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Membaca & Mengamalkannya

Seperti kita ketahui, orang-orang yang berjaya itu kuat membaca. Begitu juga semua pemimpin dunia juga banyak membaca bahan ilmiah. Sinonim dengan perumpamaan 'All leaders are Readers'.. Kebanyakan pemimpin bukan sahaja kuat membaca malah kuat mempraktikkannya. Begitu juga dengan para jutawan dunia yang banyak membaca dan mempraktikkan segala teori-teori yang ada di dalam buku atau mana-mana medium pengetahuan.

Sehubungan itu, saya juga berpesan kepada diri saya dan juga para pengunjung blog rahsiaebiz untuk meneruskan usaha membaca dengan tekun serta mengamalkan apa yang telah diketahui dengan sepenuh hati.

Jangan baca saja tak mengamalkannya.. Ibarat pohon tanpa buah.. tiada hasil..

Sepertimana saya membaca banyak ebook dan rss reader berkaitan dengan teknik e-marketing yang terbaru kesemuanya telah dicuba, sama ada paid @ free technique sehinggalah kita sendiri akan mengetahui teknik mana yang paling berkesan dengan situasi semasa.

Satu lagi.. jangan kedekut untuk invest duit membeli bahan bacaan yang kaya dengan pengetahuan. Tidak kiralah sama ada beli buku, ebook, video, cd, personal coach atau lain-lain medium yang banyak knowledge. Setahu saya, jutawan siber macam Dr Irfan Khairi kuat membaca mengenai ilmu-ilmu kekayaan sejak berumur belasan tahun lagi. Mungkin bahan bacaan tersebut mencecah ratusan ribu ringgit..

Malah saya sendiri juga telah invest lebih daripada RM12,000 setahun untuk membeli resources dan ini bermakna setiap bulan lebih RM1,000 lebih untuk maintain pengetahuan saya ke depan berbanding orang lain. Saya rasa para jutawan lain lebih dari itu lagi.. Sebab sebagai usahawan, webmaster, designer, programmer, marketer seperti saya memerlukan banyak resources berbanding orang lain. Dari segi akses terhadap sumber ebook, video, software, web application dan lain-lain sebenarnya jauh lebih mahal. Semua ini mudah saja diperolehi sekiranya saudara tahu caranya.. Ia juga ilmu.. :)

Kebanyakan newbie silap mereka adalah takut untuk invest banyak duit terhadap resources. Ini akan membataskan kemampuan mereka...

Bagi saya, keperluan untuk bisnes perlu dirancang strategik.. Dari soal asas seperti pc/laptop, streamyx/broadband, software/web application, design/programming skills, marketing technique, financial management, risk management, crm, portfolios etc..

Semua ini memerlukan pengetahuan, jika saudara mahu tahu lebih cepat ilmu-ilmu keusahawanan internet maka belajarlah daripada mereka yang telah berjaya dalam bidang tersebut. Saya belajar dengan mentor dan banyak orang utk mempercepatkan pemahaman, ada short cut.. dan ada tips hebat..

Oleh itu teruskan membaca bagi mereka yang baru menceburkan diri dalam ebiz ini. Ia amatlah mustahak sekali.. Selepas baca maka praktikkannya.. Jangan biar ilmu itu berhabuk terbiar sahaja.. rugi bila tidak dipraktikkan..

Jangan bataskan kemampuan saudara.. beranilah untuk lepasi 'limit' saudara sendiri dengan pelbagai cabaran yang mendatang secara cermat.. Jika masih berada di 'comfort zone' maka ia akan melesukan semangat 'adventure' kita seterusnya menjadi insan yang kurang berinspirasi dan bermotivasi..

Saya telah sediakan banyak resources mengenai motivasi ini dengan percuma. Banyak manfaatnya untuk kita semua. Saudara boleh lihat video-video motivasi di blog TipMotivasiDiri.Blogspot.Com yang memaparkan banyak tokoh motivator hebat Malaysia. Belajar melalui video juga salah satu cara mendapatkan ilmu dengan lebih cepat. Semoga kita akan lebih bermotivasi dan berimaginasi dengan lebih cemerlang !

Back to Basics: What is Search Engine Marketing and Why Is It Important?

