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