9 Ways To Survive Scholarly Reading

By Jenna Troidl on February 17, 2014

Photo via http://www.jensbookthoughts.com

It’s Monday.

The monotonous office environment and morning grumbles from hungover coworkers casts a grey, dull hue over your retinas as you make your way to a tiny cube with your name on it.

As you try to blink it away and stimulate it with coffee, your patience starts to wear thin as you listen to the soft murmur of your coworker talking on the phone in the cubicle across from yours. The outdated office equipment screeches from 10 years of over-usage over the monotone whisper with the occasional giggle, but you are still able to make out certain words.

“Did you…” buzzzzzz…”what”…buzzzzz…”was wearing”… giggles.

If it weren’t for the comedic ramblings of the heavy-handed 10-keyer in the cubicle behind you hammering away at his keyboard while occasionally expressing his feelings in f-bombs toward his computer, you would pick your computer up and dropkick it at the obnoxious phone lady.

You zone out while listening to the water cooler gossip during your break because you start feeling the dread wash over you as you realize that your day is not over after work. You still have something important to do when you get home.

Scholarly reading.

It is very normal for a student with a full-time job to have trouble finding the motivation to do homework after a long day at the office.  I, myself, lack motivation after a long day of processing hundreds of claims without taking a break to blink. Also, it is hard to concentrate after work because I feel mentally drained. So I created a system for scholarly reading to make it more … well … tolerable I suppose.

Here are some tips on how to survive scholarly reading.

1. Create a relaxing atmosphere.

 This is how I read and study. LIKE A BOSS.

Need I say more?

2. Listen to classical music while reading.

Okay, so hear me out before you nay-say this tip. I am a little biased because I’m an orch-dork, but I believe that listening to classical music while reading helps me focus, therefore, increasing my productivity. Anyone ever hear about the Mozart Effect? Although the Mozart Effect is a bit of an urban legend because findings varied with each study, I do believe there is some validity to this theory.

It was Dr. Shaw Rauscher who first made this claim in 1993 after he conducted a study by playing Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major for 36 college students from the University of California’s Psychology Department.

His findings concluded that the students scored eight to nine points higher on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale’s spatial IQ reasoning sub-test after they listened to 10 minutes of the sonata versus listening to self-hypnosis instructions on tape or sitting in complete silence.

Other researchers tried to disprove this controversial theory because they were unable to replicate Rauscher’s findings. Some of them agreed that Mozart’s sonata increased spatial-temporal performance while others argued that this slight increase was a product of the “enjoyment arousal,” which means the test subject thoroughly enjoys and appreciates the music.

Although I may be experiencing the “enjoyment arousal” because I love classical music, I still feel it is easier to concentrate while listening to it versus listening to the white productivity noise on the SimplyNoise website or silence.

3. Remember to eat dinner.

Sometimes I forget to eat when I am reading because I am determined to finish 200 pages of the textbook before dinner. I feel it is better to eat while you are reading because you can take little breaks between bites and eating slowly is better for digestion. Also, no one can think on an empty stomach so it will help increase your concentration.

Plating is everything! Except if you are not a vegan … then this looks pretty gross.

4. Highlight important sentences and definitions. Make Cornell notes the next day.

This is probably the most important tip I can offer. Highlight sentences and definitions that you feel are important because they support the topic. Then go back the next day and make Cornell notes next to them, which could be in forms of statements, observations, questions, comparison and contrasts, etc.

Make sure to continuously review your notes until you feel that you have an understanding of the material presented. Cornell notes enable the student to interact with the text in some way, which improves his/her overall retention of the material. My husband is a teacher and says this method is highly effective with his junior high students.

5. Look up words you don’t understand.

Let’s face it … big words are stupid. Who really talks like that? Oh yeah … scholars I guess.

Photo via http://www.somethingofthatilk.com

For example, mellifluous means “having a smooth, flowing sound,” and unctuous is “used to describe someone who speaks and behaves in a way that is meant to seem friendly and polite but that is unpleasant because it is obviously not sincere.”

Do you understand the comic more now that you know what the words mean? And if you already knew what they meant, then you deserve a pat on the back because you are really smart!

 6. Take small breaks.

 Reddit, YouTube, LiveLeak, Break, Ebaumsworld, Wimp, 2Leep, BOOM!!

 If you are feeling really adventurous, maybe pour yourself a glass of wine or pop open a beer. It may be three o’clock here, but it’s five o’clock somewhere, right?

7. Learn when it is appropriate to scholarly skim. 

The most appropriate time to scholarly skim is when the author is rattling off statistics. Ask yourself these questions especially if you are utilizing Cornell notes: are you really going to retain all of these quantitative findings? How important is this information? Does it contribute to your overall comprehension of the topic?

If so, then by all means write it down, memorize it, and bust it out in a conversation with your friends at a bar. Everyone likes a know-it-all, right?

Most of the statistics in the textbooks I am reading right now are either what I call duh statistics or filler statistics. The definitions of these terms that I coined are very simple.

If you find yourself reading quantifiable jargon and saying duhhh out loud, then you are encountering a duh statistic.

The duh statistic usually includes information that is common knowledge. For example, “In the United States, 80% of adult Internet users, or almost half of Americans over the age of 18 (about 95 million individuals) have researched health and medical topics on the Internet.”

Keep in mind that this is only a part of what was in the text, and while you weren’t aware of the exact statistics, you still know that a majority of users in this digital age utilize search engines, especially Google, for information because it is easily accessible and produces a large amount of search results.

Photo via google.com

 

If you find yourself zoning out through pages of numerical values and wondering if the author just injected these into the chapter in order to stretch it out, then you have stumbled upon a filler statistic.

For example, one of my textbooks uses up six pages of the chapter to list statistics on the “Average Time Spent with Consumer Media per User per Year.” I tried to look at some of the numbers to see how they have increased, but ended up zoning out and skipping those pages.

If you learn to how to hone your ability to skim to the most significant parts of the chapter, then you will be able to understand the topic more by keeping your brain from shutting down due to information overload.

8. Apply your knowledge.

Take what you have learned and apply it to your life in order to check your knowledge. For example, I read an article called “How communication works” from William Schramm, and applied it in a reflection conference so the instructor could see that I understood it.

I used my policy and procedural writing for our claim department’s training manual experience and related it to the statement: “The source can encode, and the destination can decode, only in terms of the experience each has had.”

My trainer previously provided the procedural writing, but she would incorporate terminology that is irrelevant to a claims processor, and then she would be vague about the actual procedure. So I completely understand the importance of communication and how it could be misunderstood if not encoded properly.

9. ASK QUESTIONS!

This is my final tip and perhaps the easiest. If you are having trouble understanding the course readings, then ask the instructor to clarify. It never hurts to ask questions.

Hope you found these tips helpful. Happy reading!

 

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format