Traffic is important, but even more critical factors are click-through and conversion. Traffic is great, but traffic alone on your site does not pay the bills.What makes the ROI in Search Marketing so powerful is when visitors to your site are encouraged through best practices to click through, or look deeper into the site.

Remember that your site is like a virtual salesperson. It must attract visitors, engage them in conversation, answer objections, present solutions to their needs and finally close the deal.Last and even most critical is the ability to generate and improve upon Web site traffic conversions. In a conversion, a visitor agrees to take the next step, to sign up for a white paper or account and even to purchase something from the site.

This is the close, and without it you simply have visitors rather than customers.A properly thought out and executed strategy will include all of the facets mentioned above. This comprehensive approach can lead to dramatic improvements in all of these areas.

5 Major Steps must realize to every success:

In Basic There is only 5 Major Steps you must realize to
every success:

Step 1: Define Exactly What you Want
Step 2: Develop an Effective Working Strategy
Step 3: Take Massive Action to Produce The Result
Step 4: Focus 100% on what You want
Step 5: Believe in Success!

Step 1: Define Exactly What you Want
How to Figure Out What You Really Want

H.L. Hunt observed that the first ingredient of success is to decide exactly what it is that you want. This page describes several tools and exercises that you can use to help you figure it out for yourself.

Goal Setting Result Areas
Before you start, I suggest you divide your life into several result areas that represent the major dimensions and roles of your life.

Instead of trying to figure out what you want in all areas at once, you can start small and focus your attention on the one area that, if improved, would have the most immediate and significant impact on the quality of your life.

After you've gone through the exercises for that one area, you can schedule some time a few months down the road to repeat the process for some of the other areas. Eventually, you'll discover what you want in all of these areas and incorporate them into your overall strategy.

While developing the Achieve Planner goal setting software system, we came up with the following list of result areas:

Romance - You get to define this for yourself. It could be your relationship with your significant other, your dating experiences, or your search for a soul mate.

Children - Your relationship with your children and your parenting style/skills.

Health & Fitness - Anything related to your general health and well-being including nutrition, exercise and physical appearance. Also includes sports or other physical activities.

Family - Your immediate and close extended family.

Fun - Fun & recreational activities, hobbies, general interests, vacations, adventures and material toys.

Friends - Close friends and general acquaintances.

Relaxation - Personal rest and relaxation. May also include certain vacations, renewing hobbies or interests.

Personal Development - Continuing learning, building skills and abilities, personal growth goals, etc.

Spiritual - Whatever this means to you.

Financial - Financial responsibilities, security, investing, and wealth.

Career - General career path. May also include work related learning and job skills.

Home - Related to your home environment.

Community/Legacy - Your community involvement and services to others.

Work - Your main work/job responsibilities.

This is just a suggested list, feel free to add, change or remove items based on your own personal preferences/needs.

The purpose of using result areas is not to segregate or compartmentalize your life, but rather to serve as reminders of all the parts of your life that are important and meaningful to you.

Keeping all of these areas in mind helps you find opportunities for synergy between them. For example, a weeklong hiking vacation in a national park could easily support your children, romance, spiritual, fun, relaxation and even health/fitness areas at the same time.

As I mentioned in the Tactical Time Management article, all of these result areas are heavily interrelated because each affects and influences the others. People are now realizing that managing your life as a whole increases your overall productivity and effectiveness.

In a work setting, in addition to your overall 'Work' result area, you could have different result areas representing your company, process improvement efforts, and your role as a manager or owner.

Define Your Major Definite Purpose
Another useful tool to help you figure out what you really want is to define your major definite purpose, which represents your central or main mission in life. This is a term coined by Napoleon Hill in his classic Think and Grow Rich.

Process to Discover What You Want
After you have compiled your own list of result areas, select the one area that, if improved, would give you the most significant benefits over the next six to twelve months. This will be your focus area for the exercises that follow.

One process to discover what you want in each result area consists of the following steps:

Step 1. Create a mission statement and vision statement for this result area. This will describe your ideal destination or end result.

Step 2. Use wish brainstorming to get ideas about what you want, desire, and need in this result area. Once you have a list of wishes, you can then organize and prioritize this list based on what is most important to you.

