In the UK, you need to read a lot to find information to support ideas for your essay. - Mei-Xing
Reading is an important part of study at university in the UK. You will need to be able to locate useful reading materials for your course and you may also need to develop certain reading skills to help you find the information you need quickly and effectively.
In these activities you will think about the best approach to using a reading list as a starting point for writing an essay, and explore some reading strategies that can be used to help find information quickly.
How to manage reading lists
At university in the UK, students may receive reading lists consisting of 30 or 40 books, journal articles or other kinds of reading relevant to a particular course. Reading lists usually provide background reading in a subject area as well as relevant literature for course assignments. Whilst you will not be expected to read all of the items on a reading list, you will need to be able to select what is useful to your own needs, and decide in what order to read it. You are going to practise doing this with an extract from a student's course reading list. The student has been asked to produce an essay on the following topic: Discuss the reasons for migration to the UK in the twentieth century.
Lars
Instruction
Study the different items on Lars' reading list for his course and think about them in relation to the essay topic. Decide which general item he should read first and highlight this in green; then decide which other three items are important for him to read and highlight these in blue. Finally highlight two less important items in red and then read the feedback.
Highlight the relevant text by clicking on it, and then click on the colour you wish to apply. Highlight the text and click another colour if you wish to change your choice.
Blake, P. (2005). An Introduction to Human Migration. London: Waterhouse Publishing.
Brown, F. and Kennedy, T. (2002). Immigration and the United Kingdom. In Dudley, A., Global Identities. Reading: Real Publishing.
Roser, G. (2007). A qualitative analysis of migration patterns in the USA. Journal of World Migration, 3(1). pp.56-78.
Davies, S. (1952). Migration and its Economic Consequences. London: Whitelane Publishers.
Peters, F. (2006). A study of recent migration trends in the European Union. Journal of Migration, 24(4). pp.24-32.
Turner, B. (2003). Cultural, Economic and Political Factors in Human Migration, 2nd Edition. Manchester: Waterhouse Publishing.
The general item that the student should read first: Blake, P. (2005) An Introduction to Human Migration. London: Waterhouse Publishing.
A good principle is to start by reading a book which gives a broad overview of the topic that you need to write about. This can provide some general insights into the topic and is also a useful place to find out what issues and opinions exist concerning the topic. The bibliography of that book can also be studied to find other books relevant to the topic.
Three items to prioritise reading next: Peters, F. (2006) A study of recent migration trends in the European Union. Journal of Migration, 24 (4) pp. 24-32. Turner, B. (2003) Cultural, Economic and Political Factors in Human Migration. 2nd Edition. Manchester: Waterhouse Publishing. Brown, F. and Kennedy, T. (2002) Immigration and the United Kingdom. In A. Dudley, Global Identities. Reading: Real Publishing.
Other items which are likely to be important for the student's essay are those which have been written recently (the student will need to show that they are aware of recent thinking in relation to migration) and books that have been written by respected authors or those considered to be authorities in the field.
These journal articles and books would be irrelevant to the student's needs and/or provide less up-to-date information on the subject: Roser, G. (2007) A qualitative analysis of migration patterns in the USA. Journal of World Migration, 3 (1) pp.56-78. Davies, S. (1952) Migration and its Economic Consequences. London: Whitelane Publishers.
It is important to show you are aware of current thinking and research in your subject area. For this reason, it is best to avoid books that were written a long time ago. It is also important to make sure that what you read is relevant to the topic you are investigating or writing about; in this case, it might not be wise to use a book about the causes of migration in America to write an essay about migration in the UK because the causes may not be the same.
Access to an increasing amount of research is now possible through online journals and other available resources on the internet. This can be very useful, but only reliable and trustworthy sources should be used for academic assignments. In some subject areas, course tutors may prefer you not to use internet sources for your assignments and students are advised against only using internet sources because they are more readily accessible.
Reading efficiently
As well as being able to identify useful course reading material, you will need to use different ways of reading to help you find information quickly and effectively. In this activity you are going to consider how you can read, or which part of a text you should focus on, in order to read more efficiently during your studies.
Instruction
From the dropdown list, select which part of a text or way of reading is being described in each sentence. Then check your answers and read the feedback.
You can make your selection using the dropdown menus. If you change your mind, you can still change your selection.
can be used to locate the pages where particular key words and phrases are used in a book.
An index
The index is found at the back of a book, and it gives page reference numbers for key words and phrases. A good index can be very useful as it allows you to go directly to several pages that may be relevant to your search. The indexes of books are useful once you have completed your background reading and are moving on to search for more detailed information about a topic.
can be used to get an overview of what an article is about.
An abstract
An abstract is a brief summary of an article in a journal. It summarises what an article is about; any research it involves; what methods were used; what results were found and what conclusions were reached. Abstracts allow you to quickly decide whether the articles they relate to are relevant or not to your search.
is used to find chapters of a book or the section of a journal that might be useful to you.
A contents page
The contents page is found at the front of a book or journal. It is helpful to look at this first to help you identify the sections or articles that will be useful to you. You may find contents pages especially useful when you start a search for information on an assignment topic as they allow you to search for a topic broadly without being too specific.
can be used either to gain an overview of what a book or article will focus on or to see what conclusions have been reached by the end of it.
Introductions and conclusions
By reading just the introduction and conclusion to a chapter in a book or a journal article you can sometimes decide quickly whether it is worth reading all of that chapter or article in relation to your search. Introductions and conclusions which provide an overview of what the main issues are or what the writer's argument is, are especially useful in this respect.
is a way of reading a text that helps you to understand quickly and generally what the main ideas are.
Skimming
Skimming is an important reading technique that you may need to develop in order to cope with the amount of reading you will probably have to do on your university course. Skimming involves reading quickly to gain a general understanding of the main ideas in a text, rather than focussing on every word and detail. Students whose first language is not English, sometimes find it difficult to skim-read at first because they want to check the meaning of all the words they do not understand. This is not necessary in order to get a general understanding. You can focus on understanding the main ideas by concentrating on parts of a text which summarise and ignoring detailed information.
is a way of reading quickly which helps you locate specific points of information or details that you need in a book or article.
Scanning
Scanning is a way of reading which also encourages faster reading. It involves searching for specific information and ignoring what is not relevant to your search. It is not necessary to read every word but you should try and train your eyes to float over the text until they focus in on the piece of information you are looking for. You do not need to read the whole page slowly if you are just looking for a key phrase or a reference to an idea.
Would you like to review the main points?
Reading is a main activity on any university course in the UK and students are expected to read for assignments and exams, and also sometimes in preparation for lectures and seminars. You will need to be able to identify useful books and articles, as well as organise your reading activity so that you read literature in your subject area that is relevant to your needs. It will also save you time if you are able to apply a range of reading skills and strategies to the texts that you use for your studies.
How to manage reading lists
Reading efficiently
