Discuss the SQ3R approach to effective reading

SQ3R is the initialism for survey,question,read,recite and review,which are the five steps
suggested by Robinson when actively and effectively reading one specific text.SQ3R has its
merits and demerits also,its merits is it helps students concentrate and think about the
material,guides students to be familiar with the text.The demerits of using SQ3R is that it is time
consuming to mention but a few.The effectiveness of using SQ3R when reading will be unfold in
the essay as it goes.

To kick start with,Survey it has to do with scanning the text and identifying its structure.Initially
one has to start by reviewing the allocated text in order to acquire an initial understanding of it
by attention to its most obvious elements,such as bold text,headings or available charts.This first
skim gives readers a basic conceptual structure for what will be presented in the text.One should
be able to read the summary if possible,think about background knowledge or information when
doing a survey.Wood 1996:169 states that familiar material is always easier and more enjoyable
to comprehend.Survey guides students to be familiar with the text,as it gives you room to look
over material like title,preview,summary,headings to mention but a few.

Secondly,Question it can also be called query,from this initial preview readers are in the position
to start generating questions about the content of the text they will be reading.For instance one
would convert the titles into questions,or readers would make more general questions such as
"what is the text about?",or "how the content of the text would be beneficial to the reader?" to
mention but a few.Question as the second of SQ3R helps students concentrate and think about
the material as stated by Wood 1996.Question makes students concentrate and contemplate
because it gives room to start generating questions from the text.Question is also a good practice
for quizzing an individual on topics,it also helps one to stay focused on reading and it gives one
purpose to look for the answer and it creates interest.

In addition,Read as the third component of SQ3R gets readers to engage in the reading of the text
itself,reading is also done actively having as a background the work done in the two previous
steps which are survey and question.The questions which were generated during the preview of
the text help readers to focus as they will be looking for the answers for the questions that they
raised.Readers have to read the whole text quickly and they have to read until they understand
which will help them get answers for their questions,when reading one has to write key words kn
the margins,underline or highlight the important concepts and take breaks when needed.Students
read because it is an essential part of test preparation,it is a good preparation for lectures and
discussion and it is how students get information from textbooks to use during
examinations,discussions and lectures.

Furthermore,the fourth step of SQ3R is Recite which can also be called recall or retrieve.In this
step readers move through the text,one has to recite or rehearse the answers to his or her initial
questions,using their own words.This can be done in an oral or written form,and it is aimed to
support the personal formulation and theory of the content of the text.Readers can recite through
writing a summary of what you understood from the paragraph,create a mind map of the ideas
and how they relate.Recitation as the fourth step of SQ3R helps students transfer new material in
the long term as it checks your level of understanding (Wood 1996:169),recitation is also a way
of interacting with the reading and stay awake alone will be recalling and reciting what he or she
read.

Lastly,Review is the last step of SQ3R,after reading is done readers have to review the content of
the text by repeating to themselves what the main ideas of the text were,by using their own
words.The merits of reviewing are that it helps a person prepare for examinations,papers and
assignment,it helps one to retain information from week to week,to mention but a few.Readers
can review by making connections between reading and notes from class,revisit the content they
have weekly and test their self on new and old material each week,to mention but a few.

Hennings,1997:276 states that the sequence of SQ3R is powerful because the steps of survey and
question makes students get sense with the text they read.Besides it also provides students a
means which involve them to monitor their comprehension.The technique of SQ3R can be a
useful way of proceeding a text in a structured and enquiring manner as stated by Fairbaim and
Winch 1996.It infers that SQ3R provides the process of acquiring that make students become
active readers so that they will be more aware of what they need.
Bos and Vaughn,2012 states that one of the paramount difficulties related with the SQ3R
technique is the complexity of the process,particularly for students encountering reading
problems,it therefore needs much time and gives complex process.Furthermore,the level of the
students' reading ability is different,to anticipate this problem occurs, the researcher must
manage time effectively during the implementation of the action.The researcher must give vivid
instruction of each step in order to avoid misunderstanding among the students.Moreover, there
must be a distinct rule for the students who disturb the teaching learning process,so that they can
be more disciplined.In summarization,arranging time well,giving clear instruction and
implementing a distinct rule should be done to prevent the occurrence of the obstacles while
applying SQ3R technique in the process of reading, teaching and learning.

In the last years,there has been reaseaching investigating the role of the SQ3R method when
improving students' academic performance.Some examples include the Master Thesis developed
by Cantu(2006) and focused on undergraduate students,and the Master Thesis by
Casson(2012),which provides a comparison between Select,Organize,Associate and Regulate
and SQ3R study methods on college students.Other examples encompass a piece of research
showing the improvement in marketing students' reading comprehension when using SQ3R as
argued by Artis 2008 and an investigation exploring students' reading literacy and vocabulary
mastery when implementing SQ3R as stated by Soma Mukminin and Noprival (2015).

In a nutshell,SQ3R approach is effective when reading as it is easier and more enjoyable to

comprehend when using survey,it also helps students concentrate and think about the material to
mention but a few.SQ3R also has its demerits like students might disturb the teaching learning
process,in addition,the reading ability of students is different so not all students can use SQ3R.
REFERENCES.

Artis A.B.2008 Journal of Marketing Education (page 130-137)

Cantu.P (2006)learning more;Does the use of the SQ3R improve student performance in the
classroom.
Soma.R,Mukminin,A, and Noprival, N(2015)Toward a Better Preparation of Student Teachers
Reading Skill:The SQ3R Strategy with Authentic and Simplified Texts on Reding Literacy page
125-134.

Khan 2020, “what is SQR3?” Edtech review avaliable at:

http://edtechreview.in/dictionary/4025-what-is-sqr3-sqrr( accessed:10 november 2020)

Robinson,F.P(1946) Effective study .New York:Harper & Row

Wood.1996.Social Comparisons.