Your wish list will give you many ideas about different dreams and goals (what's the difference?) that you could pursue. How do you choose between them?

My suggestion is to start small. Pick a simple "warm-up" wish that you can achieve in a couple of months using the goal setting process.

Think of goal setting as a muscle. Like any muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets, but you have to be gradual about it.

What would happen if you go into the gym and try to bench press too much weight? You would strain or tear your chest muscles. To get stronger, muscles need gradual increases in resistance. Goal setting is the same way: you have to start small and gradually build up by pursuing more and more challenging goals and dreams.

Step 3. Another useful tool to help you figure out what you want is SWOT analysis. You can use this tool to gain insights into your current situation and the things that you can do to move you from where you are now to the destination outlined by your mission/vision.

Related Articles (goal setting articles):

Difference between wishes, dreams and goals
Why most people don't set goals and you should
Writing personal mission statements
Writing vision statements
Wish brainstorming
SWOT analysis

Step 2: Develop an Effective Working Strategy

Developing strategies for effective working

To work effectively with others in the workplace you and your student must develop strategies for effective working, these include the following: Web links have been given to bring you to sites which will give you information of each of these strategies and will enable to consider those you feel may need to be reflected up or developed

set priorities and manage your time to meet deadlines
set and achieve goals
get over your internal barriers when putting your goals and plans in action,
effectively organize your daily actions
uncover better options
work in a team or build one
prevent burnout


Step 3: Take Massive Action to Produce The Result
How to Motivate Yourself to Massive Action

“It’s the action behind the attraction that makes the wish come true”
Powerful motivation comes in understanding that you can achieve anything you truly desire in your heart. It is the knowledge that you are destined to fulfill your every goal, which drives you to change.

The decision is the first step towards change. Regardless of the decision, every change requires some form of action. Do you find it challenging at times to motivate yourself in taking action? Sometimes, I catch my mind making excuses, and occasionally I ‘succeed’ in avoiding the action all together. Here are some pointers I have personally found helpful in motivating myself:

What & Why? - “Start with the end in mind.” To achieve a goal, it’s important to define clearly what that goal is. How do you know when you’ve achieved it? Define a measurable end. Once you have your goal, it’s important to understanding the Why - why you are doing it? Ask yourself what are the motivating factors behind it? For your family? For your kids? Why? Why must you succeed?

Break it down to small achievable tasks - It is very easy, and human, to be overwhelmed by the sheer effort and energy involved in achieving a big goal. Especially if the goal consists of many unknowns or a long-drawn process. We tell ourselves it’s impossible or it’s too much work, and then we give up even before we take any action towards a goal. I’ve found it very helpful to always split the main goal into several milestones.

Then breaking each milestone into a series of steps to achieve that milestone. For each step, break them down further into smaller, measurable and achievable tasks that can be achieved in a few hours or less. This will make the goal appear manageable. Achieving one task after another builds confidence and momentum, and before you know it, the end result will be in sight. Personally, I feel rewarded and more motivated just by crossing tasks off with a black marker as I complete them.

Take a Small Step - Even the smallest first step will help create momentum towards change. “Start doing the thing to have energy to do the thing” -Bob Proctor.When I heard this, a light bulb went off in my head. So now, whenever I don’t want to do something that I know will help me. I would trick myself into thinking ‘I’m just gonna start it, it’ll only take a few minutes.’ And once I start it, I typically will finish the task. I have this quote written on a cue card, taped on the wall across from my bed, serving as a daily reminder.

Rewards & Celebration - Give yourself small rewards for each completed step or task. Then celebrate when you reach each Milestone! I use ice-cream, Chai, reading and internet browsing time as rewards for myself. Look back at what you’ve done, enjoy it, embrace it, and give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done! I like to exaggerate this step by doing a “happy dance“: very silly moves I do, that tend to make other people (and myself) laugh. This way, my body moves, I’m smiling and my mind will create positive associations with achieving milestones to being happy.

