This semester, you will consume a mix of texts, from news articles to videos to academic articles and book chapters. But there is no textbook. Students often have difficulty with academic writing, so we start off the semester by facing this problem head on. This lecture gives you resources for reading better, including more efficiently. I wish someone explained this to me earlier, but at least I’m passing it along to you now!
Please read the PDF linked below and then watch the pre-recorded lecture with tips about how to read effectively and efficiently in this and other courses! When you are finished, please take the quiz that covers the material in the reading and lecture.
The required reading for today’s lecture is available here. I’ve also added a separate short guide on using AI in my class available here.
Today’s “lecture” is a pre-recorded lecture, available here, in which I discuss academic writing and offer some strategies for doing the reading, including how to skim (and why/when you should skim).
That’s it! That’s all you have to do for today’s class. But I include some additional information below, which I recommend you read. It won’t take that long and hopefully it will save you time in the end!
Optional: Depending on how you like to consume information, you might click below to read my full twitter (X) thread on this subject (available here and the “Unrolled” version is available here). It’s a good refresher on the material in the video and reading guide. You can also review people’s comments and some controversies, if you are so inclined. (Please note: I’m not asking you to respond to, like, or otherwise engage with the twitter thread. Don’t worry: I’m not *that* pathetic. Nor do you need twitter to view this thread. Also please note that I do not follow my students on twitter because that always feels a little too creepy as a prof. I’ll happily follow you after graduation. If twitter is still around. And yes, I still call it twitter.)
Bonus: As you begin reading the articles for this class, time how long it takes you to read each article. Pay attention to the page count, if it’s a chapter or an article in a journal, and how the text is formatted (really tight together or fairly spaced out, big font or little font). Keep a log for a few weeks about how long it takes you to get through a given reading, along with the page count and notes on whether the page count seems inaccurate given the spacing or font size. This log will help you determine how long you can anticipate it will take you to complete any given reading so you can plan accordingly.
Study Tip: While you read the lectures and assigned readings for the class (or do any other coursework), try putting your phone and/or computer on silent or “do not disturb.” If you are working on your computer or phone, turn off various alerts so you don’t get interrupted with text messages or app alerts. Basically, make sure there are no dings or bells or other sounds. You might even turn your phone over so you can’t see alerts silently pop up on the lock screen.
If you’re worried about missing an important alert/message, you can set a timer for 15 or 30 or 60 minutes and check.
Give your brain a chance to focus in on your work. The more you focus, the quicker it will go; if you get interrupted, it will take at least twice as long. So especially if you are short of time (of course you are!), you really need to be efficient!
Another Study Tip: As you saw in the video, make sure you are taking notes on what you read—but not too many notes! Remember: the goal isn’t to remember/record everything (you won’t and it takes too long to write up your notes), but to keep focused on the big picture! Some interesting details will stick in your mind on their own, but you really want to think about what’s the point? What’s the argument? What’s the takeaway? What do I need to know from this reading or lecture or video?
Yes, Another Study Tip: If you are feeling overwhelmed, or you are having trouble focusing, try breaking up the work. Either set a timer for 15 or 30 or 60 minutes and then get up and walk around, stare out the window, or just close your eyes and rest for 5, 10, or 15 minutes (5 for 15, and so on), but try to avoid the internet and apps until you’ve finished your work.
Especially if, like me, you can read something and get to the end and not remember any of it, taking breaks and checking in with yourself to make sure you didn’t just read the words but actually understood them and were paying attention is a must! (It’s crazy that we can read something without actually paying attention, but it’s totally possible!)
You notice I said you can work in increments of 15, 30, or 60 minutes? The idea is to work solidly without interruption. Start small and work your way up. This is the “pomodoro method.” Well, in the original version, you work for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break (stretch, walk around, use the restroom, drink some water, get a quick bite to eat, whatever, but ideally get away from your computer and phone), then do another 25 minute block of work with another 5-minute break. Repeat once more and then take a longer break, like 30 minutes or so. But you can always adjust the work and break times to fit your current concentration level. Lockdown and social media have both really broken our brains and ability to concentrate. This is your path back to laser focus: go as long as you can before you lose focus and then that becomes your new work period for your pomodoro time.
