Augmented Development

Executive Development Programme

Thinking about your purpose for reading
General Principles:
Your approach to reading will depend on the text you are reading, and your
purpose for reading it. For example you may be doing some background reading
before a presentation, reading a text in preparation for a meeting or doing
research for a report.
Whatever your purpose for reading, it is worthwhile spending some time before
you begin reading noting down what you already know about the topic, and any
questions that initially come to mind. You may find that you know more than you
originally thought! Writing down your initial thoughts helps you to engage with
the text as you read. You can refer back to your notes and ask: Do I still think
that? Have I found any evidence in this text which supports my initial thoughts?
Have I found any evidence which has made me change my opinion?

Examples of initial thoughts and note making:

Issue 1
Is Capitalism the cause of or solution to environmental problems?

What is Capitalism? - Can I find a dictionary definition?

Does anyone think that Capitalism is the answer to environmental
problems?
I would have thought that consumerism necessarily causes environmental
problems.

Issue 2
What are the influences affecting children's acquisition of gender roles?

What are the possible influences? - social, environmental, biological

Have gender roles changed in recent years?
Is the media very influential?
Are gender roles the result of nature or nurture?

Skimming and scanning

General Principles:
This is a vital initial step to help you get an overview of the text and decide
whether it is relevant. Try scanning the text and skim reading, it should only take
a few minutes and will allow you to quickly discard any texts that are not
relevant:
Scanning text is what you do when you are searching for particular information,
or checking to see whether a passage is relevant. To decide if a text is relevant

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Executive Development Programme
you would use scanning to look for relevant key words in the contents and index
pages.
Run your finger down the page to keep your eyes focusing on the search for key
words.
Skim reading is useful when you want to quickly gain an overview or familiarise
yourself with a chapter or an article to understand the structure for later notemaking.
Do read summaries, heading and subheadings.
Look at tables, diagrams, illustrations, etc.
Read first sentences of paragraphs to see what they are about.
Don't read every word.
Skim reading is useful when you want to get an overview of a text. However if
you want to learn what is in the text, you need to follow the argument and that
requires slowing down and taking it bit by bit.

Questioning as you read

General Principles:
As you are reading you need to ask questions to help you to actively engage with
the text and focus on what you are trying to find out from your reading. It's a
good idea to think of some questions before you start reading in depth and to
keep these in mind as you read. It can also be helpful to add more questions as
you read the text and become familiar with the author's ideas and arguments.
The type of text you are reading will affect the questions you ask. Below are
some general questions to help you get started.

Ask yourself
Before you begin reading:

What do I want to find out?

What do I think now?
Why do I think this?

Questioning the writing:

What are the bare bones of the author's argument?

How effectively are the author's ideas evidenced?
What would I like to ask the author?
What are the limitations or flaws in the evidence?
What examples would prove the opposite theory?
Can the theory be disproved or is it too general?
Is this convincing? Why/ why not?
What are the implications?
What are the alternatives?

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Executive Development Programme
Forming your own opinion:

Which bits of the author's argument do I want to use/ reflect on in my

report?
How does this fit in with my own theory/beliefs?
How does it fit with the opposite theory/beliefs?
How does it fit with other relevant theory/beliefs I've come across?
Is my own theory/belief still valid? If so, why?
Am I surprised? If so, why?
Do I agree? If so, why?

Highlighting and annotating

General Principles:
When you are reading a text, you need to actively focus on identifying the main
points. Distinguish between the main points, and examples which are used to
illustrate them. Highlighting the main points will help you keep a track of the
argument and allow you to quickly indicate sections that you might want to
return to later. It is a good idea to read a section of text and then return to it to
highlight when you are sure of the key points. Annotating a text with your
thoughts about the authors arguments or summaries in your own words will help
you understand the text, and may be useful if you need to return to it later.

Making notes
General principles:
Making notes is a really useful reading strategy. Good note making can help you
to make sense of what you are learning and to remember it later. Below are
some examples of different types of note making, use the one that most matches
your own preferred style and allows you to retain the most information.
Standard Format
Standard notes are written in a linear format down the page. Presentation is
important and good presentation can be achieved by:
1. using sequences of numbers and letters to show the relationship between
items
2. using different sequences at different levels of importance so that
i) minor items are not confused with major ones
ii) items on the same level are visually associated
Advantages

Can be very clear, with highlighting

Divided well, they can easily be added to

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Can help to emphasise points to keep clear

Useful when there is a clear structure

Disadvantages

Can be boring to look at and hard to read

Risk of repeating what is said

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Pattern Notes
Pattern Notes are more visual. You start by writing the main topic in the centre
and then add related ideas. Make sure you make links between ideas where
appropriate.
Advantages

Easy and quick to make and add to

Visual impression can be very easy to understand and remember

Not fixed in any order

Links are made obvious

Less likely to write too much

Interesting to look at

Link new and existing knowledge

Disadvantages

May be hard to decide what order they are in

What if you run out of space?

Hard to expand once space is filled

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Split Page/Cornell System
Split Page / The Cornell System involves dividing up the page into 3 sections with
your own comments /questions on the left, standard notes on the right and a
summary at the end.

Advantages

Specifically designed for taking notes in presentations, meetings and

lectures
Provides a way of organising notes
Generates topics to analyse

Disadvantages

Visually, not very stimulating

Temptation to write down too much
May take time to learn how to use method effectively