used by the students when
they are reading any content related to scholarly research or any other research that requires a
detailed analysis. For example, reading a poetic literature that includes complex terminologies
and phrases to get the detailed and integrated meaning of the content as a whole. This technique

is best when reading the reports or while doing the analysis of any chart or graphical
representation as these reading materials require detailed understanding.
SPE Method is a structure-proposition-evaluation technique introduced by Mortimer
Adler in 1940 in his book – How to read a book . He put emphasis on reading the book by
finding structure of the material or text and then consider the propositions i.e. judgements or
opinions made by the author and further creating the evaluations by self. In this, reader
determines the structure to read the content, formulates the plan to read and then find the
opinions given by the author with his plan and ultimately evaluates own conclusions about the
reading (Ebert and et. al., 2022).
Note taking is a way of recording the key points of essential information collected from
multiple sources. It helps in remembering any concerned topic and in carrying the content in an
organised manner (Mahajan and et. al., 2022) . For note taking, various methods were
developed by different universities and authors that students can follow .
Cornell Method of note taking was formed in 1950 by Cornell university. It is one of the
easiest and the mostly used method when one wants to make the notes in an organised manner,
and needs to refer quickly the topics or descriptions mentioned in it. It considers division of the
page into three parts i.e. left part, right part and bottom part. The left part of the page is a noting
section that contains the main topics serially numbered or otherwise, the right part with broader
space is used for writing and explaining the actual notes according to the topics mentioned , and
the bottom part is used to make summary of the notes created (Nagro and Monnin, 2022). The
left and bottom parts are to be made simple and clear because all the other details and
explanations are covered in the main descriptive notes in the right part of the Cornell page. This
method is very useful for learning as it contains the summarised information in a concise way
with little time and efforts. Notes prepared by Cornell method provides an easy learning
experience. It requires the notes to be formed on Cornell pages that sometimes become difficult
to organize with large notes. It, however ,supports a systematic collection of essential concepts
or topics in an organized way that helps in a better review of the notes prepared.
Sentence Method is a simple and easy method of note taking that is considered as the
mostly used method because of its simplicity. It involves just writing down the essential notes
with every source of available information. It can be used in taking quick notes regarding any
unstructured information of the subject that involves the recording of the points according to

one's own perception. As the notes are created in a simple way, it is easy to review the
information contained. If the notes are being prepared during the class, it requires a fast
handwriting skills or fast typing skills. Under this method of note taking, line spacing is used to
isolate the topics, concepts, ideas etc. from one another (Russell and et. al., 2022). But the
drawback of this method is that some key points are missed while jotting down the notes
manually i.e. everything cannot be written down if one is writing by hand. Review of the
sentenced and enlarged notes sometimes become time consuming after the class. Although, this
method enlarges the size of the content but can still be made concise by covering the key points
only. Through this method, connections between the topics or content is not maintained but it
can be used for any subject to make notes during the class in a quick way and then can be
reviewed immediately because of their simple creation (Salais-Fierro and Martínez, 2022).
Charting Method of note taking is quite hard as it involves recording of statistical data
with the use of charts or tables to present the information in the notes. It can not be referred to
take notes from the detailed topics that includes large explanations or from the live lectures or
during the class. It is appropriate for the subjects that include statistical data that can be noted in
the form of tables or charts respectively (Sengun, 2022). As this method does not include long
descriptions or explanations, it reduces the size of the notes and assists in a better review with
brief content. The subjects that include comparisons of the topics fall under this method as
comparisons can be done through tables and charts. The notes that are presented through charts
and tables have an efficient review. But it can be used only after a thorough understanding of the
topic that is very time consuming.
Mapping Method is used to note information in an structured form after a thorough
analysis of the concepts and ideas. It is used to form the connections among different ideas,
words, concepts etc. It is mainly referred for the subjects that have complex topics and concepts
that require structured view to present information (Straub, 2022). For example subjects like
history, physics, chemistry etc. falls under the category of this method. It involves diverging or
branching the main content into sub contents or topics in a concise way and provides an effective
overview of the topic concerned by maintaining the connections of major points with sub points.
It is started with the main concept in the centre of the page, then extended through sub points via
mapping of branches. It basically involves the interrelation of the topics for better visualization.
But this method of map creation requires a thorough understanding and active concentration of

the topic that requires a lot of time. The structured form of the topic helps the people to maintain
interrelationships and events with the topics. It can most appropriately be used in those classes
where the content is more and requires structured information.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion on reading and note taking, it has been concluded that reading has a
major importance in the life of any one, specially on students as it serves as a source of
knowledge as well as pleasure. For extracting any essential information from books, articles or
journals and for drawing conclusions on various case studies, students must refer the above
mentioned techniques and methods of reading and note taking respectively. These techniques are
used according to the content to be read or searched about. For example, Detailed reading
technique is needed when we are reading any complex material like poetic literature; on the other
hand, skimming technique is used to read only the key points to get the essence of the topic.
Similarly, different methods of note taking also assist the students in taking organised ,
structured as well as outlined notes according to the topic or content that notes are taken from.
All these methods and techniques help the students in becoming efficient readers and in
remembering new information.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bárta, V. and et. al., , 2022. Comparison of field survey and remote sensing techniques for
detection of bark beetle-infested trees. Forest Ecology and Management, 506, p.119984.
Cerkes, N., 2022. Alar Base Reduction: Nuances and Techniques. Clinics in Plastic
Surgery, 49(1).pp.161-178.
Coulter, R.W. and Onufer, L., 2022. Using student-led discussions and snapshot lectures to
stimulate active learning and accountability: A mixed methods study on teaching an
implementation science course. Pedagogy in Health Promotion, p.23733799211050088.
Ebert, M.A., and et. al.,2022. In regard to Shortall et al. International Journal of Radiation
Oncology, Biology, Physics, 112(3). pp.831-833.
Mahajan, H., and et. al., 2022. Prediction of Student’s Performance in an Academic Using Data
Science and Machine Learning. In Proceedings of International Conference on Data
Science and Applications (pp. 167-175). Springer, Singapore.
Nagro, S.A. and Monnin, K., 2022. Using Simulated Video Analysis to Promote Special
Education Teacher Candidates’ Professional Knowledge and Reflective Ability. Teacher
Education and Special Education, p.08884064211059854.
Russell, B.T.,and et. al.,, 2022. How should surface elevation table data be analyzed? A
comparison of several commonly used analysis methods and one newly proposed
approach. Environmental and Ecological Statistics, pp.1-33.
Salais-Fierro, T.E. and Martínez, J.A.S., 2022. Demand Forecasting for Freight Transport
Applying Machine Learning into the Logistic Distribution. Mobile Networks and
Applications, pp.1-10.
Sengun, S., 2022. Six Degrees of Videogame Narrative. In Games and Narrative: Theory and
Practice (pp. 3-20). Springer, Cham.
Straub, K., 2022. British Enlightenment Theatre: Dramatizing Difference by Bridget
Orr. Eighteenth-Century Studies, 55(2).pp.268-271.