Basic Tips of Effective Reading

What reading style do we mean as 'effective'? In what cases we apply each of existing approaches?

Sometimes, we have to read many articles or technical documentation when the clock is ticking. Or, we just need to show our "best performance" before annual performance review at work. We always need to stay up to date with new techs and approaches for our work, so learning through reading is essential for us.

As I read many articles about reading & learning strategies, I understood that the reading approach depends on purpose of reading.

• You would probably like to use Speed Reading techniques if you have to cover the main idea of text or don't consider it important at all, and your time is limited.
• If you think that the reading you need to complete looks like a trash for you, here's the question: do you really have to complete it? :)
• If you need to learn by reading learning materials or your text is full with complicated information or professional jargon, you'll probably need much more time than you have to understand the details, and some additional tools like glossary.
• All the cases might demand a free-distraction environment and a mood for reading: if you don't have concentration or desire to learn something, you won't do it well.
• Some materials, such as professional handbooks or scientific articles, provide key information, table of contents, and divided into units/chapters. It makes your reading easier, especially if you're interested in one topic rather than entire article/book.

Generally speaking, each case needs a special approach to handle with.

1. Pushing time conditions and low requirements to your reading result make Speed Reading techniques valuable for you. Speed Reading training increases your performance in reading documents for getting the overall concepts. You won't get any details or ideas from your materials, and probably you'll drop back to your recent activities after, but you'll complete your task as it was requested.
2. Avoiding distractions is important for every style of reading! If you encounter a hurly-burly in your work, it will be hard to tackle your task. If your 'hurly-burly' situation becomes a permanent condition on your work, you'll probably start to turn your reading into going through the motions, so be careful about that!
3. If your task is connected with an area where you need special knowledge, you need a moderate-precise view on your text. But if you do it just once, do you really have to learn it 'from scratch'? Asking proper questions, talking through your task with more experienced people, or reading "general" materials to understand the main idea could be a better way.
4. If you just enjoying reading any entertainment book, you don't have to hurry up or use 'detailed-learning' technique about it. Just enjoy your natural reading style! :)
5. If your task is reading a professional article, you might use its structure to higher your effectiveness. Many articles have their structure to help you decide which part of information is the most important for you: ex. feature articles contains entertaining or background information in their body, and news articles might contain their key points in the introduction.
6. If you're studying something new, it's recommended do not dash and have a mood and inspiration. Even if you don't have to remember details, it's important to read the information slowly and attentively to get the overall concept.
7. If your text contains rare/professional words you don't know, it might be great to use a glossary. You also might create your own glossary with your own words and their definitions.
8. If the most important part of knowledge you've requested is a structure of subject, the table of contents may help. Also, you might create your own table of contents based on what you've learned, to understand the topic better.

As you see, questions "Why?" and "In what time?" might help you to choose the style of your reading. Choosing your proper approach increases your performance, and reduces your effort. I think reading strategies are important part of your working culture and the important part of avoiding information overload as well.

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Vocabulary

• Going through the motions - idiom: it's when you do something you don't actually need, but the result gives your supervisors or colleagues the false impression of your high-performance.
• to shadow someone (at work) - In business language, it's when the more experienced colleague shadows the junior to help him do his job or learn.
• world-weary - a) very experienced (at work), b) tired (figural)
• A threefold ~ "the third side"
• To feel resentful ~ to be upset about something.
• A hurly-burly - it's when people rush into their work/business because they have very limited time but don't have a success because nobody planned it and it caused mistakes.
• to talk through - to talk seriously about something. These talks are aiming to clear out the new way of doing something, or create a new plan.
• to drop back - it's when you've learned something new but came back to the old mindset/lifestyle/working methods.
• to pad something out with - to fill it with useless material or information to make it longer ("They decided to pad their film out with useless love story instead of meaningful action").
• to tackle something - a) to solve (the problem), b) to understand something, c) to do something.