read the whole text. When skim reading, scan the page for key words and
ideas. As a last resort, read the work itself once to see the pattern or structure,
and a second time to absorb it. This last piece of advice may not seem like
advice at all, but some writing is by its nature difficult to comprehend, and
other writing may be difficult for a person who has no experience in the field.
Thus, one of the points to this advice is not to have the unrealistic expectation
that one reading is sufficient for all material.
When reading or scanning the work be on the lookout for key phrases that
indicate the relationship of the point to the whole work. Such phrases as "in
essence", "it follows from this", "one problem", "an apparent exception", are
clear indications of the place that the writer gives that material. But where these
explicit indicators are lacking, it is necessary for the reader to evaluate the
material themself.
Another helpful technique for active reading is to guess or predict what the
writer might say. To do this it is necessary to tune into the topic, and try to
envisage where it might lead. It certainly requires some imagination to make
such a leap forward, but even if the prediction is wrong entirely, you have still
benefited. You have focused on the subject, and the "wrong" prediction gives
something against which to measure what the author has done. Thus you are
remaining active and involved in what you are doing.
Once the structure has been ascertained it is a good idea to test it. One way to
do this is to try to teach what you have understood. The basis for doing this
rests on the wisdom that the best way to learn something is to teach it. To
teach something to a beginner it is necessary to present the subject in clear and
logical steps. This can be done only if the subject is properly understood.
Therefore to test whether you have understood the writer's structure pretend
that you have to teach the subject of the work to someone else and present the
material accordingly. Or better still, find a consenting adult such as a friend,
spouse or fellow student then try to "teach" them. In presenting your lesson,
be it real or hypothetical, any difficulties you have in comprehending the
author's structure will be manifest as difficulties in explaining it. It is worth
noting that this technique of teaching a subject to help read and understand it is
also appropriate for testing the structure of what you have written, since
reading and writing are complementary tasks.
So far it has been assumed that the author's structure which the reader is
seeking is coherent. Of course this may not be the case. It is therefore
necessary to be on the lookout for this. In such cases it is part of your critical
function as a reader to fill in the gaps in a writer's structure. That is, you use
your best endeavours to deduce what the missing steps must be in order to
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