Chapter 1:Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
From this chapter, you’ll learn
1. about SQ3R, a tested and flexible system for
reading textbooks.
2. why paraphrasing is critical to understanding
and remembering what you read.
3. why summarizing should be part of your tool
box of academic skills.
4. how the World Wide Web can help you get
the background knowledge you need.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Using SQ3R: A System for Studying
SQ3R stands for
1. Survey the chapter to get an overview.
2. Question to focus concentration.
3. Read to answer the questions.
4. Recall to test your understanding.
5. Review to see how all the sections or
pieces fit together.
copyright Laraine© Flemming 2012
Step 1:Surveying to Get an Overview
To survey, read the following:
1.Title and Introductory material
2.Headings and opening sentences of chapter
sections
3.Visual aids such as pictures, charts, graphs,
tables, highlighted words, and marginal notes
4.End-of-chapter summaries and questions
copyright Laraine© Flemming 2012
Survey Goals
The Four Goals of a Survey Are
1. to get a general overview of the
material.
2. to determine how difficult or easy the
text might be to read.
3. to get an idea of what’s important.
4. to determine how many study
sessions it will take to read the
chapter.
Copyright
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Step 2: Ask Questions for Focus
Using questions to guide your
reading can help you
• remain mentally active while reading.
• maintain your level of concentration.
• keep you alert to key passages in the
chapter.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
How to Form Questions
Your questions can be based on
• headings, key words, pictures, or
graphics in the chapter.
• comparisons to other writers on the
same subject.
• your own personal experience.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Step 3: Read in Chunks
When you read a textbook, remember to
• read it in chunks of no more than 10 or 15
pages.
• write or diagram while you read.
• periodically paraphrase, or sum up in your
own words, what you have just read.
• vary your assignments, especially if you are
studying for more than an hour.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
A Word to the Wise
There is a lot of new research about studying
coming out of cognitive science* laboratories.
Some of it confirms what people have said for
years. Some of it contradicts long held beliefs.
Here’s what’s been confirmed:
*cognitive science: the formal
study of how we think, learn,
and remember
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Distribute Reviews Over Time
• When it comes to remembering, Distributed
Practice is definitely the way to go. If you
want to remember something, study it. Leave
it alone for a while. Then go back and review
it, preferably in a different way. Your brain has
to struggle a bit to remember what it learned
before. The struggle to remember forges a
neural pathway in your brain that stores the
information long term.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
What Hasn’t Been Confirmed
• For years, study skills books have suggested
that students find one place to study and
then work consistently in that room. However,
newer research suggests the opposite. Study
in different locations. Again, the goal is to
make the brain struggle a bit. As it absorbs the
change in place, it is matching the information
you are trying to learn to a new context, or
setting, and that’s all to the good.
copyright Laraine© Flemming 2012
For More Information on
Changes in Study Advice
• For more about what’s the same and what’s
different in study skills, consider looking this
article up on the Web: Benedict Carey, “Forget
What You Know About Good Study Habits.”
nytimes.com
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Write while Reading
Writing while reading is critical because
it helps you
1. remember what you read.
2. check your comprehension.
3. maintain concentration.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Write while Reading
Use any or all of these writing strategies:
• Underline key words in sentences.
• Use boxes, stars, and circles to highlight key
names and dates.
• Take marginal notes, jotting down central points.
• Mark important passages with double bars, stars,
or asterisks.
• Identify, maybe with a “P” or “TP, ” ideas for term
papers.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Step 4: Recall after Completing
a Chapter Section
Recalling right after reading can be done in
a number of ways. You can
1. mentally recite the general point and a few
details without looking at the text.
2. write out answers to questions you posed
during your survey.
3. cover up the text and write a summary of
the material.
Copyright ©Laraine Flemming 2012
Step 4: Recall after Completing
a Chapter Section
You can also
1. make rough diagrams or drawings.
2. ask a classmate to quiz you on the material.
