Highlighting and Underlining

Whenever you read a book that belongs to you, have a pen or highlighter in your hand. Then, as you read, you can mark the words and ideas that are most important to learn or remember. Highlighting helps make key ideas stand out. Important information is then easier to recognize when you take notes or review.

The key to effective highlighting or underlining is to be selective. Don’t highlight or underline anything or everything. If you highlight every second or third sentence, nothing on the page will stand out. Highlight only key words and ideas.

And how do you know what the key words and ideas are? While studying, you should highlight or underline:

words that are defined in the text
main ideas
key details that support or explain main ideas
words, grammar rules, and other items that you need to remember
ideas or concepts that are new to you
vocabulary words and idiomatic expressions that you are unsure about

Asking Questions

Asking questions is an important study technique because it encourages you to actively involve yourself in the material you are learning. This “active” studying will assist in your comprehension and future retention of the material.

For example, when reading something in English, ask yourself the following questions (and write down your answers):

1. What is this passage about (general topic)?

2. What is the main idea (what is being said about the topic)?

3. What is the author’s purpose?

4. What is the meaning of this word as it is used in the sentence?

5. What does “it” refer to in this passage?

6. Is this sentence a main idea or supporting evidence?