How To Get The Most Out Academic Reading - The SQ3R Method For Beginners

Summary

This video from the Rapid Fire Reading Tips series focuses on conquering the fear and improving proficiency in academic reading. It emphasizes the importance of engaging with academic texts, especially in the humanities, to enhance argument crafting and understanding of scholarly debates. The presenter introduces the SQ3R method—Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review—as a scaffold for effective academic reading, suggesting that with practice, readers can develop the skill to quickly grasp the core messages of complex texts. The video also features a sponsorship by Brilliant, an interactive learning platform for STEM subjects, highlighting its value in developing problem-solving skills.

Takeaways

• 📚 Academic reading is a skill that can be developed and is crucial for students in the humanities to engage with theoretical texts and scholarly debates.
• 🧐 The fear of academic texts can be overcome by confronting the challenge head-on and developing a systematic approach to reading and understanding them.
• 🎯 The importance of understanding academic style, which often involves a balance between clarity and technical understanding, is emphasized for effective communication of complex ideas.
• 🔍 The core principles of theories in fields like philosophy and literary theory are often simple, but they are articulated through complex language and rhetorical devices.
• 📈 Practice is key to improving academic reading skills, as familiarity with academic language and concepts will make dense texts more accessible over time.
• 🔑 The SQ3R method (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review) is introduced as a systematic approach to engage with academic papers effectively.
• 🔍 The 'Survey' step involves a quick overview of the paper to gather enough information to formulate questions, setting the stage for active reading.
• ❓ The 'Question' step is about turning passive reading into active reading by formulating specific questions to seek answers from the text.
• 📖 The 'Read' step requires intensive engagement with the text, underlining key definitions, and noting down thoughts to address the formulated questions.
• 🧠 The 'Recite' step is about recalling the information without referring back to the text, testing one's understanding and identifying any gaps in knowledge.
• 🔄 The 'Review' step involves revisiting the paper if necessary, to clarify confusions and reinforce learning, with the aim of improving recall and understanding.
• 🌟 The script concludes by highlighting that with consistent practice, readers will develop the ability to read academic texts proficiently, without needing to rely on the scaffolding of methods like SQ3R.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video 'Rapid Fire Reading: Tips for Academic Reading'?

The video focuses on equipping viewers with skills to read academic texts proficiently and removing the fear associated with such texts.

Why is academic reading considered challenging for students in the humanities?

Academic reading is challenging because it often involves complex theories and debates that require a strong theoretical grounding, which some students may lack, especially in fields like literature, philosophy, and literary theory.

What is the significance of understanding academic debates in crafting arguments?

Understanding academic debates is crucial as it allows students to craft well-informed arguments, engage with secondary readings, and contribute to scholarly discussions, which is essential for academic success.

How does the style of communication in academic writing differ from other forms of writing?

Academic writing, especially in the humanities, relies heavily on words to communicate complex insights, often balancing clarity with technical understanding, which can make the text dense and challenging for readers.

What is the role of rhetorical devices in academic writing?

Rhetorical devices in academic writing are used to articulate complex ideas, emphasize the importance of theories, and convince readers of the author's arguments, often making the text more intricate.

Why is practice emphasized in the context of academic reading?

Practice is emphasized because it helps readers become familiar with academic language, improve their understanding, and develop the ability to identify core arguments more efficiently.

What does the acronym 'SQ3R' stand for in the context of reading methods?

SQ3R stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review, a method designed to enhance comprehension and retention when reading academic texts.

How does the 'Survey' step in SQ3R help in academic reading?

The 'Survey' step helps by providing an overview of the academic paper, allowing readers to identify major headings, abstracts, conclusions, and methodologies, which sets the stage for deeper engagement with the text.

What is the purpose of asking questions during the 'Question' step of SQ3R?

The 'Question' step aims to transform passive reading into active reading by encouraging readers to formulate specific questions about the text, which helps guide their reading and focus on finding answers.

How does the 'Read' step of SQ3R differ from the 'Survey' step?

The 'Read' step involves an intensive engagement with the text, where readers actively look for answers to their questions, circle key definitions, and take notes, unlike the 'Survey' step which is a quick overview.

What is the significance of the 'Recite' step in the SQ3R method?

The 'Recite' step is crucial for reinforcing memory and understanding by forcing readers to recall the information without referring back to the text, which helps in identifying gaps in comprehension.

How does the 'Review' step in SQ3R aid in long-term retention of academic material?

