tUNEup your academic reading
Featured Links
These workshops are drawn from a variety of online sites and will assist you to work independently with your academic reading. Each academic reading link will offer you a variety of sites to suit your learning style. Some of these sites are in the form of online workshops with interactive exercises, quizzes and feedback. Other links are in a format you may download and print. You are encouraged to explore the links to develop and hone your skills or use them to solve a particular problem that you may be experiencing.
Strategies for academic reading | |
| Reading effectively (Flinders University) This site offers a brief overview of the range of reading skills required for university studies. It also provides an introduction to further workshops. Keywords: reading purpose | reading a new topic | reading essential text | assignment reading | reading difficult text | reading for revision | Reading efficiently (University of Wollongong) 'Efficient reading is about reading in a way that allows you to understand the writer's message without spending too much time in the process.' The topics covered on the web site include HOW to read effectively and strategies for reading different types of academic texts. This interactive web site provides you with activities with automated feedback to help you practise and develop your academic reading. An excellent site for those starting out on university studies and for those who need to improve their academic reading skills. Keywords: note-taking | thesis point | topic sentence | strategies for reading standard text books | reading journal articles |
| Reading critically (University of Wollongong) Efficient reading is NOT enough for successful university reading, you must also be able to read critically. This comprehensive interactive workshop alerts you to the skills required for effective critical reading. Keywords: suspending judgment | checklist | research articles | academic journals | Effective reading (James Cook University) This module shows you how to test your reading speed and provides you with a range of techniques to help you read faster and more effectively. There are practice exercises to test your reading speed and measure your improvement. A most comprehensive site with activities and automated feedback. Keywords: reading speed | reading strategies | pacing | reading overviews | reading for study | SQ3R |
| Reading and remembering (University of Canberra) This site provides you with information on the key issues of academic reading. It has some interesting advice on strategies for remembering what you have read and the value of speed reading. Keywords: reading strategies | reading academic text | speed reading | remembering | Reading - Reading more efficiently by reading intelligently (AMAZON) 'Good reading strategies help you to read in a very efficient way. Using them, you aim to get the maximum benefit from your reading with the minimum effort. This section will show you how to use six different strategies to read intelligently.' Keywords: reading strategies | reading purpose | active reading | studying different text types | SQ3R | glossaries | concept maps |
Note-taking from reading | |
| Note-taking (University of Wollongong) Efficient reading is NOT enough for successful university studies, you need also to have effective systems for note-taking. This comprehensive interactive workshop alerts you to the skills required for note-taking. Keywords: essay writing | strategies | classifying | Cornell Method | direct and indirect quotes | evidence | paraphrasing | summarising | steps for note-taking | Notemaking from reading: Introduction (University of South Australia) 'This workshop is designed to help you to develop your skills of notemaking. It will guide you through a process of making notes from something you are reading. In order to participate in the workshop you will need to have the item for reading (which we shall refer to as "your text") and be clear about why you want to make notes from it.' Keywords: reading purpose | notemaking for assignments | notemaking for exam preparation | recording bibliographic details | notemaking formats |
| Mark your books (University of Texas) Marking-up your reading materials is a helpful activity because it aids concentration, comprehension and review. This information guide assists you to use some tried and tested strategies for this activity. Keywords: comprehending | reviewing | annotating | Mind maps - A powerful approach to note-taking (AMAZON) 'Mind maps are very important techniques for improving the way you take notes. By using mind maps you show the structure of the subject and linkages between points, as well as the raw facts contained in normal notes. Mind maps hold information in a format that your mind will find easy to remember and quick to review.' Keywords: summarising | consolidating | thinking | structure | links | topic lines | branching | software tools |
| Paraphrasing and summarising (University of New England) This handout explains 'paraphrasing' and 'summarising'. It gives hints on how to do these activities effectively. Print out this handy resource or get your information from the screen. Refer to it when you need information for your assignment and essay writing. Keywords: process | referencing | main idea | supporting points | topic sentence | Taking notes in texts (University of Melbourne) This handout explores the purposes for taking notes and discusses effective and ineffective note-taking practices. It describes a process for you to develop a systematic approach to your note-taking from texts. Keywords: reading purposes | reconstructive, interactive, analytic approaches | highlighting | paraphrasing | summarising | outlining | annotating | reviewing |
Researching for information | |
| eSKILLS (University of New England) 'eSKILLS UNE is designed to guide you through the steps involved in finding and using information. It tells you how to find the information you require to complete assignments and other assessment tasks. In addition, it will also show you how to save time and avoid some common mistakes.' Keywords: topic analysis | search strategies | search tools | reading | evaluating | essay writing | record keeping | referencing standards | information literacy | How to do research on the Internet (Monash University) In this tutorial, you will learn about the Internet and what you can expect to find there. You will explore different ways of searching the World Wide Web and interpreting what you find. This is a most comprehensive site for the novice internet researcher. Keywords: Internet | World Wide Web | search engines | navigating | databases | evaluating sources |