How Much Time Should You Spend Outside of Class Doing Coursework? The answer to that question depends on (1) how much time you actually have to give to the class and (2) how much you care/how much you want out of the class. Officially, you are supposed to spend two hours working on your own (and one hour of class time) for every unit you’re taking, so a 3-unit course would mean 6 hours of work outside of class—each week. I would love it if that’s what everyone did, but I know that’s not what most students will do. I get it: you have jobs (maybe two), families, commutes, other classes (maybe too many), extracurriculars, and a life. So let me lay out a few options for how to allocate your time across your courses that are all better than doing nothing outside of class to prepare for class:
- The least amount of work that isn’t 0: 15 minutes before each class. Before you attend/start each lecture, spend 15 minutes glancing over the required reading and, if you have time, your notes from the prior lecture. At a minimum, read the article title and abstract if there is one; ideally, also read the first few paragraphs and the last few paragraphs. At least you know what the topic will be about; if you’re really savvy, you can figure out the author’s argument, which is more important.
- More than the minimum, but still a way to balance your busy schedule: 15 minutes each day, 6 days a week. Let’s say you are taking four classes: find one hour each day to do 15 minutes of study time for each class. (Of course, if you can bump it up to 20 or 30 minutes, that’s even better, but we’ll go with 15 minutes.) Maybe one day, you do the 15 minutes of reading (as described above). Maybe the several other days, you review the study guide and try to write out a description for several key terms you know you went over in class recently. Maybe the final two days, you reread your lecture notes from that week and highlight or star anything that was especially important.
- Even better: one hour completed sometime the day before lecture. Maybe like me, it takes you two hours to read one of the articles or chapters in this class (and other classes). But maybe you don’t have two hours to spend. Instead of skipping the reading entirely, take one hour the day before class and strategically read the article/chapter assigned. The advice given in the video above will help you to get something useful out of that time–and it’s better than reading as far as you can in the article and then stopping midway through. Read actively, highlight, and take notes, but read strategically for one hour and call it there.
- If you are doing more than this, that is fantastic. I’m not endorsing these other approaches as superior in any way. Instead, these other approaches are about finding a way to consistently do something, anything, to study for the course if the alternative is nothing or something small very intermittently.
Motivation: Why does any of this matter? A lot of students want to know how what we do will help them get a job. I’ve been trying to learn more about what employers want, so I recently looked at some job data and one interesting takeaway was how much employers wanted people who are organized and can effectively manage themselves and deal with time management and planning (basically, people who don’t need to be micro-managed and told what to do or how to do it or when to do it, but also people who know to ask for help when they need it). Any course where you have to stick to a schedule of reading with no one really checking into see that you did it (this goes double for an online course where you basically have to manage yourself and stick to a schedule on your own) helps you develop those skills, but only if you stick with it! Communication, writing, leadership, coordinating, and problem-solving skills are some other key characteristics employers are looking for. So finding opportunities to hone those skills—or to show off/document those skills—is a good idea.
What the hell, one more pro-tip! Want to know a simple tweak that can increase your productivity and feelings of self-efficacy and reduce your anxiety? If there’s something you can do in two minutes, and you can do it now, just do it. (My grad student changes it to 5 minutes instead of 2.) So, for example, if you are checking your email and you learn there’s a two-minute task you need to do, just do it. You get home and need to put your stuff away, but you’re tired? Will it take less than two minutes? Do it. You’ll feel better. There are some things where there are no tweaks and they are just hard. But you can handle truly difficult things easier if you take care of some of the easier stuff immediately. It makes you feel better because it’s not hanging over your head, you don’t have a mountain of small things to do piling up, and you feel good about yourself. (I learned about the two-minute rule by reading Getting Things Done. I’m a productivity nerd, but I try to pass those useful things on to you. Some of it will serve you better because you might actually remember it and use it in your normal life!)
I include other advice, including how to succeed in college on the Resources page of this website if you want more tips!
Ashley T. Rubin 