1. Taking Useful Active Reading
Notes
A GUIDE TO BECOMING A BETTER READER
AND A BETTER STUDENT

2. Three Areas of Focus
1) Focus on passages that significantly contribute to
your understanding of the chapter/novel.
2) Focus on passages that illustrate a particular literary
technique or characteristic of the text.
3) Focus on passages that create or elicit a personal
response from you.

3. Techniques to Make Your Reading Active
 Underline or highlight key words and phrases as you
read. When you return to it later on, you can easily see
which points you identified as important. Be selective -
too much highlighting won't help.
 Read critically by asking questions of the text. Why is this
action/character/section important? Who is the intended
audience? Does it link with other ideas in the material?
Why was it written this way? How does it relate to larger
ideas, such as a theme or motif?
 Test yourself by reading for half an hour, putting the text
away and jotting down the key points from memory. Go
back to the text to fill in gaps.

4. Active Reading Plan
 Record First, you will Record notes in the right
(wide) column as you read. Your notes will take a
variety of forms, including summaries, bulleted lists,
and graphic organizers. They will help you
understand what you read and will be useful later on
when you need to write an essay, read a literary
selection, or study for a test.

5. Active Reading Plan
 Reduce Once you’ve taken notes in the Record
column, you will Reduce your notes into key words,
phrases, and questions in the left (narrow) column.
This step will help you clarify meaning, find
information within your notes, and trigger your
memory when you study.

6. Active Reading Plan
 Recap Use the bottom portion of the page to Recap
what you’ve learned. This step helps strengthen your
grasp of what you just read before you move on to
the next part.

7. Active Reading Plan
 Recite To increase your ability to recall your notes,
you will cover the Record column and Recite—or
read aloud—the facts and ideas in your notes by
using the key words, phrases, and questions in the
Reduce column as cues. Check to see how well you
can Recite the information in your Record column
from memory.

8. Active Reading Plan
 Reflect After you complete the Recite step, you will
Reflect on your notes. Consider how your notes
relate to what you already know, your other classes,
and your life experiences.

9. Active Reading Plan
 Review Finally, you will Review your notes
periodically. By following this system, you will
produce valuable notes that you can refer to when
you study or write.

10. Works Cited
"Active Reading." - Skills for OU Study. N.p., n.d. Web.
23 Jan. 2013.
"Dr. Preston's Literature & Composition." : Active
Reading Notes. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.
"Glencoe/McGraw-Hill." Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.