3. use any other method you can think of to
see how much you remember.
Copyright
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
2011
A Word to the Wise
The rate of forgetting is fastest right
after you finish reading. Recalling by
repeating what you just read in your
own words slows down the rate of
forgetting so you forget less.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Another Word to the Wise
As soon as you start a study session,
identify how many pages you plan to read.
This is particularly important if you are reading
a long chapter. Chopping the chapter into
several ten- or fifteen-page assignments will
make it seem more manageable, and you
won’t give up on it. Consider reading different
parts of the chapter in different locations, but
do a review before starting a new section.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Step 5: Review Right After
Completing the Chapter
The review step of SQ3R
• takes place right after you finish the entire
assignment.
• focuses on how parts of a text fit together to
develop a general point.
• should either confirm or force you to revise
some of your initial predictions about a
chapter or article.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
The Goals of the First Review
Reviewing right after you complete
the assignment
• helps anchor new information in your
memory.
• gives you a sense of what passages might
need a second reading.
• lets you focus more on the overall objective,
or point, of the material
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Methods of Review
1. Look at all the major headings and try
to recall the general point introduced.
2. Work with a friend who asks you
questions about the headings.
3. Use the headings to make an outline
and write down what you remember
about each one.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Create Diagrams that Highlight
Relationships Among Parts of the Chapter
The unfair
taxation
imposed by
the British
The rise of
the
merchant
middle class
in the
colonies
The forced
quartering of
British
soldiers in
American
homes and
inns
Three central factors aroused American fury against British rule
and contributed to the Revolutionary War
Copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
A Word to the Wise
Few strategies for reading—and for that matter for
life—apply to every single situation. Adapt your
reading strategies to the material. For instance, if
you’re reading a passage that has strong visual
imagery, take notes with diagrams or drawings.
However, switch to an outline if you think the
material doesn’t easily lend itself to pictures. In
other words, BE A FLEXIBLE READER, changing
strategies to suit the material.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
A Word on Multi-Tasking
Copyright ©Laraine Flemming 20012
Don’t Do It! At
the Very Least
Don’t Do It While
Studying !
Copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Staying Focused is Essential
None of the techniques for mastering
your textbooks will be effective if ,
while studying, you are texting and
checking your cell, RSS feed, or Twitter
(unless what you are looking at or checking is
related to the assignment. That might work).
For the record, most studies of multi-tasking
suggest we only think we are getting more
accomplished by juggling tasks simultaneously.
Copyright© Laraine Flemming 20012
Multi-Tasking and Studying Don’t Mix
According to a group of Stanford University researchers,
multi-taskers are “suckers for irrelevancy. Everything
distracts them.” The Stanford researchers say that the
more people multi-task, the more they lose the ability
to separate the significant from the insignificant. (For
more specific details about the study, see the reading
in your text.)
.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
A Word to the Wise
It might surprise you to hear that reading too
slowly can be as ineffective as reading too quickly, in
part because reading the assignment can take so
long, it becomes agonizing. Slow your rate way
down only when you feel completely lost. Otherwise
push yourself to keep going at around 200-250
words per minute. If a passage doesn’t seem
completely clear, mark it for re-reading (RR). And
make sure you really do re-read.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Another Word to the Wise, This Time
about Paraphrasing and Summarizing
It’s absolutely true that paraphrasing and
summarizing while you read will take more time
than just reading without note-taking. BUT THAT’S
ONLY IN THE SHORT-TERM. The more time you
spend thinking about what you read while you are
doing it, the less time you will have to waste later
on trying to remember the material when it’s time
to study for exams. Remember, the brain likes a
work out when it’s learning new things. Otherwise
it gets lazy and forgetful.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
The Importance of Paraphrasing Brief
Excerpts While Reading
Paraphrasing sentences and brief passages
while reading serves three purposes:
1.It helps you monitor, or check, your
understanding.
2.It forces you to think about what you have
read.