Pain vs. Pleasure - Have you noticed that you are more inclined to avoid pain, than to gain pleasure? For example, we all know the benefits of eating healthy and exercising, but this benefit alone often is not enough to motivate us to action. But, if your doctor tells you that must live a healthier lifestyle or in 6 months you will contract a life-threatening illness, you are more likely to make the change. Here’s a visualization technique I picked up from a Tony Robbins ‘Unleash the power within’ seminar:
Visualize yourself in 5 years without taking the actions to reach your goal. See yourself in pain. Do this for a minute, and then intensify the feeling. Feel the heaviness on your back. Do this for a few minutes, and then relax.

Now visualize yourself having achieved your goal. What do you look like? How are you celebrating? See and feel the benefits it’s provided. Now, let that feeling intensify. Do this for a few minutes as the feeling intensify some more.

Inspiration - Being around motivating people really helps to inspire us into action. People who are consistently aligning their decisive actions towards their goals.

Being around these people can be infectious, and their energy will impact you. If you don’t have such people in your life? Get a cd or dvd of a motivational speaker. Just listening to an outstanding speaker’s voices, can create enough energy to pump you up. I recommend, “Anthony Robbins“, “Les Brown” and “Bob Proctor“.

Step 4: Focus 100% on what You want
The Power of Focus in Getting What You Want
by ROBERT GREENSHIELDS
One of the keys to success in any area of life is being able to focus all your efforts on getting exactly what you want.

If you’re in sport, it’s easy to motivate yourself towards winning a championship or winning a medal.

In business, the goals are not always so obvious but the secret of success is knowing what you want and committing to it 100%.

It’s lack of clear focus that leads so many people to be easily distracted by new ideas or ‘opportunities’ that come their way and end up unsatisfied with the results.

When you have a clear vision, you know where your business is going. So, it becomes easy to make decisions as you concentrate your activities and resources on that outcome.

The ability to focus your efforts is one of the key points that separates successful business owners from the rest.

Unsuccessful business owners are like light bulbs. They disperse energy in many different directions at once. They’re opportunists – always looking for easy ways to make money because they don’t have a long-term plan. They spending too much time evaluating new opportunities and not enough taking action.
Successful business owners are more like lasers, focusing all their energy on a single outcome with very powerful results. They are strategic and know where their business is going so they can identify opportunities that will help them get there.
The great advantage of knowing what you want is that the power of the mind will help you get it.

Within your mind at an unconscious level is something called the Reticular Activating System.

According to some descriptions, this is almost like your own personal search engine which automatically picks up ideas and opportunities to help you move toward that goal. It is the Reticular Activating System that is said to help you notice which of the millions of bits of information coming at you every second are the ones that will help you get what you want.

Another way of looking at this was described by Robert Anton Wilson in his book Prometheus Rising, where he talks about how ‘the thinker thinks, the prover proves.’ Essentially, your mind is split into two parts:

The ‘thinker‘ has total freedom and can think anything.
The ‘prover‘ will find evidence for it.
So, if you’re focused on where you’re going – and believe you will get there – then the ‘prover’ will find ways of supporting you and helping you toward your objective.

But if you have no clear sense of direction or you have doubts about your abilities, your ‘prover’ will come up with evidence that you are right.

Imagine you are a golfer on the last hole of a major championship. If you want to win, you want to be thinking ‘I’m going to hole this’ rather than ‘I don’t want to miss it’.

Keep your focus 100% on what you want rather than on what you don’t want. Either way, you might just get what you’re focusing on.

Focus has been described as Following One Course Until Successful.

So, if you’re not sure what you’re focusing on now, just check your results. If you’re not getting the results that you want, perhaps you need to change your focus.

Here are some points to think about if you want to improve your focus:

What is the single most important outcome you are focused on achieving this week?
What are the three biggest outcomes you are focused on achieving this year?
What activities are you doing or what thoughts are you having that distract you from these objectives?
Can you change these thoughts or stop these actions?
So one of the power beliefs of business success is the importance of focus. Later this week, we’ll look at the next power belief – the fact that you already have the capabilities you need to succeed.

Step 5: Believe in Success!