The 'Review' step helps in long-term retention by encouraging readers to revisit key concepts, test their recall, and reflect on how the new understanding can be applied, which solidifies learning.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Academic Reading Skills

The speaker introduces the topic of academic reading, emphasizing the importance of overcoming the fear associated with complex academic texts. They discuss the challenges faced by students in the humanities, particularly in higher years of study, due to a lack of familiarity with theoretical texts. The necessity of understanding recent scholarly debates is highlighted to craft well-informed arguments. The speaker also touches on the style of academic communication, which often involves a delicate balance between clarity and technical precision. The video aims to provide strategies for proficient academic reading, suggesting that with practice, the daunting wall of academic text can be made more accessible.

05:02

🔍 The SQ3R Method for Academic Reading

The speaker outlines the SQ3R method as a tool for effective academic reading. This method involves five steps: Surveying the text to get an overview, Questioning oneself to identify areas of interest, Reading the text intensively while engaging with the material, Reciting or recalling the main points after reading, and Reviewing the material to reinforce understanding. The speaker emphasizes the importance of each step, suggesting that while it may seem time-consuming, it ultimately leads to a deeper and more comprehensive grasp of the material. They also mention the value of practice in developing the ability to read academic texts proficiently.

10:03

🎓 Conclusion and Sponsorship Acknowledgement

In the concluding part, the speaker summarizes the tips for reading academic journals and transitions into a sponsorship acknowledgment. They mention Brilliant.org, a platform for learning STEM subjects through interactive lessons, which parallels the development of problem-solving skills discussed earlier. The speaker appreciates the platform's approach to learning by doing and its relevance to their interests in the intersection of technology and humanities. They also provide a special offer for the viewers to try Brilliant with a discount on the annual subscription.

Keywords

💡Academic Reading

Academic reading refers to the process of engaging with scholarly texts that are dense, complex, and filled with specialized jargon. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of mastering academic reading to effectively participate in scholarly debates and to craft well-argued academic papers. The video aims to equip viewers with strategies to read such texts proficiently and to overcome the fear associated with them.

💡Humanities

Humanities is an academic discipline that includes subjects like history, literature, philosophy, and anthropology. The script mentions that as a student in the humanities, one cannot escape academic reading, which is crucial for understanding theoretical grounding and participating in academic debates. The video suggests that a strong foundation in academic reading is particularly important for those in the humanities.

💡Literary Theory

Literary Theory is a field of scholarship that examines the nature of literature and the methods used to interpret it. The script points out that students in literature, especially those not trained to read theoretical texts, may struggle with literary theory. The video aims to help students better understand and engage with these kinds of texts.

💡Close Reading

Close reading is a method of textual analysis that focuses on a detailed examination of the language, structure, and themes within a text. The video mentions close reading as a valuable skill, but it also stresses that it's not enough on its own for academic success; one must also be able to engage with secondary readings and understand recent scholarly debates.

💡SQ3R

SQ3R is a reading method that stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. The video script outlines this method as a way to approach academic papers effectively. It involves initially surveying the text, formulating questions, engaging in a deep read, recalling the information without the text, and finally reviewing the material to reinforce learning.

💡Abstract

An abstract is a brief summary of a scholarly article that presents the main points and conclusions of the research. In the context of the video, the speaker advises paying attention to the abstract during the survey stage of the SQ3R method to gain a preliminary understanding of the academic paper's content.

💡Methodology

Methodology in academic research refers to the systematic procedures and strategies used to collect and analyze data. The video script suggests that during the survey stage of reading an academic paper, one should pay attention to the methodology section to understand how the research was conducted and to evaluate the validity of the findings.

💡Rhetorical Devices

Rhetorical devices are linguistic techniques used to persuade or impress upon the reader. The script explains that academics often use such devices to articulate complex theories, which can make the text seem daunting. The video aims to help viewers navigate these devices to reach the core of an author's argument.

💡Technical Understanding

Technical understanding refers to the knowledge of specific terminology, concepts, and principles within a particular field. The video discusses how academic writing can be challenging due to the need to balance clarity with technical understanding, and it suggests that the key to reading academic texts is to get past the jargon to understand the core principles.

💡Practice

Practice, as mentioned in the video, is essential for improving academic reading skills. The speaker emphasizes that the more one engages with academic papers, the more familiar and accessible the content becomes. Practice helps in developing the ability to identify key arguments and to understand complex texts more efficiently.

💡Guardrails and Scaffolds

Guardrails and scaffolds are metaphors used in the video to describe the support structures that help readers navigate academic texts. These 'guardrails' are strategies and tips provided in the video, such as the SQ3R method, which are meant to guide readers until they become proficient enough to read academic texts without such aids.

Highlights

Introduction to the importance of academic reading and the goal to equip viewers with skills to read academic texts proficiently.

The necessity of academic reading in Humanities, including history, literature, anthropology, philosophy, and literary theory.

