Learning Outcomes By the time you finish this chapter you will be able to LO 5.1 Identify the essential elements of successful reading. LO 5.2 Explain how to improve concentration and read more effectively. LO 5.3 Discuss techniques for memorizing large amounts of information. LO 5.4 Analyze how best to retain what you have read.
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“R
ead the next chapter in the textbook by Tuesday.” “Read the first two articles in the course pack by next class.” “The test will cover the first hundred pages in your book, so be sure you've read it.”
One day, three different reading assignments, Jeff Knowles thought as the instructor of his last class of the day delivered this last instruction to read. It would be hard enough for Jeff to complete all this reading during an ordinary week. But this week he had to finish painting his garage and had volunteered to help his brother move. On top of that, there was his part-time landscaping job—and, Jeff suddenly remembered, he'd agreed to work overtime on Friday.
Still, Jeff figured that even with all his work, family, and household obligations, he could still find time to do all his reading—except Jeff believed he was an unusually slow reader. When he pushed himself to read quicker and absorb more, he actually read and retained less. For Jeff, the problem wasn't just completing the reading—it was remembering it when test time rolled around.
LookingAhead
For people like Jeff, reading assignments are the biggest challenge in college. The amount of required reading is often enormous. Even skilled readers may find themselves wishing they could read more quickly and effectively. On the job, too, many people struggle with all the memos, e-mails, manuals, and so forth that they need to read.
Fortunately, there are ways to improve your reading skills. In this chapter, we'll go over a number of strategies to make reading more effective.
We'll also discuss ways to improve memory skills, not just as they relate to reading, but in general, too. Most of us have experienced the challenge of memorizing a seemingly impossible amount of information, and we tend to focus on our failures far more than on our successes. But the truth is that our memory capabilities are truly astounding. For instance, if you are like the average college student, your vocabulary contains some 50,000 words, you know hundreds of mathematical facts, and you can recall detailed images from events you witnessed years ago. In this chapter, you'll learn how to harness your memory's power.
Sharpen Your Reading and Memory Skills
One of the reasons many people struggle with reading, especially in college, is they feel they shouldn't have to struggle with it. Reading, after all, is something almost all of us master as children … right?
In fact, it is not so simple. Reading, as we will see in this chapter, involves more than just recognizing words. The task of reading large amounts of information and remembering the essential points takes time to master.
To begin, consider the way you read now. In other words, what kind of reader are you? Ask yourself first of all about your reading preferences:What do you like to read, and why? What makes you pick up a book and start reading—and what makes you put one down?
Before going any further, think about your own reading preferences by completing the Journal Reflections.
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My Reading Preferences
Think about what you like and don't like to read by answering these questions. Do you read for pleasure? If so, what do you read (e.g., magazines, newspapers, novels, humor, short stories, nonfiction, illustrated books)? What makes a book enjoyable? Have you ever read a book that you “couldn't put down”? If so, what made it so good? What is the most difficult book you are reading this semester? Why is it difficult? Are you enjoying it? Think about when you read for pleasure compared with when you read material for a class. How does the way you read differ between the two types of material? How well do you remember the last book or magazine you read for pleasure? Do you remember it better than your last college reading assignment? Why do you think this might be?

Read for Retention, Not Speed
You may have come across advertisements on the Web promoting reading “systems” that promise to teach you to read so quickly that you'll be reading entire books in an hour and whizzing through assigned readings in a few minutes.
Unfortunately it's not going to happen. Research has shown that claims of speed-reading are simply groundless. But even if it were physically possible to read a book in an hour, ultimately it probably doesn't matter very much. If we read too fast, comprehension and ultimately retention plunge. Reading is not a race, and the fastest readers are not necessarily the best readers.
The act of reading is designed to increase our knowledge and open up new ways of thinking. It can help us achieve new levels of understanding and get us to think more broadly about the world and its inhabitants. Speed matters far less than what we take away from what we've read. That's not to say we shouldn't try to become more efficient readers who comprehend and recall more effectively. Ultimately, though, the key to good reading is understanding—not speed.
In describing how you can use the principles of P.O.W.E.R. Learning to become a better reader with a more complete memory of what you read, we'll focus on the type of reading that is typically called for in academic pursuits—textbook chapters, articles, handouts, and the like. However, the same principles will help you get more benefit and enjoyment out of your recreational reading as well. Crucially also, the reading skills you learn and employ in the classroom will also help you read more efficiently and effectively on the job.

