Reading skills and note-making

This site, provided by the BBC, has modules, designed to help you in your reading skills, on subjects such as:

• The difference between fact and opinion
• How to tell if a text is descritptive, informative, instructional or persuasive
• Skimming and scanning
• Summarising

Explore the BBC Skillswise - Reading web site.

 

This fact sheet will introduce you to SQ3R - a system for deep reading and note-making. This is ideal for preparing for assignments, revising or just getting to know your subjects well. SQ3R stands for:

• Survey - gather information from the text to formulate goals (questions) for your reading
• Questions - assume a questioning attitude and engage with your reading
• Read - fill in the gaps your questions have created
• Recall - retrain your mind to concentrate - a great way of note-making
• Review - using the above steps again, review your notes or understanding

This system really helps you to understand and retain what you read.

More detailed information on SQ3R.

 

When using sources to make notes of material be included in an assignment, it is important to record the information for in-text citations and the reference list entries. This will save a lot of work later on, when you may find yourself trying to find the information you need to complete your referencing. You can carry this checklist with you as a reminder. It covers the six most common sources and can be used in conjunction with the main referencing systems:

• Books
• Chapters from books
• Journal articles
• Electronic journal articles
• Websites
• Newspaper articles

Download the checklist.