SOCSCI – Active Reading Exercise
Instructions
To prepare for this exercise:
- Read: Hay and Bochner Chapter 3: “Reading Up: Strategic Reading” (21 pages).
- McMaster Student Success Centre: Notetaking Library Guide
- Student Success Centre: Note-taking Tip Sheet
- SSC’s Note-taking Video
To practice your active reading skills, choose one (1) of the scholarly articles, books, or book chapters you have found that relates to your research project, which you have not already read or used for an assignment. If you have read or used all of the sources you’ve found so far, go find a new source to consider! Use the methods developed in the previous modules to guide you. This will help deepen your preparation for later assignments.
Once you have selected a scholarly source, choose one (1) of the following options and complete the exercise as instructed.
- Option 1: Try using the Cornell note-taking technique, and submit a sample of Cornell-style notes on your chosen source.
- Option 2: Apply the SQ3R reading method to your reading of the source you have chosen, and compose a short, informal reflection paper that discusses how you navigated the five steps.
- Option 3: As you read through your source, develop a vocabulary list of unfamiliar words, concepts, terms, phrases, and mentions, and put together a document that explains what those things mean (or refer to), and how that meaning (or reference) helps make sense of what your source author was saying.
- Option 4: Make a copy of your source that you can highlight (please do not highlight library books!). Follow the steps in the Student Success Centre guide linked above to do some effective highlighting, and use your technological ingenuity to submit a visual record of your highlighting choices.
- Option 5: Make a copy of your source to which you can add marginal notes (again, please do not mark up library books!). Consult the Hay and Bochner chapter from the Courseware for some tips on effective marginal note-taking, and use your technological ingenuity to submit a visual record of your note-taking choices.
Different students may take different approaches to these exercises, with different kinds of outputs. You may digitally compose, scan, or photograph your result, as appropriate.
