By By Ganiu Bamgbose, PhD
Is reading really a difficult task? Do you also say you don’t understand when you read? Then you need to know few things about this activity.
Reading is a mentally demanding activity which requires attention, devotion and, many times, repetition in order to achieve retention. Reading is one of the four communication skills and it is both a literacy and receptive skill which makes it a taxing engagement. Reading an academic material is a completely different engagement from reading novels and other general materials such as newspapers. Academic reading demands that you are able to reproduce the core information you get from a piece and even apply them in real life situations. Below are few things to know about reading in order to successfully assimilate academic materials.
1. Reading is not expected to be so easy as it requires comprehension for the purpose of retention and reproduction. So it is quite okay to think reading is boring and unpleasurable. It is more of what you must force yourself to do than what you will find pleasurable until it eventually becomes a part of you.
2. It is normal to read a material and not understand it. When this is the case, you need to either read the material over again or find simpler materials on the subject matter. Sometimes, you need to understand that you might not possess the required knowledge to digest the material you are engaging. In that case, you have to read simpler works to get the elementary knowledge on the subject.
3. It is not out of place to feel sleepy when you are reading. Reading is mentally demanding and exhaustive. When it happens, it is okay to take a nap or take a walk and return to the material.
4. The quality of a reading moment is in how well you assimilate what you have read and not how much you have read. This means it is okay to read a page over and over again and be sure you have assimilated the message therein than to read pages and be unable to recall the gist of the material.
5. Reading is easier when you pause to reflect on what you are reading, ask questions, raise concerns and make jottings either in a note or on the book. You can also underline important parts of the subject for easy revision at a later time.
Let me conclude by saying that reading is a behaviour that has to become a habit in order to become easy. Whatever be the challenge that comes with reading, to stop reading is never an option. Continue reading!
(c) 2023 Ganiu Bamgbose writes from the Department of English, Lagos State University