The challenge of academic reading for literature students who were not trained to read theoretical texts.

The impact of lacking theoretical grounding on crafting arguments in higher academic levels.

The choice between confronting academic reading challenges head-on or relying on summary notes.

The focus on style of communication in academic writing, especially in the humanities.

The difficulty of balancing clarity and technical understanding in academic writing.

The suggestion that the core principles of academic theories are often simple but require complex articulation.

The importance of practice in academic reading and how it improves over time with exposure to more texts.

Introduction to the SQ3R method for reading academic papers.

The first step of SQ3R: Surveying the chapter to get an overview of the paper.

The second step of SQ3R: Questioning to turn passive reading into active reading by formulating questions.

The third step of SQ3R: Reading intensively while engaging with the text and the questions formulated.

The fourth step of SQ3R: Recollection, which involves putting the paper away and recalling the information.

The fifth and final step of SQ3R: Reviewing the paper to test recall and identify knowledge gaps.

The transition from using SQ3R as a scaffold to developing an intuitive reading approach over time.

The value of reading difficult texts to train up reading abilities and improve overall reading skills.

Sponsorship message for Brilliant, a platform for learning STEM subjects through interactive lessons.

The offer of a 30-day free trial and a 20% discount on the annual subscription for Brilliant, sponsored by the video.