P.O.W.E.R. Plan
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Approaching the Written Word
Preparation to begin reading isn't hard, and it won't take very long, but it's a crucial first step in applying P.O.W.E.R. Learning (summarized in the P.O.W.E.R. Plan here). Your aim in preparation is to become familiar with advance organizers—outlines, overviews, section objectives, or other clues to the meaning and organization of new material—provided in the material you are reading. Most textbooks have them built in; for an example, look at the start of every chapter in this book, which includes a “Learning Outcomes” list and a “Looking Ahead” section. You can also create your own advance organizers by skimming material to be read and sketching out the general outline of the material you'll be reading.
Advance organizers pave the way for subsequent learning. They help you tie information that you already know to new material you're about to encounter. This connection between old and new material is crucial in helping build memories of what you read. If you approach each new reading task as something entirely new and unrelated to your previous knowledge, you'll have enormous difficulty recalling it. On the other hand, if you connect it to what you already know, you'll be able to recall it far better.
In short, the more we're able to make use of advance organizers and our own prior knowledge and experiences, the better we can understand and retain new material. (To prove the value of advance organizers, completeTry It 1, “Discover How Advance Organizers Help.”)
What's the Point of the Reading Assignment?
Before you begin an assignment, think about what your goal is. Will you be reading a textbook on which you'll be thoroughly tested? Is your reading supposed to provide background information that will serve as a context for future learning but that won't itself be tested? Is the material going to be useful to you personally? Realistically, how much time can you devote to the reading assignment?
Your goal for reading will help you determine which reading strategy to adopt. You aren't expected to read everything with the same degree of intensity. Some material you may feel comfortable skimming; for other material you'll want to put in the maximum effort.
Understand the Point of View of the Material Itself
What are you reading—a textbook, an essay, an article? If it is an essay or article, why was it written? To prove a point? To give information? To express the author's personal feelings? Knowing the author's purpose (even if his or her specific point and message aren't yet clear) can help you a great deal as you read.
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1Discover How Advance Organizers Help
Read this passage. What do you think it means?
The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange items into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient, depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise, you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first, the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one can never tell. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually, they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, this is a part of life.1
If you're like most people, you don't have a clue about what this all means and won't be able to remember anything about it in five minutes. But suppose you had been given some context in advance, and you knew before reading it that the description had to do with washing laundry. Now does it all fall into place? Do you think it will be easier to remember? Read the passage once more, and see how having an advance organizer (in this case, washing laundry) helps out.
To Try It online, go to www.mhhe.com/power.
Start with the Frontmatter
If you'll be using a text or other book extensively throughout the term, start by reading the preface and/or introduction and scanning the table of contents—what publishers call the frontmatter. Instructors often don't formally assign the front-matter, but reading it can be a big help because it is there that the author has a chance to step forward and explain, often more personally than elsewhere in an academic book, what he or she considers important. Knowing this will give you a sense of what to expect as you read.
Create Advance Organizers
To provide a context for your reading, create your own advance organizers by skimming through the table of contents, which provides the main headings of what you will be reading. Textbooks often have chapter outlines, listing the key topics to be covered, which also provide a way of previewing the chapter content. As you read over the outline, you can begin to consider how the new material in the book may relate both to what you know and to what you expect to learn—from the reading assignment itself and from the course.
Textbooks also often have end-of-chapter summaries, and many articles include a final section in which the author states his or her conclusions. Take a look at these ending sections as well. Even though you haven't read the material yet and the summary probably won't make complete sense to you, by reading the summary, you'll get an idea of what the author covers and what is important.
Your instructor may also provide an advance organizer for readings. Sometimes instructors will mention things to pay particular attention to or to look for, such as “When you read Thomas Paine's Common Sense,notice how he lays out his argument and what his key points are.” Sometimes they will say why they assigned a reading. Such information provides clues that can help you develop a mental list of the reading's key ideas.
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However you construct advance organizers, be sure they provide a framework and context for what you'll be reading; this framework and context can spell the difference between fully comprehending what you read and misunderstanding it.
Now it's time to put all this practice to good use. Create an advance organizer for a textbook chapter in Try It 2.
Identify What You Need to Remember
No matter how important a reading assignment is to a course, you will not be expected to remember every word of it—nor should you try! The average textbook chapter has something like 20,000 words. If you had to recall every word of the chapter, it would be nearly impossible. Furthermore, it would be a waste of time. Being able to spew out paragraphs of material is quite different from the more important ability to recall and deeply understand material in meaningful ways.
Within those 20,000 words, there may be only 20 different concepts that you need to learn. And perhaps there are only 10 keywords. Those are the pieces of information that should be the focus of your efforts to memorize.
How do you know what's so important that you need to recall it? One way is to use the guides built into most textbooks. Key concepts and terms are often highlighted or in boldface type. Chapters often have summaries that recap the most important information. Use such guideposts to understand what's most critical in a chapter.
Write down what you determine is important. Putting critical information in writing not only helps you manage what you need to remember, but the very act of writing it down makes it easier to memorize the information later.
In short, the first step in building a better memory of your reading is to determine just what it is that you wish to recall. By extracting what is important from what is less crucial, you'll be able to limit the amount and extent of the material that you need to recall. You'll be able to focus, laserlike, on what you need to remember.
Gathering the Tools of the Trade