Believe Yourself to Success
s outlined and discussed in three previous articles, the first three essential keys to success are know your goal, know your plan and know why you want to achieve your goal. The fourth imperative step is to know you can – to have the self-confidence and belief that you can achieve your goal.
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Supreme confidence coupled with your ability to succeed is what propels you forward to achieve your goal. You must develop an “I will not be denied” attitude. Confidence and belief in yourself is what keeps you pushing forward, conquering obstacles in your way instead of retreating. Confidence is the backbone behind your ultimate success.
In order to build belief in your- self and supreme self-confidence, you must do the following:
1. Recognize You Are Already Successful
Everyone had had both successes and failures in life. To build self confidence, you must make a firm and conscious decision to focus on your successes and not your failures. Other people and society in general will tend to focus on your failures. If you listen only to them, you will never develop belief in your potential. You, and you alone are responsible for deciding what to believe. If you listen to successful self-confident people, you will notice that they almost never say they failed. Instead, they will call it a mistake, a foul up, a delay, a misunderstanding, a hiccup, a challenge, a bump and even an opportunity. In other words, they refuse to recognize failure.
2. Develop Written Goals and Plans
Having a clear-cut plan of where you want to go and what you need to do to accomplish your goals provides
______________________________
“Supreme confidence coupled with your ability to succeed is what propels you forward to achieve your goal. You must develop an ‘I will not be denied’ attitude.”
_______________________
a feeling of self-assurance. Just by having a plan and crystallizing your thinking, you automatically provide yourself with the confidence of knowing how you can achieve your goals.

The greatest obstacle to self-confidence and belief is fear. When you fear the outcome of some course of action, you lack confidence. Fear comes from the unknown. Fear thrives on cloudy, hazy, misty and fuzzy planning. The way to annihilate fear is to crystallize your thinking on exactly what you want and specifically how you will attain it. The best way to do this is to write it down as detailed as possible.

3. Know Yourself
In order to invoke real and long-lasting change, you must change your attitudes and your habits. By looking at yourself and gaining the self-knowledge that you must make internal attitude changes in order to act in new and different ways, you have laid a framework for building confidence. Knowing where you stand now in your beliefs and where you want to go is a major step in developing your assurance that you can get there. Practice the habits and attitudes that you want to develop. The best way to learn is by action, not just words.

4. Gain Experience
Practical experience is by far the best tool for developing a supreme belief in your ability. A person who has been in a situation is infinitely more confident when faced with the same situation than a person who only has second-hand knowledge.
Don’t shy away from seemingly difficult or challenging tasks. Even stressful situations can be catalysts for tremendous self-confidence. If you put yourself in situations that push you to your full potential, your confidence and personal leadership will grow exponentially. In addition, you will be much more likely to tackle new experiences with enthusiasm, rather than fear.

Belief in yourself is one of the greatest assets that you can have in life. It is the cornerstone of success. Without self-confidence, you are doomed to a lifetime of mediocrity and fear of winning. Fortunately, if you do not have confidence in yourself, you can build and develop it. By focusing on past successes, crystallizing your goals and plans, knowing yourself and gaining experience, you are well on your way to supreme confidence – and ultimately to success.

By Randy Slechta, President of Leadership Management International, Inc. a global leadership and organizational development company.

11 Ways to Ruin What You Have to Say

11 Ways to Ruin What You Have to Say


Don't worry about who you are writing for. Emulate the big boys, GM and Ford. GM marketed its Chevy Nova to Spanish-speaking people in South America where that word No-Va means 'It won't go.' And Ford decided to change the nameplates on all its cars in Brazil when people pointed out Pinto was slang for 'tiny male genitalia'. (Kinda fits though.)
Don't forget to use 'you' a lot. That always makes people feel included. You'll see - that's how you'll feel now that I'm using 'Iyou/I' to complain.
Don't settle on your main point too soon. Let it all hang out. You'll get around to it, eventually. (You don't have one? Even better. )
Don't give your reader too much proof. Don't bore them with the details. That's what they say, isn't it? Instead, offer your reader stuff that is distracting. Look at how well a recent presidential candidate fared with the words, "Yes we can."
Don't explain your terms. Don't try to help your reader understand what you mean. You don't have time. Everyone means the same thing by the terms you use anyway. But be sure to use them a lot. That'll show how smart you are. Explaining something in 'plain English' would make your point too clearly, and no one ever does that.
And don't go looking for examples. No one ever got into the college of their choice by using them. I guess that didn't work for my 17-year-old daughter either, who just got a full fellowship by doing just that.
Don't worry about how to organize what you're saying. It's better to just let it flow. It'll come out fine in the end. Don't offer reasons when asked why, or use steps to explain how, or tell the 'real story' when asked to explain what happened.
Don't check your work. Everyone is going to know what you mean anyway. Just look at the brilliant ad campaign that said "Nothing sucks like Electrolux."
Don't worry about grammar or spelling or vocabulary. Peopel won't notice. You didn't, did ya?
In short, don't think too carefully about what you're going to say. It's not your job to make sense.
Oh, I lost count. Well, I was done anyway.

