Understanding difficult texts
Reading an academic text can be hard. There are a lot of ideas and information and you will usually have to read it more than once to understand it. Here are some helpful techniques:
- The first sentence often tells you what the paragraph is about. To see how the author has developed the idea, read the last sentence of the paragraph.
- If you don't understand a section, take it slowly. Re-read the paragraphs before and after the difficult passage and then read the hard part again.
- Talk to friends on your module about the reading.
- Ask your tutors to discuss the material with you in their office hours.
- See if you can read about the idea in a different source.
- If a phrase keeps appearing, check you understand it. If a book has a glossary, refer to this before you look in a dictionary. Some words have technical meanings that are different to their everyday usage.
- Look at tables, diagrams and graphs in texts.
- If you are having real difficulty, have a break and come back to the text later.
- Identify the reading strategies that work for you. Observe when you read most effectively, and plan your reading so that it fits in with how you work best!
Note-making and the Guide to reading and noting will help you with understanding difficult texts.
