How to Decide What to Highlight While Reading

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By eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating: (8 Ratings)

Authors of academic books and articles always seem to have so much to say. How do you figure out what really counts?

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Textbooks
Desk Lamps
Highlighter Pens

Step 1

Look briefly over the entire book or article to get a feel for its structure and how its argument or arguments will proceed.
Step 2

Pay particular attention to introductory and concluding paragraphs. These often contain summaries of important points.
Step 3

Look for certain words and phrases that can tip you off that something important is coming up, such as "In sum," "The point is," "Most importantly," and so on.
Step 4

Consider reading the conclusion first. It's like doing a maze backwards: If you know where you're trying to end up, you can find and understand the path better.
Step 5

Look back over the book or article the next day, reading only the highlighted material. Do so again in about a week. This will help the material stick better in your mind.
Step 6

Remember that this is a skill: Be patient with yourself if you're having difficulty with it. Practice makes perfect.

Comments

Durden said

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on 4/8/2008 i am a cronic highlighter and i would like to solve this problem...

i often look at my papers and notice the entire thing is yellow w/ small islands of white...

the things said here do help me a lot...and i do like the thing about haxing the used text books...

but i still have the problem of highlighting too much...

any tips or suggestions would be greatly accepted

Anonymous said

on 8/8/2006 I have found that it is pretty neat to put a star (written in pencil) at the beginning and ending portions of what you think is important to highlight.

Then, it is a good idea to just write down what you have put stars by. Such a thing is good for retention.

When you are done with finals week, you can erase what you put stars by and sell those books back for a little money.

When I first started at University, I highlighted everything and have books I will never use again that are highlighted big time. I missed out on making a little money selling them back because of that, but I always keep my ears open if anyone needs a book, you know? Like, I know my younger brother is going to use my old history books. But, I wished I learned sooner about highlighting.

So, just work your starring and underlining technique in pencil and please write down what you mark because that is really good for your memory.

on 11/22/2005 Highlighting the huge volumes of pages in the many texts students are required to sift through these days takes a whole lot of time, effort and skill. Time is scarce, so use it wisely. Instead of buying new books, borrow or buy used ones - preferably those which have plenty of highlighting in them already.
1. You save money.
Used books are much less expensive than buying new, especially if they're a little beaten up and they've been written in. When you're ready to turn around and sell them, you're much more likely to make most or all of your money back than if you had bought new. Buy used, save money, eat something!
2. You save time.
One or more other students have already located most of what is important to remember and have either highlighted or underlined it. They may also have jotted down useful notes and examples. That cuts down on the reading and highlighting work you need to do. If you're a really slow reader the time you save can be considerable. Now you can spend more of your valuable time studying only what is most important.
3. Quality Control
Not everybody is skilled at picking out the important information and weeding out the fluff. If you have the opportunity to choose from two or more used books, see which one has been highlighted best. How many chapters were highlighted? Was it done neatly? Examine a chapter or two to see if what is highlighted is what you would have marked. If you know the previous owner got an A in the course, you should be in good shape.

When comparing used books, spending a little more on the one which has been highlighted more thoroughly and with better quality will be worth it in the long run.