3.It helps you remember.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
1.2 A Word to the Wise
Often when the words are right in front of us, we think we
have understood the meaning of a sentence or paragraph.
Take the author’s words away, however, and a different
truth emerges. Our understanding is foggy and vague. That’s
why paraphrasing what you read is so critical. Paraphrasing
helps you monitor comprehension and avoid self-deception.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Paraphrasing While You Read
Reading paraphrases aren’t the same as those you do
for term papers. They can
a. take an informal tone, “Madison was the head
honcho when it came to the Constitution.”
b.be grammatically incomplete,” U.S. Pollution
Legislation, too much clean up too little prevention.”
c.use abbreviations, 2-toed frogs signs of envir.
damage
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Paraphrase While You Read
A good reading paraphrase should
1.identify the subject under discussion.
2.indicate what the subject did or what was
done to it.
3.refer to the conditions or causes that
produced the event or situation described
(if they are mentioned).
4. describe any significant outcome or
consequence identified.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
The Key Rule of All Paraphrasing
Change the language, change the order,
change the number of the words, but do
not change the meaning.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
1.2 Reading versus Writing Paraphrases
• For an illustration of how a reading
paraphrase compares to one for a term paper,
look at these two paraphrases.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
1.2 Paraphrase for a Term Paper
• Star athlete Patrick Tillman had a promising career in
football, but he walked away from his chance at fame
and fortune when he enlisted in the United States
Army in June of 2002, determined to help his country
make war on terrorism. Tillman was killed in 2004 by
“friendly fire” in the mountains of Afghanistan.
Initially military officials claimed he had been killed
by enemy combatants and awarded him the silver
star. The discovery of the truth outraged Tillman’s
family and caused a public scandal.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
1.2 Paraphrase for Reading
Comprehension
• P. Tillman left football to fight terrorists
6/2002.Died friendly fire 2004. Military said
killed by enemy fire but truth came out.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
1.2 Use Questions to Get Started
Paraphrasing
1. What’s the subject? Patrick Tillman
2. What happened to him? He was killed by
friendly fire while on duty in Afghanistan.
3. What were the conditions? He was a football
player who wanted to serve his country.
4. What was the outcome? Military officials said
he had been killed by the enemy, but it was
discovered that he was a victim of friendly
care.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
1.2 Paraphrasing Pointer
If you are having trouble paraphrasing, think
about reversing the order entirely.
When Patrick Tillman died in Afghanistan, a
victim of friendly fire, military officials first
said he had been killed by the enemy. To help
his country make war on terrorists, Tillman
had walked away from a promising career in
football to enlist in the U.S. military in June of
2002.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
1.2 More Pointers on Paraphrasing
1. Don’t try to paraphrase word by word. Look for
whole phrases that can be expressed in different
language.
2. If you are having trouble getting started, consider
reversing the order of information.
3. If you are struggling to paraphrase, ask and answer
questions to identify chunks of information, e.g.
What’s the subject being discussed? When did the
key events occur? Were any specific conditions
necessary for these events to happen?
4. Don’t get bogged down trying to paraphrase
technical words or phrases. There are some words
that have no substitutes,
e.g.
Clean
Air Act, ozone
copyright Laraine
Flemming
2012
1.2 A Word to the Wise
If you are really struggling to paraphrase
material you think you understood, think
again. You probably haven’t truly understood
it. You would be better off marking the passage
for a second reading before you try to
paraphrase it.
copyright ©Laraine Flemming 2012
Summarizing is a Must-Have Academic
Skill
Summarizing
• tells you what you don’t know.
• helps you remember what you read.
• makes you sift out the essential from the nonessential.
• is a skill instructors in almost every course will
expect you to have.
• is another form of paraphrasing only applied to
longer excerpts that are complete in themselves and
with greater emphasis on eliminating details.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
When should you summarize?
Summarize paragraphs
• that offer a number of different examples to
make the same point.