It's obvious that the primary item you'll need to complete a reading assignment is the material that you're reading. But there are other essential tools you should gather, potentially including the following: Pencils or pens to write notes in the margin. Highlighters to indicate key passages in the text. A copy of the assignment, so you'll be sure to read the right material. A pad of paper and/or index cards for notetaking if the material is particularly complex. If you routinely use a word processor to take notes, get it ready. A dictionary. You never know what new words you'll encounter while you're reading. If a dictionary is not handy, you'll be tempted to skip over unfamiliar words—a decision that may come back to haunt you. Note that some word-processing software includes a dictionary; there are also many good dictionaries available online (e.g., Merriam-Webster's at www.m-w.com, where you will also find an online thesaurus). The point is to use what's available—but use something!
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2Create an Advance Organizer
Use any information you have available to create an advance organizer for a chapter in a text that you are using this term. Skim the section headings in the chapter, read the chapter summary, consult the book's frontmatter, and recall anything your instructor may have said about the chapter.
Complete the following statements to prepare your organizer: The general topics that are covered in the chapter are … The most critical topics and concepts in the chapter are … The most difficult material in the chapter includes … Words, phrases, and ideas that are unfamiliar to me include … Ways that the material in this chapter relates to other material that I've previously read in the text include … Use this Try It as a starting point for advance organizers for future chapters in the book.
To Try It online, go to www.mhhe.com/power.
Give Yourself Time
There's one more thing you need to prepare successfully for a reading assignment: enough time to complete it. The length of reading assignments is almost never ambiguous. You will typically be given a specific page range, so you will know just how much material you will need to cover.
Now get a watch and time yourself as you read the first three pages of your assignment, being sure to pay attention to the material, not the time! Timing how long it takes to read a representative chunk of material provides you with a rough measure of your reading speed for the material—although it will vary even within a single reading assignment, depending on the complexity of the material.
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You'll also need to consider an aspect of your personal learning style: your reading attention span. Attention span is the length of time that a person usually is able to sustain attention. People with long attention spans can read for relatively lengthy periods without getting jumpy, while those with shorter ones can only maintain attention for a short while. You can get a general sense of this by using Try It 3, “Discover Your Attention Span.”
Use the three pieces of information you now have—the length of the assignment, your per-page reading speed at full attention, and your typical attention span—to estimate roughly how long it will take you to complete the reading assignment. For example, if you are asked to read 12 pages, you have found that you need approximately 4 minutes to read a page, and your reading attention span is, on average, 25 minutes long, you can expect your reading to take at least 60 minutes, assuming you'll take a short break when your attention begins to fade after 25 minutes.
In addition, you may need to interrupt your reading to look up words in the dictionary, get a drink, stretch, or answer the phone. You may also decide to break your reading into several short sessions, in which case your total reading time may be greater since you will have to get reacquainted with the reading assignment each time you sit down again.
Remember that you can use this strategy for estimating the amount of time reading will take you for reading tasks outside the classroom, too. If your employer asks you to read a set of customer feedback forms, for example, you can figure out how much time in your day you'll need to block off to complete the work by factoring in the total length of all the forms, your per-page reading speed, and your attention span. Remember, though, that reading on the job is different from reading in a college library or at your desk at home. You can expect many more distractions as you try to read—coworkers asking questions, e-mails coming in, the phone ringing. Take into account these inevitable workplace distractions when making your reading time estimate.
Getting the Most Out of Your Reading and Using Proven Strategies to Memorize New Material
Once you've familiarized yourself with the material as a whole and gathered the necessary tools, it's time to get down to work and start reading. Here are several things that will help you get the most out of the reading process.
Stay Focused
The TV show you watched last night … your husband forgetting to meet you at the bus stop … the new toothbrush you need to buy for your daughter … your grumbling stomach. There are a million and one possible distractions that can invade your thoughts as you read. Your job is to keep distracting thoughts at bay and focus on the material you are supposed to be reading. It's not easy, but the following are things you can do to help yourself stay focused: Read in small bites. If you think it is going to take you 4 hours to read an entire chapter, break up the 4 hours into more manageable time periods. Promise yourself that you'll read for 1 hour in the afternoon, another hour in the evening, and the next 2 hours spaced out during the following day. One hour of reading is far more manageable than a 4-hour block. Page 112 Take a break. Actually, plan to take several short breaks to reward yourself while you're reading. During your break, do something enjoyable—eat a snack, watch a bit of a ball game on television, text message a friend, or the like. Just try not to get drawn into your break activity to the point that it takes over your reading time. Deal with mental distractions. Sometimes problems have a way of popping into our minds and repeatedly distracting us. If a particular problem keeps interrupting your concentration—such as a difficulty you're having on the job—try to think of an action-oriented strategy to deal with it. You might even write your proposed solution down on a piece of paper. Putting it down in words can get the problem off your mind, potentially making it less intrusive. Manage interruptions. You can't prevent your children from getting into a fight and needing immediate attention. But there are some things you can do to reduce interruptions and their consequences. For instance, you can schedule reading to coincide with periods when you know you'll be alone. You can also plan to read less critical parts of assignments (such as the summaries or book frontmatter) when distractions are more likely, saving the heavier reading for later. Or, if you are a parent with small children, you can get them involved in an activity that they can perform independently so you'll be free to concentrate.
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3Discover Your Attention Span
PERSONAL STYLES
You should be aware of your attention span, the length of time you usually are able to sustain attention to a task, as you prepare for reading assignments. To get an idea of the length of your current attention span for reading, perform this exercise over the next few days. Choose one of the textbooks that you've been assigned to read this semester. Start reading a chapter, without any preparation, noting in the chart below the time that you start reading. As soon as your mind begins to wander and think about other subjects, stop reading and note the time on the chart below. Using the same textbook, repeat this process four more times over the course of a few days, entering the data on the chart below. To find your reading attention span, calculate the average number of minutes across the five trials.