For hands-on help with your paper(s), make the leap and work with a writing coach.

Drop us a line and let us know how well we are doing in helping you write better.

How to Remember What You Read

How to Remember What You Read
What I am going to describe in this paper is a method of reading developed by Francis Pleasant Robinson during the 1930's and 1940's.1 My description is loosely based on Robinson's because it also reflects my experience with it.

1. Survey

2. Question

3. Read

4. Recite

5. Review

When you read you should not just let your eyes wander from word to word. That just leads to a) boredom, b) inattention, c) fatigue and, worse, d) lots of going back to reread sections you have already forgotten. That you don't remember what you have read goes without saying. Obviously, this kind of reading lengthens the time you have to study. Do you have that time? Do you really have time to spend on one book or chapter when you have so much to do for other courses?

What I have just described is part of passive reading. What are some other features? When you read passively, you are an empty can waiting to be filled. You open the book or chapter or article and let your eyes follow one word after another, from one word, one sentence, one page, and so on. You barely notice headings. You don't look for answers to questions. In fact, it's likely that you don't have any questions. Worst of all, you don't remember what you have just read.

This may be your situation: lots of reading, difficulty remembering , and too little time to finish.

If so, try active reading. You will find several benefits. You will:

1. find yourself engaged in the subject, even if it is a new one.

2. read more quickly.

3. remember more.

4. perform better on tests and writing assignments.

Let me emphasize that you are not an empty can moving down the assembly line of higher education waiting for your turn to be filled with beans. You have to take a more active role. After all, you have paid a lot of money to become a learner.



Overview of SQ3R

Active reading leads to long-term memory. “Long term memory occurs when you have created neural pathways for storing ideas and information which can then be stored and recalled weeks, months, or even years later. To create these pathways, you must make a deliberate attempt to encode the information in the way that you intend to recall it later.”2.

So let's get to the explanation of SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review). This section focuses on non-fiction, especially text books, as that is the major kind of reading you do in college. Basically, the method makes you ask questions and organize the information you find in your reading around them.

The first thing you have to do is to look at things like bold headings, graphs, introduction and summary (at the beginning and end of chapters respectively). Begin asking questions like:

•.What is this chapter about?

•.What are the key ideas?

•.What kinds of information should I be looking for?

•.Am I going to have to learn new terms? What are some of them?

•.How might the ideas connect to each other?

You can see how the survey step leads right into the questions. These are just preparatory though. You will be asking many more. One note. Sometimes writers are not kind. They will not include graphs or headings or summaries. They will always have to have an introduction or a conclusion, though, so you can find answers to some of your questions there. Stop a moment and ask more questions. Write them down in your notes. These will become the structure for your learning.

Now that you have identified some questions, you are ready to read, the first of the 'R's'. Don't just plow ahead. Read the first and second sentences of each paragraph. This is usually where the idea for that paragraph is. You are always looking for answers to your questions, whether the original or new ones that come up as you read. If you find that your answers were not the writer's, adjust your questions. By the way, even if the writer doesn't have headings, s/he will usually have several ideas in the chapter. Skimming first sentences will help. Stop and see what they are. (You could do this in the survey, but I seem to remember more if I put it in this step.) Put those ideas into your own words. You'll be surprised how asking questions will help you remember the ideas you run into. Then read the whole chapter, section by section, taking notes as you read.

When you have finished, it is time to look at your notes and then recite your answers to your questions in your own words. Ideally, you will recite them aloud. It will help you remember because some of us learn by hearing better than we do by seeing.

The last step is to review what you have read. What were the ideas? How did they answer your questions? You can do this for each question for each section of the chapter. What were the key terms? Again, recite the meaning of those terms. I usually jot down those terms so I have a checklist. I group them in groups of seven because that seems to be the number that human beings organize and remember best. It goes without saying that if there are more than seven, you must find terms that organize your information into groups of seven (or fewer).

