MOOC USSV101x | Hard Reading, Good Writing | Introduction - Hard Reading

Summary

The video script emphasizes the importance of reading, thinking, and writing in college, particularly for humanities and social sciences. It acknowledges the challenge of comprehending complex texts and assures students that difficulty is common. The script encourages learning and practicing strategies to improve academic skills, highlighting that everyone can overcome these challenges with the right approach.

Takeaways

• 📚 Reading, thinking, and writing are fundamental activities in college classes, especially in the humanities and social sciences.
• 🧠 These skills are not innate; they are learned and improved through practice and the use of effective strategies.
• 📚 College reading often involves scholarly articles and texts that require a different approach than casual reading.
• 📘 Academic writing is a skill that can be developed, and it's distinct from everyday writing.
• 🤔 Encountering difficult texts is a common experience for college students, and it's not a sign of personal inadequacy.
• 📚 The ability to understand complex texts is a skill that can be learned and is essential for academic success.
• 🔍 When faced with a hard reading assignment, it's important to approach it with the right mindset and strategies.
• 🤓 Everyone encounters challenging texts, and it's a shared experience among students, which can be reassuring.
• 🛠 Developing skills to interact with difficult texts is crucial, as it prepares students for academic challenges.
• 📈 Incremental improvement is the goal when learning to read and write at a college level, emphasizing the importance of continuous practice.
• 🔑 Strategies for dealing with hard reading are widely applicable and can assist students with a variety of challenging texts.

Q & A

What are the fundamental activities in many college classes according to the script?

The fundamental activities in many college classes are reading a text, thinking about the text, and then writing about it.

Why is the cycle of reading, thinking, and writing important in the humanities and social sciences?

The cycle of reading, thinking, and writing is important in the humanities and social sciences because it forms the basis of understanding and analyzing scholarly material in these fields.

What does the script suggest about the nature of reading, thinking, and writing in a college setting?

The script suggests that reading, thinking, and writing in a college setting are learned skills that require practice and are not innate abilities.

What is the script's perspective on encountering a hard reading assignment in college?

The script indicates that encountering a hard reading assignment in college is very likely and is a common experience for students.

How does the script reassure students who struggle with understanding difficult texts?

The script reassures students by stating that struggling with difficult texts is a common experience and not an indication of their inability to perform academically.

What does the script suggest students should do when faced with a difficult text?

The script suggests that students should learn specific skills to prepare for and interact with difficult texts.

What strategies does the script offer to help with hard reading assignments?

The script offers strategies that can help almost anyone with almost any kind of hard reading, although it does not specify the strategies in the provided transcript.

Why is it important to practice reading, thinking, and writing skills according to the script?

It is important to practice these skills to achieve incremental improvement and to be better prepared for academic tasks in college.

What is the script's view on the inevitability of encountering a challenging text in college?

The script views it as a virtual certainty that students will encounter a challenging text in college.

What is the script's advice for students who feel they cannot understand a text despite reading it multiple times?

The script advises students not to worry about being incapable but to learn skills that will help them when they need to interact with a difficult text.

How does the script describe the process of learning to read scholarly articles or write academic essays?

The script describes the process as one that involves employing good strategies and practicing with the goal of incremental improvement.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Fundamental Academic Skills

This paragraph introduces the core activities of reading, thinking, and writing as essential to college education, especially in the humanities and social sciences. It acknowledges that while these skills are familiar, mastering them for academic purposes requires practice. The script emphasizes that everyone can improve these skills through strategy and practice, and reassures students that struggling with difficult texts is a common experience. It suggests that learning specific strategies will prepare students to tackle challenging reading assignments effectively.

Keywords

💡College Student

A college student refers to an individual who is enrolled in a college or university to pursue higher education. In the context of the video, college students are the primary audience, and the message is tailored to their academic needs, emphasizing the importance of reading, thinking, and writing as fundamental skills for success in their studies.

💡Reading

Reading is the process of interpreting written text to extract meaning. The video script highlights reading as a basic activity in college classes, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, where students are expected to engage deeply with texts to understand and analyze their content.

💡Writing

Writing is the act of inscribing words or symbols on a surface, typically paper, with a pen, pencil, or similar tool. In the video, writing is presented as a critical skill for college students, who must be able to articulate their thoughts and analyses in an academic context, such as writing essays or articles.