Trial #1 | Starting time: | Ending time: | | Number of minutes between start and end times: | Trial #2 | Starting time: | Ending time: | | Number of minutes between start and end times: | Trial #3 | Starting time: | Ending time: | | Number of minutes between start and end times: | Trial #4 | Starting time: | Ending time: | | Number of minutes between start and end times: | Trial #5 | Starting time: | Ending time: | | Number of minutes between start and end times: | Reading attention span (the average of the number of minutes in the last column, found by adding up the five numbers and dividing by 5) = minutes |
Ask yourself these questions about your reading attention span: Are you surprised by the length of your reading attention span? In what way? Does any number in the set of trials stand out from the other numbers? For instance, is any number much higher or lower than the average? If so, can you account for this? For example, what time of day was it? Do the numbers in your trials show any trend? For instance, did your attention span tend to increase slightly over the course of the trials, did it decrease, or did it stay about the same? Can you explain any trend you may have noted? Do you think your attention span times would be very different if you had chosen a different textbook? Why or why not? What things might you do to improve your attention span?
To Try It online, go to www.mhhe.com/power.

If you are reading a long assignment, taking a break can be a reward and reinvigorate you.
Write While You Read
Writing is one of the most important aspects of reading. If you haven't underlined, jotted notes to yourself, placed check marks on the page, drawn arrows, constructed diagrams, and otherwise defaced and disfigured your book while you're reading, you're not doing your job as a P.O.W.E.R. reader.
The idea of writing on a book page may go against everything you've been taught in the past. (And of course you should never write on a library book or one that you've borrowed.)
However, once you've bought your book, you own it and you should make it your own. Don't keep your textbooks spotless so they will fetch a higher price if you sell them later. Instead, think of textbooks as documents recording your active learning and engagement in a field of study. In addition, you should look at your textbooks as the foundation of your personal library, which will grow throughout your lifetime. In short, writing extensively in your book while you're reading is an important tactic for achieving success. (For more on using textbooks, see the Course Connections feature.)

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Textbook Tips: Starting Off on the Right Page
You've just come back from the bookstore, weighted down with a bookbag filled with the textbooks and other materials for the upcoming term. Now is the time to take some preliminary steps to make the most of your investment. Make sure you've bought the correct textbooks. Look at each syllabus from your classes to ensure you've bought the appropriate text. Sometimes there are multiple sections of a course, and each section uses a different text and the right edition. Be sure the book you've bought matches the description in the syllabus. Make the book your own. Write your name, e-mail address, and/or telephone number in the front of the book. If you misplace your book during the term, you want the person who finds it to be able to return it to you. Orient yourself to each of your textbooks. Take a quick look at each of the books, examining the table of contents, introduction, and/or preface (as we discussed earlier). Get a sense of the content and the general reading level of the book. Get yourself online. Many textbooks contain a card or insert with a password that gives you access to online material. Follow the directions and enter the book's Web site, making sure the password allows you to register. If you have trouble making the site work, call the tech support number that should be included with the password.

From the perspective of …

A STUDENT
To truly retain what you are reading, you must give your reading your undivided attention. Make a list of your biggest distractions and consider strategies for avoiding those distractions when you read.
The ability to add your own personal notes, underlining, and other annotations to a clean text while you're reading is one of the reasons it usually pays to buy new, rather than used, textbooks. Why would you want a stranger's comments on something you own? Can you really trust that person's judgment over your own regarding what's important to underline? New books allow you to mark them up in your own personal style, without the distraction of competing voices.
What should you be writing while you are reading? There are several things you should write down: Rephrase key points. Make notes to yourself, in your own words, about what the author is trying to get across. Don't just copy what's been said. Think about the material, and rewrite it in words that are your own. Writing notes to yourself in your own words has several consequences, all good. First, you make the material yours; it becomes something you now understand and part of your own knowledge base. This is an essential aid to memorization. When you try to recollect your reading, you won't be trying to summon the thoughts of someone else—you'll be trying to remember your ownthinking. Page 114 “What is reading but silent conversation?” Walter Savage Landor, “Aristoteles and Callisthenes,” author, Imaginary Conversations(1824–53)
Second, trying to summarize a key point in your own words will make it very clear whether you truly understand it. It's easy to be fooled into thinking we understand something as we're reading along. But the true test is whether we can explain it to ourselves (or someone else) on our own, without referring to the book or article. Third, the very act of writing engages an additional type of perception—involving the physical sense of moving a pen or pressing a keyboard. This will help you learn the material in a more active way. Finally, writing notes and phrases will help you study the material later. Not only will the key points be highlighted, but your notes will also quickly bring you up to speed regarding your initial thoughts and impressions. Highlight or underline key points. Very often the first or last sentence in a paragraph, or the first or last paragraph in a section, will present a key point. Before you highlight anything, though, read the whole paragraph through. Then you'll be sure that what you highlight is, in fact, the key information. Topic sentences do not always fall at the beginning of a paragraph. Be selective in your highlighting and underlining. A page covered in yellow highlighter may be artistically appealing, but it won't help you understand the material any better. Highlight only the key information. You might find yourself highlighting only one or two sentences or phrases per page. That's fine. In highlighting and underlining, less is more. One guideline: No more than 10 percent of the material should be highlighted or underlined. Keep in mind, too, as you highlight and underline that the key material you are marking is the material you will likely need to remember for exams or class discussions. To aid in your recall of such material, read it over a time or two after you've marked it, and consider also reading it aloud. This will reinforce the memories you are building of the essential points in the assignment. Use arrows, diagrams, outlines, tables, timelines, charts, and other visuals to help you understand and later recall what you are reading. If there are three examples given for a particular point, number them. If a paragraph discusses a situation in which an earlier point does not hold, link the original point to the exception by an arrow. If a sequence of steps is presented, number each step. For example, after you have annotated this page of P.O.W.E.R. Learning, it might look something like what is shown in Figure 5.1. Particularly if your learning style is a visual one, representing the material graphically will get you thinking about it—and the connections and points in it—in new and different ways. Rather than considering the material solely in verbal terms, you now add visual images. The act of creating visual annotations will not only help you to understand the material better but it will also ease its later recall. Practice this technique on the sample textbook page in Try It 4 onpage 116. Look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary. Even though you may be able to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word from its context, use a dictionary anyway. This way you can be sure that what you think it means is correct. A dictionary will also tell you what the word sounds like, which may be important if your instructor uses the word in class.

