Difficulties Students Face
Understanding the Reading Process
Some passages and kinds of texts demand to be read slowly; some can be read more quickly. Similarly, some can be read once, and others demand multiple re-readings. How do you determine which method or style of reading to employ?
Understanding Different Reading Strategies
Reading serves many different purposes. We read some texts to get the gist, some to abstract an argument, some to analyze meanings, and some to gather evidence. How can you tell what kind of reading is demanded by an occasion or assignment?
Perceiving Structure
Different sections of texts serve different purposes. How can you differentiate between conclusions, premises, rhetoric, examples and introductions, in the absence of obvious and familiar markers?
Assimilating the Unfamiliar
When faced with ideas that are strange and new, most readers tame them so that they resemble other, more familiar concepts. How can you push yourself to interpret and understand ideas outside of your own experience or comfort zone?
Appreciating Rhetorical Context
Every text is part of a particular cultural, political and/or literary context. How can you tell what conversation a text is participating in and how that conversation is shaping the points it makes and the language it uses?
Noticing That Writing Is (Mostly) Dialogical
Much reading is about entering a dialogue with the author, not about extracting facts or information. How can you remain both open to and skeptical of a text's claims?
Cultural Literacy
Many authors assume a certain level of cultural literacy: background information, allusions, common knowledge, etc. How can you gain access to those hidden elements? How do you know what to look up and where?
Inadequate Vocabulary
Many texts contain technical terms, words used in unusual ways, or phrases whose meanings have changed over time. How (outside of always reading with a dictionary nearby) can you expand and develop your vocabulary?
Complex Syntax
Primary sources and scholarly articles use complex sentence structures. How can you navigate complicated grammar?
Differences Between Disciplines
Different disciplines and historical periods use very different forms and styles of writing. How can you navigate these differences and prepare yourself for the various kinds of reading they require?
(Adapted from John C. Bean's Engaging Ideas.)