💡Text

A text in this context refers to a piece of written material, such as a book, article, or essay, that is studied or analyzed. The script mentions reading a text as a fundamental part of the college experience, with the implication that texts can be complex and require careful consideration.

💡Scholarly Article

A scholarly article is a research-based piece of writing that contributes to a field of study. The video script notes that no one is born knowing how to read a scholarly article, indicating that it requires specific skills to understand and interpret such texts effectively.

💡Academic Essay

An academic essay is a written composition that presents a student's argument or analysis on a specific topic. The script implies that writing an academic essay is a learned skill that college students must develop through practice and the application of good strategies.

💡Strategies

Strategies in this context refer to the methods or plans used to achieve a specific goal, such as understanding a difficult text or writing an effective essay. The video emphasizes the importance of employing good strategies to improve one's reading and writing skills in a college setting.

💡Incremental Improvement

Incremental improvement suggests a gradual and steady enhancement of skills or knowledge. The script encourages college students to practice reading, thinking, and writing with the goal of achieving incremental improvement over time.

💡Hard Reading Assignment

A hard reading assignment is a text that is particularly challenging to understand, even for those who are proficient in the language. The video script acknowledges that encountering such assignments is almost inevitable in college and offers strategies to help students deal with them.

💡Philosophy

Philosophy, as mentioned in the script, refers to a field of study concerned with the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. It is used as an example of a type of text that might be difficult for college students to understand, given its abstract and conceptual nature.

💡Poem

A poem is a form of literary expression that uses rhythmic and aesthetic qualities of language to convey emotions or ideas. The script includes a poem as an example of a text that could be challenging for college students to interpret, due to its often symbolic and nuanced language.

Highlights

Reading, thinking, and writing are fundamental activities in college humanities and social sciences courses.

Performing these tasks in a college classroom requires learned skills and practice.

No one is born knowing how to read scholarly articles or write academic essays.

Everyone can learn to do these things by employing good strategies and practicing for incremental improvement.

College students will likely encounter a hard reading assignment that they initially don't understand.

The difficulty in understanding a text, even in English, is a common experience among college students.

Students should not worry about being incapable, but instead learn skills to interact with difficult texts.

The transcript offers strategies to help students with almost any kind of hard reading.

The cycle of reading, thinking, and writing is essential for success in college.

Students are encouraged to view difficult texts as a learning opportunity rather than a problem.

The transcript emphasizes the importance of developing skills to tackle challenging texts in college.

Students are reassured that struggling with a text is a shared experience, not an individual shortcoming.

The transcript provides a supportive approach to dealing with hard reading assignments in college.

Learning to read and write academically is a process that requires patience and practice.

The transcript suggests that good strategies can make a significant difference in handling complex texts.

Students are urged to approach academic tasks with the goal of continuous improvement.

The transcript highlights the universality of the challenges faced when reading in college.

Students are reminded that the ability to read and write academically is a skill that can be developed.

The transcript aims to equip students with the necessary tools to succeed in their academic reading and writing.

Transcripts

- Welcome.

Just about every college student

will need to read and write.

The basic activities in many college classes boil down

to reading a text, thinking about the text,

and then writing about it.

Of course it becomes much more nuanced than that,

but the cycle of reading, thinking, and writing

is fundamental to any course in the humanities

and social sciences.

Although we're all used to reading, thinking, and writing,

performing these tasks the way they're meant to be done

in a college classroom takes practice.

These are learned skills, nobody's born knowing how to read

a scholarly article or how to write an academic essay,

but everyone can learn how to do these things

by employing good strategies and by practicing

with the specific goal of incremental improvement.

At some point in college, it's very likely that you'll

encounter a hard reading assignment,

a text that you just don't understand.

Could be a book of ancient philosophy,

a new scholarly article, a poem, almost anything.

The text is written in English and you speak English,

but you still don't get it, even if you read it

over and over again.

The bad news is that this is likely,

very likely, in fact, it's a virtual certainty.

The good news is that it happens to everyone,

which means you don't need to worry that you're the problem,

you don't need to worry that you're just incapable

of doing this.

Instead, you simply need to learn some skills

that will prepare you for the moment

when you need to interact with a difficult text.

Since this problem is so common, we wanna offer some

strategies that can help almost anyone

with almost any kind of hard reading.