figure 5.1
Sample of Annotated Page
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Memorize Key Material
Many of the reading strategies discussed above will help fix key material in your mind. Rephrasing key points, highlighting or underlining essential material and then rereading it, and creating visuals will all help you recall the information you've read.
Sometimes, though, these strategies are not enough. You may need to memorize a great deal of information, more than you'll be able to recall just through the process of reading, underlining, and so forth. Many people find extensive memorization daunting. But one of the good things about the work of memorization is that you have your choice of literally dozens of techniques. Depending on the kind of material you need to recall and how much you already know about the subject, you can turn to any number of methods.
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4Mark Up a Book Page
WORKING IN A GROUP
First, working alone, read the excerpt in Figure 5.2 on the opposite page. Then use the techniques we've discussed for marking up a page to highlight its key points.

figure 5.2
Sample Page to Annotate
Next, working in a group, compare and contrast your annotations with those of some classmates, and answer the following questions: How do others' annotations differ from yours? Why did they use the annotations they did? Which annotation techniques worked best for you? Which did others prefer? Why? How might these annotations help you to remember what is important? If there were different sorts of material presented on the page, such as mathematical formulas, would you use different kinds of annotations?
To Try It online, go to www.mhhe.com/power.
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As we sort through the various options, keep in mind that no one strategy works by itself. (And some strategies don't seem to work: For example, forget about supplements like gingko biloba—there's no clear scientific evidence that they are effective.2) Instead, try the following proven strategies and find those that work best for you. Feel free to devise your own strategies or add those that have worked for you in the past. Rehearsal. Think it again: rehearsal. Say it aloud: rehearsal. Think of it in terms of the three syllables that make up the word: re—hear—sal. OK, one more time—say the word “rehearsal.” If you're scratching your head over the last paragraph, it's to illustrate the point of rehearsal: to transfer material that you encounter into memory. If you don't rehearse information in some way, it will end up like most of the information to which we're exposed: on the garbage heap of lost memory. To test if you've succeeded in transferring the word “rehearsal” into your memory, put down this book and go off for a few minutes. Do something entirely unrelated to reading this book. Have a snack, catch up on the latest sports scores on ESPN, or read the front page of the newspaper. Are you back? If the word “rehearsal” popped into your head when you picked up this book again, you've passed your first memory test. You can be assured that the word “rehearsal” has been transferred into your memory. Rehearsal is the key strategy in remembering information. If you don't rehearse material, it will never make it into memory. Repeating the information, summarizing it, associating it with other memories, and above all thinking about it when you first come across it will ensure that rehearsal will be effective in pushing the material into memory. Mnemonics. This odd word (pronounced in an equally odd fashion, with the “m” silent—“neh MON ix”) describes formal techniques used to make material more readily remembered. Mnemonics are the tricks of the trade that professional memory experts use, and you too can use them to nail down the sort of information you will often need to recall for tests. Among the most common mnemonics are acronyms. You're already well acquainted with acronyms, words or phrases formed by the first letters of a series of terms. For instance, although you may not have known it, the word “laser” is actually an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emissions of radiation,” and “radar” is an acronym for “radio detection and ranging.” If you took music lessons, you may know that FACE spells out the names of the notes that appear in the spaces on the treble clef music staff (“F,” “A,” “C,” and “E,” starting at the bottom of the staff). The benefit of acronyms is that they help us to recall a complete list of steps or items. P.O.W.E.R. stands for—well, by this point in the book, you probably remember. After learning to use the acronym “FACE” to remember the notes on the spaces of the music staff, many beginning musicians learn that the names of the lines on the staff form the acrostic, “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.” An acrostic is a sentence in which the first letters spell out something that needs to be recalled. The benefits—as well as the drawbacks—of acrostics are similar to those of acronyms. (You can explore acronyms and acrostics in Try It 5.) Page 119 Although mnemonics are helpful, keep in mind that they have a number of significant shortcomings. First, they don't focus on the meaning of the items being remembered. Because information that is learned in terms of its surface characteristics—such as first letters that form a word—is less likely to be retained than information that is learned in terms of its meaning, mnemonic devices are an imperfect route to memorization. There's another problem with mnemonics: Sometimes it takes as much effort to create a mnemonic device as it would to memorize the material in the first place. And because the mnemonic itself has no meaning, it can be forgotten. Despite their drawbacks, mnemonics can be useful. They are particularly helpful when the material being memorized includes a list of items or a series of steps. Involve multiple senses. The more senses you can involve when you're trying to learn new material, the better you'll be able to remember. Here's why: Every time we encounter new information, all of our senses are potentially at work. For instance, if we witness a car crash, we receive sensory input from the sight of the two cars hitting each other, the sound of the impact, and perhaps the smell of burning rubber. Each piece of sensory information is stored in a separate location in the brain, and yet all the pieces are linked together in extraordinarily intricate ways. Page 120 What this means is that when we seek to remember the details of the crash, recalling a memory of one of the sensory experiences—such as what we heard—can trigger recall of the other types of memories. For example, thinking about the sound the two cars made when they hit can bring back memories of the way the scene looked. When you learn something, use your body. Don't sit passively at your desk. Instead, move around. Stand up; sit down. Touch the page. Trace figures with your fingers. Talk to yourself. Think out loud. It may seem strange, but doing this increases the number of ways in which the information is stored. Visualize. Visualization is a technique by which images are formed to ensure that material is recalled. For instance, memory requires three basic steps: the initial recording of information, the storage of that information, and, ultimately, the retrieval of the stored information. As you read the three steps, you probably see them as logical and straightforward processes. But how do you remember them? You might visualize a computer, with its keyboard, disks, and monitor (see Figure 5.3). The keyboard represents the initial recording of information. The disk represents the storage of information, and the monitor represents the display of information that has been retrieved from memory. If you can put these images in your mind, it will help you to remember the three basic memory steps later. Overlearning. Think back to when you were learning your basic multiplication facts (1 × 1 = 1; 2 × 2 = 4; and so forth). Let's suppose you had put each multiplication problem on a flash card, and you decided to go through your entire set of cards, trying to get every problem right. The first time you went through the set of cards and answered all the problems correctly, would you feel as if you'd memorized them perfectly and that you'd never again make an error? You shouldn't. You would need several instances of perfect performance to be sure you had learned the multiplication facts completely. Lasting learning doesn't come until you have overlearned the material. Overlearning consists of studying and rehearsing material past the point of initial mastery. Through over learning, recall becomes automatic. Rather than searching for a fact, going through mental contortions until perhaps the information surfaces, overlearning permits us to recall the information without even thinking about it. To put the principle of overlearning to work, don't stop studying at the point when you can say to yourself, “Well, I'll probably pass this test.” You may be right, but that's all you'll do—pass. Instead, spend extra time learning the material until it becomes as familiar as an old pair of jeans.