Transcripts

today's episode part brought to you by

brilliant hello and welcome back to yet

another episode of Rapid Fire reading

tips and today we're going to talk about

something that a lot of people don't

really want to talk about which is

academic reading this video's subjective

is to equip you with the skills that you

need to read academic texts proficiently

and I think more important than just

being able to read these texts is to

remove the fear that you have for these

texts three points of housekeeping first

before we get into the actual reading

tip or the reading system housekeeping

number one as a student in Humanities I

don't care if you're in history or in

literature or in anthropology and

especially in philosophy or something

like literary Theory you can't escape

academic reading some students

especially in literature because they

weren't trained to read these kinds of

texts they really struggle with Theory

and by the time to get to a third year

or fourth year level that lack of

theoretical grounding or the knowledge

in the academic debates or scholarly

debates it really holds them back from

crafting the arguments that they want to

craft so even those skills like close

reading or textural analysis or all

those skills are really good and all but

if you don't have the ability to deal

with secondary readings and especially

papers on the recent academic debates on

a certain topic it's going to severely

limit your range of arguments when it

comes down to crafting your own response

to the text or crafting a final paper or

crafting a research project but for the

time being would you rather be the

person who confronts these challenges

head on or would you be that one person

who relies on summary notes so I think

at least for me I want to confront to

challenge headon and if you are also

that type of person here's housekeeping

Point number two in a lot of academic

writing so most of the time it's not

exactly a question about content because

the content can be summarized in an

abstract paragraph but most of the time

it's about the style of communication

especially in fields that are kind of

softer in the humanities for example

literature uh literary Theory and

philosophy words are all we have to

communicate these insights unlike

anthropology or more empirical science

scien is they have data and figures and

graphs to communicate their insights and

if the only thing that you have are

words then academics really have to

tread this thin line between

accessibility Clarity and Technical

understanding and if you've ever tried

to write an academic paper yourself if

you ever try to conjure up one of these

final papers then you're going to

quickly find out that it's actually

incredibly difficult to both engage your

readers with Clarity and simplicity and

at the same time still hit all these

technical points that you're supposed to

hit this is the task and unfortunately a

lot of academics are so overworked that

Clarity isn't exactly prized as much as

technical understanding resulting in

this great volume of amazing insights

frankly but a lot of us just don't have

the tools to access them and in my

experience after reading thousands of

pages of this kind of stuff well

actually a lot of the theory that you're

going to find in philosophy in literary

Theory or many other fields out there

the core principle is actually quite

simple or what the academic is trying to

get into your head that that point is

usually quite simple but then in order

to properly articulate this uh

deceptively simplistic point they have

to rely on all these rhetorical devices

to convince you that this theory is

important and all these branches sub

branches of articulation that's the

style of the communication and you need

to get through to get to the core of the

author's argument sometimes it's super

easy to get caught up in definitions and

qualifiers and this or that without

really getting to the core of the

author's argument so the tips that going

to give you a little bit later are going

to help you to get through this thick

web of references and jargon and finally

housekeeping Point number three it's all

a matter of practice when you first

engage with your first academic paper in

your first year you're going to hate it

of course you're going to hate it

because you're essentially engaging with

a weapon knowledge that you do not have

you don't understand it in jokes you

don't understand this illusion here you

don't really understand that reference

there the more you practice the more

this impenetrable wall of text is going

to read like normal text the more you're

going to gain a sense of clarity you

know what to look for you know what to

push aside for the time being for the

sake of getting to the author's Central

argument and do keep in mind that all

the tips that I'm going to give you in

the next section of this video are going

to be guardrails they're going to be

scaffolds because one day you're going

to train up your reading abilities

enough so that you don't really need

these guard rows you can just read it

straight away you know what to do you

know how to find a core message of the

text and at that point you can archive

this video you can give it a dislike you

know whatever you want to do with it but

nevertheless now let's get into the tips

for how to get through an academic paper

now you've probably already heard of

this method of reading called

sq3r but I think a lot of people get

caught up in the definitions of like

what to do in these steps and they turn

this method of reviewing and recalling

into a methodology itself and it gets

really complicated real quick so today

we're going to address this reading

method in the most barebones manner

possible to get you reading as soon as

possible instead of getting into the

definitions of how to do this right how

to do that right the first letter s

means surveying the chapter if you've

watched my previous video on how to get

the most out of a non-fiction book this

first survey stage is basically an

inspectional overview of the paper the

surveying stage basically means you want

to read through this paper as fast as

possible pay attention to Major bold

headings pay attention to the abstract

pay attention to the conclusion pay

attention to the methodology and the

court findings of this academic paper do

not spend more than 10 minutes on this

the point here is to have enough

information about the text to to bring

you to step number two which is

questioning you know that weird thing

that we always do if I buy a book from a

book shop and all of a sudden I notice

everyone around me reading that book or

if I buy a red car all of a sudden I'm

noticing all the red cars around me

human beings are geared to look for

questions to answers and this is the key

to turn you from a passive reader to an

active reader which is to conjure up

questions that you want to ask about the

text more often than not one single

reading of an academic paper is not

sufficient for you to get all the

answers that you want from the text so

it's really important for us to lay out

these questions explicitly so we can

engage that area of our brains that can

seek out solutions for these questions

that we've listed ask questions such as

what is the main contention of the piece

how do I compare this area of

understanding to my previous

understanding what did the author mean

by this or that and just basically get

as specific as possible and give

yourself some space to come up with five

or six really good questions that you

want to ask this academic paper and now

we can move on to R1 which is read this

is the time where you have to engage

with the text intensively even that now

you have this list of extensive

questions that you want to ask the text

right now you have to pull out a pencil

Circle Key definitions scribble stuff

down in the margins and basically engage

in a very intense dialogue based on a

question that you've gathered from a

previous stage and this is the step

where you don't want to save time

because if you skip a few stages you're

going to have to go back and read the

whole thing again because your

understanding is not going to be as

rigorous you won't get as much out of it

and once you down a deep reading of the

entire piece now you can move on to the

second R which is recall and now this is

the stage where you put the academic

paper away now you're on your own you

can create some summary points but most

importantly review the questions that

you've gathered and ask yourself did I

resolve all these questions that I

wanted to ask the text did the author

Supply sufficient evidence for this

point that I wanted to ask do I have

certain remaining queries or confusion

and do I have to go back to the text

again to find the answers to somebody

these queries and confusion and the last

stage here is review and you can

experiment with a duration but very

recommended you to do it a day after

you've read the paper so you can test

your recall ask yourself key questions

like what have I gathered from this

paper what are the key Concepts covered

in this paper did the author

sufficiently argue their point but last

but not least how can I use this new

understanding to formulate one of my own

arguments and throughout this process

you want to resist the urge to go back

to the paper because you're actually

training yourself to actively recall

some of the stuff that you've learned

but in case you still find points of

confusion and things that you didn't

understand go back to the survey stage

and reread the thing again with a pencil

and gradually you can cover all the gaps

of your knowledge as you rinse and

repeat throughout this whole process of

sq3r so in summary first of all survey

the entire paper make sure that you have

certain questions to ask this paper

explicitly lay out all these questions

to you so you know what to look for when

you're reading it deeply read it deeply

close the book force yourself to recall

something and last but not least review

all the steps above to see where your

gaps of knowledge are and if you

consistently apply these steps to your

academic reading you know after a few

months or even a year you're going to

get better at it and I think like I said

before these steps are merely scaffolds

for you to build on they're they're

merely guard rails that you can take off

once you're comfortable enough with the

form and in fact nowadays I don't really

find myself following every single step

of this method because over time you do

tend to develop an eye for certain

things and this ey is going to allow you

to basically read something once and get

a really good sense of understanding out

of it and that's the value of reading

something difficult is because it's

going to train up your reading muscle so

when you return to something less

difficult you're going to be a better

reader so anyway I don't want to waste

more of your time those are the tips for

how to read an academic journal and

before I leave you to read an academic

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