How to Read Scholarly Texts, for Beginners

ACTIVE READING

Print or photocopy the text.

Read through once with a pencil or highlighter and start with words you don't understand, underlining each as you go, BUT DON'T STOP READING until you get to the end, THEN go back and look up the meaning of all the words you underlined.

Write the definitions, etymology and usage in the margins if it's too many new vocabulary words to remember.

Take your time to learn the new vocabulary and read it again.

ACTIVE READING

Also take note of works cited, any other cross referenced sources you've found that either corroborate or disprove what you've read, questions about the text, new or related lines of research, in margins.

ACTIVE READING

KEEP PENCIL, PEN OR HIGHLIGHTER IN YOU HAND AT ALL TIMES AND FOLLOW THE TEXT WITH THE IMPLEMENT USED AS A POINTER WHILE YOU READ.


How to Read Scholarly Books at an Advanced College Level

GET FAMILIAR WITH THE BOOKS.

GET TO KNOW THEM.

First start with the cover.

This is really dumb stuff, right?

Then open each book.

You already know this stuff.

I don't have to go over this, the noscript page.

Behind the noscript page is the indicia.

You learn this stuff in elementary school.

But let's keep going.

This is the advanced college level.

You may need to read several books at once.

Even if you don't have a GED or high school diploma, this will help you even if you choose to audit a college class or skip college and just apply learning non-academically.

Next there are the Tables of Contents.

GET FAMILIAR WITH THE BOOKS.

GET TO KNOW THEM.

Read through the Tables of Contents.

See what's there.

Note anything in the Tables of Contents that catches your attention.

You can skim through the bodies of text, especially for anything in the Tables of Contents that caught your attention, but keep going.

Don't just read the whole books cover to cover from start to finish without knowing anything about them.

Yes, read the introduction first, before the first chapter, but before you do, you've scanned all the front: scan all the back of it.

Some of this information may be in the Tables of Contents, or it may not.

What does it have?

GET FAMILIAR WITH THE BOOK.

GET TO KNOW IT.

Does it have a bibliography?

Where does the information come from?

Is all the information from direct experience of the authors and editors or do they get their information elsewhere?

Where is the source information listed?

Are there footnotes or endnotes?

More importantly, does it have an index?

Can it be used as a reference book?

Can you look things up in it?

Read through the whole index and see if anything catches your attention.

Read through the whole bibliography and see if anything stands out.

Are there any authors that you already know?

Are there any works cited that you've already read?

Keep going.

Is there a glossary in the back?

Are there any of these other reference tools?

Are there appendices?

Check them out.

Is there anything of interest to your research?

Then go back from the index and find in the text what you were interested in to begin with besides the overall subject and you get through the book a lot faster.

Then if you want to read the whole book, you've made a more informed decision.

Go ahead.

Start from the beginning.

Read the preface, the introduction, the foreword, applying the ACTIVE READING skills you've practiced, always noting materials cross referenced with the text.

NEW: Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger says that Wikipedia has been ideologically corrupted, raises the possibility that Katherine Maher collaborated with U.S. intelligence, and says that, if NPR were committed to truth, it would fire her "right away."
https://city-journal.org/article/wikipedia-co-founder-shocked-by-npr-chief-katherine-maher

Andrew Bridgen's speech from Excess Deaths and c19 Vaccines Debate House of Commons 18/04/24
https://odysee.com/@FoxesAmazingChannel:8/bridgen-speech:6 #excessdeaths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44T9HxFEA7g The reality!

BREAKING - IRAN IRGC STATES THAT IRAN WILL TARGET ISRAELI NUCLEAR SITES WITH COUNTERATTACK

follow @insiderpaper

Kenya has announced the recent discovery of the precious mineral Coltan within its borders. Coltan is a priceless component in the manufacture of smartphones laptops, and other communication gadgets.

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/kenya-has-discovered-a-very-rare-and-conflict-linked-mineral/7z41b3s?op=1
Government eyes billions as the historic Coltan mineral find excites the mining sector

https://www.kenyanews.go.ke/government-eyes-billions-as-the-historic-coltan-mineral-find-excites-the-mining-sector/
Kenya strikes 'large deposits' of Coltan, mineral used in phones

https://nation.africa/kenya/counties/embu/-kenya-strikes-large-deposits-coltan-mineral-used-in-phones-4502382
Kenya’s military chief among 10 people killed in helicopter crash

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/18/kenyas-military-chief-among-10-people-killed-in-helicopter-crash
Kenya military chief and nine other senior officers killed in military helicopter crash

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-19/kenya-military-chopper-crash-kills-defence-chief-senior-officers/103743578

A proposed housing levy has reopened a conflict between the government and judiciary that could lead to a breakdown of order in Kenya
https://www.swentr.site/africa/595996-kenya-ruto-clash-judicial-independence/

https://citizenwatchreport.com/nordstrom-confirms-its-looking-to-go-private-with-founding-family-interested-in-deal/ and https://www.sott.net/article/490740-UK-insurers-refuse-to-pay-Nord-Stream-because-blasts-were-government-backed

https://rumble.com/v4pv6jb-when-two-electric-cars-collide....html Imagine actually buying and owning one of these things :DDDD