In our last session, we discussed several skills that can enhance our ability to find reliable information effectively and efficiently. Three key skills that stand out are reading, note-taking, and recall.

Reading a textbook, article, or any research material requires a different approach than casual reading. You need to quickly identify what’s essential, and then read and process the information efficiently.

While there are various models for effective reading, here’s a recommended approach using the acronym GO-PARSE.

Get Organized

Before you begin reading, gather all necessary materials, such as highlighters, sticky flags or notes, and a notepad or charged laptop. If you can’t mark up the material directly, consider photocopying or scanning it, ensuring you comply with copyright regulations.

Preview

Spend about 10 minutes previewing the book. Browse through it to understand its organization, paying attention to titles, subtitles, and graphics. Introductions, summaries, and activities can serve as useful signposts. If the material is more extensive than needed, pinpoint the relevant sections to focus on without delving deeper than necessary.

Ask

Create a list of questions you want to answer. If you’re unsure, turn each section heading into a guiding question. Use the five W’s and H:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

Read

Now it’s time to read and annotate the text. Break it into manageable sections, ideally five to eight pages at a time. Keep your focus questions in mind as you read.

Tips for Effective Reading:

• Revisit difficult passages multiple times.
• Avoid speed reading or skipping words.
• Read challenging sections out loud if you struggle to understand.
• If you get stuck, mark the section and return to it later.

After you read a section, review it again and highlight the main points. Focus on keywords rather than marking entire pages. In addition to highlighting:

• Add numbers and symbols.
• Draw shapes or arrows.
• Use vertical lines in the margins for important areas.
• Employ symbols to denote key points (e.g., * for definitions, $ for statistics, ? for queries).
• Use acronyms for key terms (e.g., “def” for definition).
• Differentiate categories with various colored highlighters or pens.
• Annotate in the margins or on sticky notes.

Be consistent with your marking strategy, focusing on key points rather than marking every detail.

Summarize

For your final pass, take notes either by hand or digitally. Start with comprehensive bibliographic details, including:

• Document title
• Full names of authors
• Publisher and publication date
• Editor (if applicable)
• Copyright dates
• Volume(s)
• Edition number
• Translator
• ISBN number
• Any other relevant information

Note the page number for each piece of information (the margin is a good place for this). Organize your notes by the same sections as the document and use your previous marking system.

Avoid copying text verbatim; if you do, clearly indicate it as a quote in your notes, including the page number. Incorporate your thoughts, analyses, and questions, marking these distinctly, perhaps with a different colour.

Here are some common shorthand symbols.

Shorthand Symbol	Meaning
<	Decrease
>	Increase
=	Is the same as, means
¹	Is not the same as, does not mean
~	Is similar to
®	Causes, leads to
	Therefore
ü	Correct
C	Incorrect
i.e.	That is
e.g.	Example
vs.	Versus

Other tips:

• Remove vowels to shorten words. For example, “shorthand” becomes “shrthnd.”
• Write compound words as their initials with slashes. “Because” becomes “b/c.” Without becomes “w/o.” Individual becomes “i/d” or “i/v.”
• Over time, you will create your own shorthand. Be consistent and use what works for you.

When taking notes by hand, make sure that they are legible, leave lots of white space, and number the pages. If this is an extensive project, you may want to put your notes into a three-ring binder, with tabs for each book.

When taking notes electronically, use different files for different books. There are also programs designed for taking notes, such as Microsoft OneNote, Evernote, Apple Notes, Google Keep, Notion, Obsidian, Joplin and Simplenote, which have built-in ways to take and organize notes.

Evaluate

For the final step, read through your notes, following along with the textbook. Add any extra notes or necessary mark-up. Write out the questions that were developed in the Ask stage and write the answers.