We have finished the overview. Now we turn to each of the SQ3R ideas. You might begin to use this method by stopping to ask what SQ3R is, some of what is involved, what you expect each subsection to be about, what your questions are.



Surveying

The survey is meant to be a quick overview3 of the whole chapter. You will want to learn what the chapter is all about. Start with the titles of the chapter and its subsections. This will tell you what the chapter is about. Then see if there are graphs and illustrations. Look at their captions. What do they tell you? Then pay special attention to the introduction, and summary if there is one. This will help you see what the main points will be and maybe give you a hint as to how the writer will go about explaining them. This is where many people skim; according to the theory it is the right time.

Now you are ready to go through the chapter and look for terms that are underlined, in boldface, in italics. These are clearly terms that the writer wants you to pay attention to. See if there are any definitions nearby. Scan the terms and definitions but remember you are getting an overview now, not focusing on the details.

Try to guess how they are connected to the ideas mentioned in the introduction. Sometimes, the ends of chapters present questions about problems or unfinished business or foreshadow what the next chapter will be about. This is a rich mine because it reminds you what the key ideas were; it also might show you the limits of the ideas in the chapter you are working on.

You are ready to stop and figure out how these ideas connect to other things you know, maybe even how they connect to your life. What you are trying to do is to develop some interest in finding out what the ideas are about.



Questioning

Okay. Now is the time to start forming precise questions about what you have learned so far. They have been coming to mind even as you have conducted your survey. Here are some that almost always occur::

1. Knowing what you do now, what is the key idea (or thesis)

2. What are the ideas in each subsection?

3. What connections do the subsections have to the key idea?

4. What do you now expect the writer to have to do to answer your questions?

5. What kinds of evidence, what kinds of details, do you want him/her to provide? Does the writer provide examples (always a good thing)?

6. How do the ideas connect to what you already know? Be specific here.



We are naturally curious. Schoolwork seems to have driven that out of us, but that curiosity is what, at bottom, drives us to learn. It's not just a matter of ticking off the list of courses that fulfill your major and minor requirements. What you have to do is to connect with your curiosity. Questioning is the primary mechanism to help you do that. Moreover, you should not move into reading until you know what these questions are. They are important because they are what you will 'hang your hat on'. Jotting questions down should only take a few minutes. Just be sure you understand the material's ideas before you begin to read.



Reading

All right. It's time to take notes (if you haven't already started). Your notes should be written in your own words. The only exception might be technical terms. Sometimes, they are very precise and are critical to understanding the ideas offered in the subsection you are reading. I have friends who write their notes (and further questions) in the margins, but they own the books they are marking up. You write notes to accomplish two things. First, you want to use them when you review what you have read. Second, you want to remember.

So how do you read? Some people recommend reading slowly and rereading. I disagree. Rereading is precisely what I want to avoid when I study.4 I don't have time to spend doing twice what I already have done once. Other people recommend you read without stopping to take notes. This way, they say, you see how the argument the author is making hangs together. I believe there is merit in this and you can combine it with stopping after you have finished reading a subsection to take notes. Then you can refer to your list of questions. Search for answers to them. When you find an answer, then it is time to stop and restate it in your own words. Write it in your notes. Especially note how the answers connect to the key ideas of the chapter and subsection you are reading.

Don't try to remember the whole chapter. Just work on remembering the subsections. That's what goes into your notes along with the questions they are answering. Pay attention to the graphs, illustrations and technical terms. Make sure you see their connections to the ideas. Sometimes, you can remember whole sections by one of these visual aids. Technical terms will be defined someplace, usually pretty close to their first appearance. If not, try to guess their meaning from the context. If that fails, look them up, online (Wikipedia?) or in a general dictionary or sometimes in a specialized dictionary or encyclopedia (foreign language, chemistry, philosophy).'