• that offer reasons for a controversial point of
view.
• that seem absolutely essential to your
understanding of the subject at hand.
• that are not heavy in scientific detail (For this
kind of material outlining or mapping may be better).
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
The Length of a Summary
Generally a summary is expected to be onequarter of the original. A good summary
should include
1.the author’s main point or idea.
2. only those details absolutely ESSENTIAL to
explaining that point or idea.
3.only the reasons arguing a point of view, not
details illustrating the reasons.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Pointers on Summary Writing
1. It helps to mark the text before you
summarize. Go through it and cross out what
you don’t need in your summary. Use pencil
just in case you change your mind.
2. Summarizing for your reading notes is
different from summarizing for an
instructor’s assignment. As with informal
paraphrasing, you can cut corners when the
summary is just for you. Your sentences also
don’t have to flow together.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
A Word to the Wise
The purpose of summarizing while reading and
summarizing for an assignment are quite
different. When you summarize while
reading, your goal is to make your brain
analyze the material and help your memory
hold on to what’s important, while getting it
to ignore what isn’t.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Difference Between Summarizing for Reading
and Summarizing for an Assignment
• When you summarize for an assignment, your
goal is to make someone who hasn’t read the
original text get a general idea of what was in
it. Thus you need more detail and your
sentences need to be tightly connected.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
For an illustration of the difference, here’s a
textbook excerpt:
To stretch a child’s intellect, demands must be
made, but experiences that are too far beyond
the familiar may cause frustration and
withdrawal. Therefore, gradually expanding
beyond a child’s current level of
comprehension is usually most productive.
Effective parents typically follow a sort of onestep-ahead strategy adapting their instruction
to their child’s current level of ability. Coon,
Essentials of Psychology, 121
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Here’s a summary appropriate for reading
notes.
• To help kids expand abilities, teachers should
use 1-step ahead strategy, increasing difficulty
slowly, so children don’t get frustrated.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Now Here’s A More Formal Summary
appropriate for an Assignment
• According to Dennis Coon, author of
Essentials of Psychology, anyone wishing to
increase children’s intellectual skills should
use the one-step ahead approach that
effective parents practice. Effective parents
expand the difficulty level of tasks slowly, so
children don’t get discouraged.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Summarizing for an Assignment
• Remember, when you summarize for an assignment,
your goal is make someone else understand the
general outline or gist of what you have read.
Thus you need to
1. be grammatically correct.
2. make clear connections between sentences.
3. identify the author and title of the article you are
summarizing.
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Using the World Wide Web
for Background Knowledge
• When you are faced with an assignment
dealing with an unfamiliar topic, use the
Web to get basic background knowledge.
Study after study shows that knowing
something about the topic under discussion
makes it easier to understand.
Copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
What’s the Right Search Term?
Your search term should
1.be influenced by the headings in the text.
2. be specific enough to exclude topics you don’t
care about.
3. usually be a phrase rather than a single word.
4. not be so general, it brings up a host of web
sites that bear no relationship to your topic.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Pointers on Reading the Web for Background
Knowledge
When you get a list of web sites in response to your search term,
don’t just start at the beginning and keep hitting links until
you find one that seems useful . Do the following instead:
1. Read the captions describing what’s on the sites.
2. Look for language related to your search term or assignment.
3. Based on the descriptions, decide which sites on the list might
be appropriate for your purposes.
4. Click on one of these sites. If it’s appropriate, then read the
information it provides. It it isn’t, go on to the next site where
the caption’s language seemed to fit what you were looking
for.
copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Picking the Right Search Term
• Imagine that you are surveying a chapter
that referred to the former dictator of
Cambodia Pol Pot in a heading that said
“Under Pol Pot’s Iron Hand, 1976-1979.”
Which of the following terms would get
you the information you needed in the
least amount of time?
Copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Picking the Right Search Term
1. Pol Pot
2. Cambodia’s leader Pol Pot
3. Pol Pot 1976 …1979
copyright©Laraine Flemming 2012
Focusing Your Search Term
Although you could get background knowledge for the chapter with
all three choices, the term that would
lead you directly to the information you
need is Pol Pol 1976...1979.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap Up
See how well you can describe each of the steps
in SQ3R.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
S
Q
R
R
R
Copyright
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
2011
Final Wrap Up: Acquiring the Keys to
Academic Success
6. Imagine that you were getting ready to
read a chapter titled “Bank Reform in the
Twenty-First Century, “ and it was forty pages
long. What’s the first thing you should do
and why?
Copyright
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
2011
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
7. The key rule of paraphrasing is
a. make sure the paraphrase is shorter than the
original.
b. always reverse the order used in the original
text.
c. change the language but keep the meaning.
d. always provide a footnote for the original
source.
Copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
8.
How might you paraphrase the following
statement?
“Matthew B. Crawford has a Ph.D. in
political philosophy. He also owns a
motorcycle repair shop in Richmond,
Virginia. In his book, Shop Class as Soul
Craft, he argues that working with our
hands at physical tasks involves a deeper
level of thought than many people realize.”
Copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
9. When you write a summary, which is most
important?
a. making sure that you correctly
paraphrase all of the details in the passage
b. being careful about stating the author
and source of the original reading
c. eliminating everything from the original
except for the main idea and most essential
details
Copyright
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
2011
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
10. Read the paragraph below. Then decide which of
the following summaries is most effective.
Even the most devoted bird lovers have a hard time loving
the Canadian goose. Thus, in July of 2010, remarkably few
people complained when the U.S. Department of
Agriculture rounded up 400 geese from Prospect Park in
Brooklyn and gassed the birds. The fate of the Canadian
geese did not tug at human heart strings mainly because
the birds don’t migrate. They arrive at a location, like a
public park or lake, and take up residence, carpeting the
area with their droppings. That’s the reason the U.S. D.A.
pulled up the welcome mat in Prospect Park, and it’s
probably the only reason so few people cried foul.
Copyright
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
2011
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
Summary 1: In July of 2010, when the U.S. D. A.
exterminated 400 Canadian geese that had
made Brooklyn’s Prospect Park their home,
there wasn’t much public outcry because
Canadian geese, who do not migrate, tend
to destroy whatever environment they
inhabit. The geese don’t leave and
everything gets covered with their
droppings.
Copyright
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
2011
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
So what do you think, is summary 1 a good
summary? Cast your vote. But be prepared
to explain why you think it meets the
criteria for summarizing previously
explained here.
On to summary 2
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
Summary 2: In July of 2010, the U.S. D. A.
destroyed 400 Canadian geese that had been
living in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. In response to
the measures, there wasn’t much public outcry.
Canadian geese don’t migrate. Instead they take
up residence in parks and by lakes, and their
droppings carpet the surroundings. Thus few
people had any sympathy for the geese’s plight.
They were mainly sick of having them around, and
they understood why the U.S. D.A. needed to take
such desperate measures.
Copyright
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
2011
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
So what do you think, is summary 2 a good
summary? Cast your vote. But be prepared
to explain why you think it meets the
criteria for summarizing previously
explained here.
On to summary 3
Copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
Summary 3: In July of 2010, the U.S. D. A.
destroyed 400 Canadian geese that had been
living in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, but there was
almost no public outrage. Canadian geese you see,
don’t migrate.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
Final Wrap: Acquiring the Keys to Academic
Success
So what do you think, is summary 3 a good
summary? Cast your vote. But be prepared
to explain why you think it meets the
criteria for summarizing previously
explained here.
Copyright
copyright Laraine Flemming 2012
2011
What Do You Think?
Did the U.S. D.A. do the right thing
in gassing the geese? Please be prepared
to explain the reasoning behind your
answer.
Copyright© Laraine Flemming 2012