figure 5.3
Visualizing Memory
5Do-It-Yourself Acronyms and Acrostics
WORKING IN A GROUP
In the first part of this Try It, work individually to create an acronym and an acrostic. Figure out an acronym to remind you of the names of the five Great Lakes, using the first letters of their names (which are Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, Superior). Devise an acrostic for the nine planets in order of their average distance from the sun. Their names, in order, are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. (Bonus question: Because many astronomers no longer believe Pluto is a planet, devise an acrostic that omits Pluto and just contains the first eight planets.)
After you've tried to create the acronym and acrostic, meet in a group and discuss these questions: How successful were you in devising effective acronyms and acrostics? Do some of the group members' creations seem more effective than others? Why? Is the act of creating them an important component of helping to remember what they represent, or would having them created by someone else be as helpful in recalling them? For your information, a common acronym for the Great Lakes is HOMES(Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior), and a traditional acrostic for the order of the planets is My Very EducatedMother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. (As for the bonus question that omits Pluto, future generations may use the acrostic My Very EducatedMother Just Served Us Noodles.)
To Try It online, go to www.mhhe.com/power.
Dealing with Learning Disabilities
If you, like millions of people in the United States, have a learning disability of one sort or another, reading and remembering may prove to be particularly challenging. Learning disabilities are defined as difficulties in processing information when listening, speaking, reading, or writing; in most cases, learning disabilities are diagnosed when there is a discrepancy between learning potential and actual academic achievement.
One of the most common kinds of learning disabilities is dyslexia, a reading disability that produces the misperception of letters during reading and writing, unusual difficulty in sounding out letters, spelling difficulties, and confusion between right and left. Although its causes are not yet completely understood, one likely explanation is a problem in the part of the brain responsible for breaking words into the sound elements that make up language.
Another common disability is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (orADHD), which is marked by an inability to concentrate, inattention, and a low tolerance for frustration. For the 1 to 3 percent of adults who have ADHD, planning, staying on task, and maintaining interest present unusual challenges. These challenges are present not only in college, but they also affect job performance.
People with learning disabilities are sometimes viewed as unintelligent. Nothing could be further from the truth: There is no relationship between learning disabilities and IQ. For instance, dozens of well-known and highly accomplished individuals suffered from dyslexia, including physicist Albert Einstein, U.S. General George Patton, poet William Butler Yeats, and writer John Irving.
By the time they reach college, most people with learning disabilities have already been diagnosed. If you do have a diagnosed learning disability and you need special services, it is important to disclose your situation to your instructors and other college officials.
In some cases, students with learning disabilities have not been appropriately evaluated prior to college. If you have difficulties such as mixing up and reversing letters frequently and suspect that you have a learning disability, there usually is an office on campus that can provide you with guidance. One place to start is your college counseling or health center.

A disability in no way dictates what sort of accomplishments you are capable of.
Many sorts of treatments, ranging from learning specific study strategies to the use of medication, can be effective in dealing with learning disabilities. In addition, colleges that accept support from the federal government have a legal obligation to provide people with diagnosed learning disabilities with appropriate support. This obligation is spelled out in the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it provides important legal protections.
However, just because you are having trouble with reading assignments doesn't automatically mean that you have a learning disability. Not only is the kind of reading you do in college more difficult than in other contexts, but there's also more of it. It's only when reading represents a persistent, long-term problem—one that won't go away no matter how much work you do—that a learning disability becomes a possible explanation.
What Does It Mean? What Do I Know?
Evaluation is a crucial step in reading. You need to be able to answer the seemingly simple question: “What does all this mean?”
But there's another aspect to evaluation. You need to evaluate, truthfully and honestly, your own level of understanding. What do you know as a result of your reading? Evaluation, then, consists of the following steps: Identify the main ideas and themes and their value to you personally. Try to determine the take-home message of the material you've read. For example, the take-home message of a chapter on accounting ethics might be, “In the long run, honest accounting practices benefit the long-term health of any business.” Sometimes the main ideas and themes are spelled out, and at other times you will have to deduce them for yourself. Evaluating the main ideas and themes in terms of how they relate to you personally will help you understand and remember them more easily. Prioritize the ideas. Of all the information that is presented, which is the most crucial to the main message and which is the least crucial? Make a list of the main topics covered and try to rank them in order of importance. Think critically about the arguments presented in the reading.Do they seem to make sense? Are the author's assertions reasonable? Are there any flaws in the arguments? Would authors with a different point of view dispute what is being said? How would they build their own arguments? Pretend you are explaining the material (talking—out loud!—about the material) to a fellow classmate who missed the assignment. This is one time when talking out loud when no one is around is not only normal, but beneficial. Summarize the material aloud, as if you were talking to another person. Talking out loud does two things. First, it helps you identify weak spots in your understanding and recall. Talking to yourself will help you nail down concepts that are still not clear in your own mind. Second, and equally important, because you are transforming the written word into the spoken word, you are thinking about the information in another way, which will help you remember it better. Page 123 Use in-text review questions and tests. Many textbook chapters end with a quiz or a set of review questions about the material. Some have questions scattered throughout the chapter. Don't ignore them! Not only do such questions indicate what the writer of the book thought was important for you to learn, but they can also provide an excellent opportunity for evaluating your memory. Team up with a friend or use a study group. When it comes to evaluating your understanding of a reading, two heads (or more!) are often better than one. Working with a classmate or study group—especially others who may have a different preferred learning style from your own—can help you test the limits of your understanding and memory of material and assess areas in which you need work. Be honest with yourself. Most of us are able to read with our minds on cruise control. But the net result is not much different from not reading the passage at all. If you have drifted off while you've been reading, go back and reread the passage.
From the perspective of …