Remember, you are not reading the whole chapter at once, just the subsections. My notes usually include comments about the chapter's key idea and how the author has gone about proving them. That also works for subsections. Idea -> details via organization (how, what, when, where, who, why, all depending on what the key ideas are). Part of what you are doing is evaluating what is being said. Is the author answering the questions you came up with? If not, what questions is s/he addressing? Are they the most appropriate ones? Remember, you are looking for answers to your questions. Remember too that the writer is making an argument, not just offering a list of ideas. If you know about rhetoric, you can also try to spot inappropriate arguments that use over-generalization or attack the man (that is, another author) instead of 'his' arguments. That is the only way to read actively, to fully engage with the information you are being given. One question I never skip is this one. How do these ideas and details further my knowledge? I am naturally curious and like to learn new things so I read a lot.

When you finish reading, your notes will include the answers to your questions, in your own words as much as possible. You are going to need them for the next two steps (the other R's).

Recitation

This is the first place you will use your notes. You can start with the key idea of the chapter and list the ideas that were offered in support of it. Do you understand the connections? State them. Your goal is to turn your questions into answers and then recite them. What would you say the key idea of the preceding section is? This whole white paper? Can you state them, out loud and concisely? If not, just go back to the first sentences as a reminder. Then state them, in your own words.

Some people split this process up. They stop after each section and recite its answers to the questions they have. When you recite this section, for example, you are looking for answers to 'what' first, and then you want to know 'how'. You'll notice I defined 'recitation' in the second sentence as 'speaking out loud'. That's the 'what'. It's not a technical term, but I had to tell you what I meant by the term, 'recitation'. The rest of the section is answering 'how'. Do you agree? Why or why not? State in your own words your evaluation. The main one ought to be: Do I know how to recite the ideas in this section?

"If you prefer visual memory, material must be actively visualized [as you do when you look at your notes]. Auditory memory can be enhanced by speaking aloud when you study. Recall is then sought by listening for (remembering) what you heard, saw, etc. This encoding process is called 'active learning'."5

If you can easily state in your own words the answers to your and the author's questions, you can be sure you understand what I am trying to say to you in this section.


Review

You are almost done. (I'll bet that's a relief.) As soon as you have recited what you have learned, the answers to your questions, your evaluation of the details offered, etc., you will conduct a review. Now is the time to go over your notes or your comments in the margin or your highlighting. Do a mini-survey of the key ideas, If there are sections you are a little weak on, reread that key idea and try to connect it to one of your questions. Sometimes it helps to reread the passages you have highlighted (unless you are one of those people who highlight everything).

Then do some assessing. Are all your questions answered? Look at your notes and see if there are any blanks. Think about what you have read. Maybe the question was answered but you just didn't notice? Maybe there's a hole in the writer's argument. If so, see if you can answer it based on what you remember from the reading you did. Remember that an argument in support of a key idea boils down to the questions of who, what, when, where, why, and/or how.

In a biography you expect to see answers to questions of who, when, and where. In a scientific paper, you might expect to see answers to what, how and why. One note about scientific papers. It is normal to offer a summary which has a statement of limitations of the study, or applications, or the need for further research. These questions grow out of the key ideas. Usually 'what' is subordinate but sometimes not. Organization is a critical part of an article, chapter, or book. You should be able to spot which of these questions the author is addressing. That will help you remember what you have read. It might even tie up all the ideas you have had questions about. One reminder. Conduct this review immediately after you have finished reciting what you have learned..

One recommendation comes from teachers of reading. Re-read your notes over several days. This will help you remember what you have read.



Summary

You now have an overview of active reading Surveying gives you some idea what the chapter is about, questioning allows you to begin to fit the ideas together, reading nails down the ideas and the facts, reciting helps you remember in your own words, and reviewing lets you assess and organize the information offered with the goal of ensuring long term memory.

As you progress through your college education, you will be expected to read more and more critically. You will be expected to think critically. You will be expected to write critically. Active reading will let you do all three. Passive reading won't.





1He later wrote a book, Effective Reading New York, Harper 1962 describing his method of reading.
2Academic Success Center George Washington University Online page Nd 10 12 2009
3Just a few minutes.
4Sometimes you will have to reread a paragraph or two. If they are full of technical terms that need definition, you will want to ensure you understand them. Add these terms to your notes.
5 Academic Success Center George Washington University “Short Term vs. Long Term Memory” Online document Nd 10 12 2009
©2009 Kay Lindstrom happenin@happeningforyou.com