Active reading: read with a pen!

Source: photo taken by the author.

You've probably heard the term “‘active listening” before. That’s the process of using body language, asking questions, etc. to engage in meaningful conversation. You have heard of this, yes? (Nod now so I know you've been listening). OK, there is also such a thing as “active reading,” but I prefer to call active reading “reading with a pen.” Active reading involves such strategies as highlighting text and taking notes, writing down questions raised by the text, noting other writers or works of literature the text reminds you of, and sometimes disagreeing with the text.

So if this is a blog about writing, why discuss reading? Because the two are inextricably linked. In order to become a good writer, you must be a curious (and preferably, a voracious) reader. After all, if you are not familiar with what else has already been written, how can you expect to write anything novel? Just as a lawyer must be well versed in the precedents of case law, a writer has to know the body of work that he or she stands upon.

And when you do read, don’t read passively. If you are a college student, one beautiful benefit is that you own the books you purchase for classes. Therefore, you can write in them as much as you like. And do so! I once heard a teacher say that no book has truly been read unless it is marked up, creased and torn, and covered with stains. So go ahead and cover those books with notes, questions, underlined ideas and sentences, you name it. The process of underlining, highlighting and making notes in the margins of a book is called annotating a text. You should get in the habit of making many annotations. As a college student, I used to write notes like “cf. Steinbeck” in the margin of literature anthologies. “Cf.” is the abbreviation for “confer,” and I was reminding myself that a passage in the anthology reminded me of something I had previously read by John Steinbeck and to go and check the applicable Steinbeck passage.

Remember, reading is active, not passive. You are engaged in a conversation with the text. Whether the author of last week’s best seller or the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle from thousands of years ago, writers are talking to you, their reader. So go ahead and talk back to them!

© 2014 Bob Dial.  All rights reserved.