Before reading the essay “Read like a Writer” Zack
told us that this would be one of the most important readings we would do in
this class. With this info I wanted to make sure I put more effort into
understanding what I was reading rather than just doing the reading and not
really attempting to grasp the information. I wouldn’t say that I have
difficulty pulling information from a text–except for papers on writing. I
think this is because the tools they share in the work can’t be used right
away, unlike other readings you can take notes and refer to it later as a block
of knowledge/fact. Writing tips that are extracted from papers can’t really be
used until you write making it difficult for me to remember them or even want
to use them since most papers I write, I write to just get them over with. The
tools found in the reading are relevant to this class though because this is
time and place to try out and adjust the styles we find in the papers.
Anyways, when I was reading the essay I tried to take
my time to be more selective in what I chose to highlight. I did this by
reading the essay and then going back and highlighting only one or two
important points in each. I also tried to annotate while reading. This was
harder for me because I have never “officially” annotated anything; I don’t
even really know how to do it. I annotated by jotting down any questions I had
when I was reading. I also tried to rephrase the information I was
highlighting. At first when I was taking my time and breaking down the paper I
thought that it was going to take me F-O-R-E-V-E-R, but then I thought how when
I usually read I stop and get distracted because I get bored reading. Being
more engaged while reading didn’t take less time, but it did make the process
more interesting and I was not getting as lost in the text or caught up in my
daydreams.
During the activity we
did in class when we shared the “moves” the author made in the piece I was
keeping track of the ones I had noticed that other people we sharing, I noticed
that I had a lot of the same ones. Although this piece seemed simple in
deciphering the moves I felt like some of the more precise moves people were
pointing out I had too, usually I only find the blatant ones. This was kind of
my moment of realization that just taking my time and being engaged with the
text, regardless of the subject, will make pulling out information easier and
makes it stick in my brain better.
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