AN EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
The ability to discern what is important within what you read is a key job function for editors. How might you apply your reading evaluation skills to an author's first draft?
The Job of Reading
Memos. Annual reports. Instructions. Continuing education assignments. Professional journals.
Each of these items illustrates the importance of developing critical reading skills for onthe-job success. Virtually every job requires good reading expertise, and for some professions, reading is a central component. Polishing your reading skills now will pay big dividends when you enter the world of work. The better you are at absorbing and remembering written information, the better you'll be at carrying out your job.
For instance, in many corporations, vital information is transmitted through the written word, via e-mails, hard-copy memos, technical reports, or Web-based material. The job of repairing broken appliances or automobiles requires reading of numerous service manuals to master the complex computer diagnostic systems that are now standard equipment. Nurses and others in the health-care field must read journals and reports to keep up with the newest medical technologies.
Furthermore, because not all supervisors are effective writers, you'll sometimes need to read between the lines and draw inferences and conclusions about what you need to do. You should also keep in mind that there are significant cultural differences in the way in which people write and the type of language they use. Being sensitive to the cultural background of colleagues will permit you to more accurately interpret and understand what you are reading.
In short, reading is a skill that's required in virtually every profession. Developing the habit of reading critically while you are in college will pave the road for future career success.

Getting It the Second Time
You're human, so—like the rest of us—when you finish a reading assignment you'd probably like nothing more than to heave a sigh of relief and put the book away.
By now you know that there's a crucial step you should take that will assist you in cementing what you've learned into memory: rethinking what you've read. If you do it within 24 hours of first reading the assignment, it can save you hours of work later.
“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.”
John Locke, author, Of the Conduct of the Understanding,1706
The best way to rethink an assignment is to reread it, along with any notes you've taken. “Yeah, right,” you're probably thinking. “Like I have time for that.” The goal, though, is not a literal rereading. In fact, it isn't necessary to reread word for word. You already know what's important and what's not important, so you can skim some of the less important material. But it is wise to reread the more difficult and important material carefully, making sure that you fully understand what is being discussed and that you'll remember the key details.
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What's most critical, though, is that you think deeply about the material, considering the take-home message of what you've read. You need to be sure that your understanding is complete and that you're able to answer any questions that you had earlier about the material. Rethinking should be the central activity as you reread the passage and your notes.
The benefits of rethinking the material can't be overstated. Rethinking transfers material from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. It solidifies information so that it will be remembered far better over the long haul.
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NAME: | James S. Cook | SCHOOL: | Art Institute of Houston, Houston, Texas |
J
ames Cook readily admits he wasn't a very diligent student when in high school, skipping classes and not working very hard. He felt he would never make it to college.
His outlook would have almost become a reality if it were not for his love of art.
“I've always been an artistic person and had an eye for design,” Cook said. “I started out doing graffiti on buildings, but I knew that I had to put my skills into an actual profession where I could succeed and not be the starving artist.”
To further his education, he enrolled in the Art Institute of Houston, pursing a degree in graphic design. But he was not able to focus on his studies.
“I still had fuzzy goals, and I was stuck in trying to be social, instead of academic,” he noted. “I wanted to succeed, but I wasn't fully engaged. If a class met three days a week, I'd be there for two and a half days.”
He fell further and further behind, and became involved in activities that eventually led to a run-in with the law, causing Cook to drop out of college temporarily. However, it led Cook to turn his life around.
“I grew up and put away my childish ways,” Cook said. “I hoped to return to the Art Institute, but I wasn't sure if they would let me back in.”
Through the efforts of two administrators who saw his promise, Cook did return, with a new major in multimedia and Web design and, more important, with a new set of goals.
“The major thing I did was set a goal,” he explained. “I said to myself that I'm going to graduate, and I'm going to do it on time. I also set little goals for myself along the way, helping me to know that I was on the right path.
“One of my main goals is to bring up my grade point average, which is now 3.1, to where I will qualify for the National Vocational Technical Honor Society, and I expect to do that the next quarter,” he added. “Another goal is to use my hardheadedness within the system instead of against it.”
Cook has kept busy. To support himself financially he has waited tables and has started a business designing Web sites and producing multimedia presentations. For spiritual support, he has become a youth leader in his church's youth ministry—in addition to carrying close to a full load of courses.
“Once I got back into school, my goals and focus were clear,” Cook said. “I saw I could reach those goals. I knew I had to study and work hard in class.”

