Effective Reading

Identifying your purpose

Your relationship with reading

You should begin by creating an environment that is conducive to efficient and effective reading. To help build the best environment for your reading to be successful, ask yourself the following questions:

• Where do I study best? Do I prefer the library? A coffee shop? Or somewhere else? Try to read in a physical space that supports your studying and minimizes the chance of you becoming distracted.
• How will you minimize distractions? Do you need to turn your phone off?
• What is the best time of day for you to study? How are you going to protect this time?
• How long can you study for before taking a break?
• What is the recommended reading for your course? - See Reading at University to find out about course reading lists.

Answering these questions will help you to utilize your time more effectively and increase your focus, therefore making your reading more purposeful.

Deciding what to read

Once you've identified what you are looking for, you can begin your literature search. This involves using a combination of different key words or search terms to explore the wide range of literature available through Library Online. This guide focuses on what to do when you've found your reading, but for more information on the literature searching process, visit the How to Search guide.

Once you've conducted an initial search for reading in Library Online or another search engine, follow these three steps to decide if the articles you have found are worth reading in more detail: