5 A Conversation with the Literature: Passive versus Active Reading

By: Blair Wilson

Snore: why the resistence to academic reading?

Often when we are reading academic literature, we read it passively unless the author offers an engaging account of their work.  Academics often write in technical jargon that can often read as robotic or rote.  Moreover, restrictive publishing guidelines requires academics to communicate a lot of information in little space, thus they can overwhelm the reader.  Sitting down to read academic journals or texts can feel like a chore when they are daunting to read, especially when we see  that Netflix Original we have been putting off or that new novel we just bought sitting across from us.

In efforts to grit our teeth to slog through yet another journal or text in pursuit of our academic goals, we may passively read by focusing on keywords that italicized or in bold.  We may also selectively ‘choose’ sections of the journal or text that we perceive as holding the most salient information such as the Introduction, Findings, or Discussion. Am I projecting? I find I am more likely to read sections of a journal or text when I feel I have little time to do much else.

While the problem of the stylings of academic writing warrants further discussion, and indeed remediation, we also need a way of engaging with academic literature that ensures we gain a comprehensive understanding it, so that our analyzes are critically informed and grounded. The best evidence a senior doctoral student gave me thus far was to read the literature as though you are in a conversation with the writers.  If you were to imagine the writers sitting before you, what would you ask them?  How would you facilitate a round table discussion with them?  While they did not use the term active reading, this is what they were describing.

Tips for Active Reading:

1. Before sitting down to read, produce your interview questions that you would like to ask the writers. You should intricately link your questions to the purposes your reading the journal or text to begin with.  These questions orient or ground you the literature as you read.
   1.  As I am reading, I often write out questions in the margins in response to a contention or curiosity I have in response to their writing.  This also helps me to integrate what I am reading.
2. Do not try to read an entire article in one sitting. If you decide to do so, re-read the article again, but engage with it, section by section.  I like to think of what I am ready as a play (side note, not all plays are good) with many scenes each punctuated by an intermission (our time to reflect on what we read).

• After each section, recite, inside or out loud, how you understood what you just read then write it down in your own words. You can think of it as you supplied a summarization to their answers during the after-show Q&A.

1. After your first, or many of you, your second reading, write brief responses to the questions you generated before sitting down to read. I will use mind mapping to do this where I place a question I generated at the centre of the page while branching out concepts or themes that appeared from my final reading of the journal or text.

Active reading many not always be possible.  As a practice it is best for the important stuff such as exams, proposals, and theses. However, if you have the time, I think active reading is preferable.