LookingBack
What are the essential elements of successful reading? The most important aspect of reading is understanding, not speed. Finishing a reading assignment quickly is far less important than understanding it fully. One problem people have with reading is a limited attention span. However, attention span can be increased with self-awareness and practice.
How can I improve my concentration and read more effectively? Reading should be approached with a clear sense of purpose and goals, which will vary from assignment to assignment. Examining the frontmatter of a book and creating advance organizers is also useful. As your read, identify and focus on the key material you will need to remember later. Don't try to memorize everything you read. Maintain focus by breaking down the reading into small chunks, taking breaks as needed, dealing with distractions, and writing while reading.
What are some techniques I can use for memorizing large amounts of information? Many memory techniques are available to improve memorization. Rehearsal is a primary one, as is the use of mnemonics such as acronyms and acrostics. Other memory techniques are visualization and the use of multiple senses while learning new material. Overlearning is a basic principle of memorization.
How can I best retain what I have read? Understanding of reading assignments can be cemented in memory by identifying the main ideas, prioritizing them, thinking critically about the arguments, using in-text questions and tests, and explaining the writer's ideas to someone else. Quickly rereading assignments and notes taken on them can greatly help in solidifying memories of what has been read.

Advance organizers(p. 106) Frontmatter(p. 107) Attention span(p. 110) Rehearsal(p. 118) Mnemonics(p. 118) Acronym(p. 118) Acrostic(p. 118) Visualization(p. 120) Overlearning(p. 120) Learning disabilities(p. 121)

ON CAMPUS
If you are experiencing unusual difficulties in reading or remembering material, you may have a learning disability. If you suspect this is the case, take action. Many colleges have an office that deals specifically with learning disabilities. You can also talk to someone at your college's counseling center; he or she will arrange for you to be tested, which can determine whether you have a problem.
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IN PRINT
The fourth edition of Joe Cortina and Janet Elder's book, Opening Doors: Understanding College Reading (McGraw-Hill, 2008), provides a complete set of guidelines for reading textbooks and other kinds of writing that you will encounter during college. Another useful volume is the seventh edition of Breaking Through: College Reading (Longman, 2009) by Brenda Smith.
In Improving Your Memory (Johns Hopkins, 2005), Janet Fogler and Lynn Stern provide an overview of practical tips on maximizing your memory. Barry Gordon and Lisa Berger provide insight into the functioning of memory and how to improve it in Intelligent Memory (Penguin, 2004).
Finally, The Memory Doctor by Douglas Mason and Spencer Smith (New Harbinger Publications, 2005) offers simple techniques for improving memory.
ON THE WEB
The following sites on the World Wide Web provide the opportunity to extend your learning about the material in this chapter. (Although the Web addresses were accurate at the time the book was printed, check the P.O.W.E.R. Learning Web site [www.mhhe.com/power] for any changes that may have occurred.) Increasing Textbook Reading Comprehension by Using SQ3R is the title of this site offered by Virginia Tech University (www.ucc.vt.edu/lynch/TextbookReading.htm). Offered here is a clear and detailed outline on how to use the SQ3R reading method, as well as links to other reading comprehension aids such as critical reading, proofreading, and selective reading. Need a mnemonic? Have one you'd like to share? Then just go to (www.mnemonicdevice.com/) a new site devoted entirely to mnemonics. This fun and educational site covers a variety of subjects from astronomy to weather. Mind Tools, a bookstore specializing in works on memory, offers a number of free online articles (www.mindtools.com/memory.html) detailing methods for improving memory. It includes examples of how each technique can be applied to such topics as remembering lists and foreign languages.

Go to a newspaper's Web site, such as that of The New York Times (www.nyt.com) or the Atlanta Constitution(www.ajc.com), and read one of the current editorials. Take notes on the editorial, concentrating on evaluating the strength of the argument(s). How persuasive was the editorial, and why? Practice the rehearsal technique for storing information in memory. Go to Yahoo! (dir.yahoo.com) and click on “Regional” and again on “U.S. States.” Click on your state, then on “Government,” and finally on “Elected and Appointed Officials” to find the names of your state's U.S. senators. Repeat the names several times. Now explore another, unrelated site on the Web. After a few minutes, write down the names of your state's U.S. senators from memory. How did you do?

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The Five-Hundred-Pound Reading Packet
The instructor dropped the thick packet of course readings on Delila Meade's desk. It landed with a loud thunk.
“We'll be reading this packet over the next four weeks,” the instructor announced.
But staring at the packet, all Delila could think was, I don't think I could even lift that, let alone read it in just a month!
Sure, Delila thought, she was interested in the topics of the readings. They all dealt with the history of computer programming, and Delila was in college to get her degree in that same field. She told herself a lot of the information in the readings would probably be very useful, both in college and throughout her programming career.
But still—all Delila could focus on as she stared at the packet were nagging questions. How could she possibly read all of it in four weeks? How would she remember all that material for tests or on the job? And perhaps most urgently of all, how would she even get the massive packet home? How would you advise Delila to prepare for her course reading? How would you suggest Delila organize her time so she could finish the readings in the allotted four weeks? How might Delila stay focused on her reading? How might she most effectively use writing as a way to accomplish her task? What techniques might Delila use to memorize long lists or other key material from her reading? In what ways can Delila use rethinking techniques to improve her understanding of the readings in the packet?

chapter 5. Reading And Remembering

Chapter 5 Sections
Footnotes
1. Bransford, J. D., & Johnson, M. K. (1972). Contextual prerequisites for understanding: Some investigations of comprehension and recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, p. 722.
2. Gold, P. E., Cahill, L., & Wenk, G.L. (2003, April) The low-down on ginkgo biloba. Scientific American, pp. 86–91.