When you are studying MST subjects, the texts you work with can take a variety of forms. In some subjects, the pages are covered with numbers and mathematical symbols. In others, you might find lots of chemical symbols, diagrams of experiments, systems flow diagrams, electrical circuit diagrams, and many other things. In this book, we have divided these different kinds of study material across four chapters. The next three chapters look at how to study texts which contain:
X diagrams (Chapter 3)
X mathematics (Chapter 4)
X numbers and symbols (Chapter 5).
In this chapter, I shall concentrate on how to study words – that is, I shall be concerned with ‘reading’.
Reading is one of the key challenges of studying. Why? Since you already know how to read, what is the problem? Think back to Mark in Chapter 1. Why was he experiencing difficulties? His problems were having too much to read, finding some of it hard to understand, and worrying that he would not be able to remember things. In other words, when you are studying, the challenges of reading lie in:
X coping with large amounts
X trying to understand the difficult parts
X finding ways to remember what you have read.
To begin to explore these challenges, you really need to have a go at some reading. You will find an article at the end of this book by Professor Gerald Collee of the University of Edinburgh. It first appeared in the popular UK science magazine New Scientist in 1989, shortly after a public panic over salmonella contamination in eggs. For much of this book, we’re going to concentrate on this article. Of course, the particular texts that you’ll come across in your studies may be quite different in terms of subject matter and approach, but I want to outline some general study approaches that should prove helpful whatever you’re reading.
Photocopy the article first
It is a good idea to make at least one photocopy of the Collee article (on pages 396 to 402) before you start to work on it. Then you can scribble notes on a photocopy without worrying about what you write. You may be able to get access to a photocopier in your local library.
Activity Break
Now read the article by Gerald Collee on pages 396 to 402. (This chapter and later ones will assume that you have read the article.) Then write down your thoughts on the questions below.1 Did you enjoy reading the article?
2 Did you experience any difficulties as you read? 3 How long did it take you?
4 In a sentence, what was the article about? (Don’t look back – work from memory.)
5 What two or three points stuck in your mind as especially worth remembering?
6 Will you be able to remember what the article was about in two or three weeks’ time?
7 Did you make any marks on the article as you read, or make any notes?
Obviously, I can’t discuss your answers here, but to give you something to compare them with, here are my reactions on reading the article for the first time.
I had no great urge to read about food poisoning, but the article opened in a fairly chatty, informal style, and I found I got along reasonably well. However, I became bogged down in the detail at times. Paragraphs 5 to 8 seemed a bit rambling, as though searching for answers to a question that hadn’t been spelt out. After paragraph 10 there was a shift in style, and the article became a list of different types of food poisoning bacteria. I
couldn’t quite see where it was all going, or what the point was – and I wasn’t sure what would be worth trying to remember. Yet I found the whole thing quite interesting – especially the drawings of the different micro- organisms and the diagram showing how fast bacterial populations can grow.
So, my answers to the questions were as follows.
1 Yes – looking back – I did enjoy it quite well, although I was a little reluctant in the early stages.
2 I found some of the technical terms and Latin names off-putting, and I wasn’t sure whether I should try to remember them.
3 It took me about 20 minutes. I wasn’t concentrating particularly hard, so I moved along fairly quickly.
4 The article seemed to be about the causes of food poisoning.
5 The thing that particularly stuck in my mind was the poison that can kill millions of people with just one gram. (I wondered about who might be able to get hold of it!) I also remembered the bit about bacteria multiplying very fast on food that’s warm and damp.
6 Afterwards, the article was rather jumbled in my mind, lots of detailed information and unfamiliar names – so I wasn’t sure I’d remember much of it a few weeks on. For example, I knew the last part was about salmonella, but apart from unpleasant images of infected chicken carcasses and eggs, I couldn’t remember much at all. I just got the idea that, although only a small proportion of eggs are contaminated, we eat so many that quite a lot of people get sick.
7 I underlined some words as I went along, but I didn’t make any notes on this first read-through.
Were your reactions similar? Perhaps not. We all react differently to reading matter. It depends on:
X what you are interested in
X what you already know
X how much experience you have of reading in the particular subject area
X how hard you are trying.
Nevertheless, I hope that seeing my reactions helps you to think about yours. As a student, you are going to be very much involved with ‘managing’ your
approach to reading, and this involves a good understanding of your reactions to various kinds of texts.