• Do the Readings before class. It's very tempting to wait until the professor has discussed a piece before tackling it, but this strategy only results in your missing half the points being made in class. You'd be wasting your time and may lose interest, stop listening, and eventually stop showing up to class altogether. This usually leads to not doing the reading either.

• Using the course description as a guideline, focus your reading on specific aspects of the texts such as narration, genre, etc. In other words, don't just read casually. Read with a specific goal in mind. This will force you to pay attention to what you're reading. Also, it'll give you ideas for that dreaded upcoming essay: brainstorm as you read.

• Write down your thoughts about the text as you are reading. No point in brainstorming if you have no way to refer back to your brilliant ideas. Also, it's mighty useful for when you're looking for a quotation to prove your point. Is there anything more annoying than sifting through 200 pages for a single sentence that may or may not exist? Writing down your thoughts as you read allows you to avoid this problem.

• Do not be afraid to abuse your book. Take notes in the margin, turn down pages, underline relevant passages, etc. However, don't highlight. If you highlight the wrong thing, you can't erase it. You're then stuck with a distracting highlighted segment with no real relevance. That half-hour you later spend trying to figure out why that passage is important is time lost on your upcoming essay.

• Divide up your reading time. Don't read until your head explodes. No head, no credits. It's in the Concordia academic rulebook. More importantly, reading too much at a time will exhaust you. Be strategic about the way you dispense your energy. Make every minute of studying count by making sure you are well rested and up to the challenge.

• Most importantly, enjoy your reading. Reading is demanding, but don't turn it into a chore by focusing solely on grades, assignments, and pleasing your professor. YouÕll only succeed in making the course unbearable. If a text is particularly difficult, you can focus on a general sense of accomplishment or establish a reward system: give yourself a treat for every 25 pages you go through for example. Also, you presumably took a literature course because you enjoy literature. Never lose sight of that.

Handout written by Dimitri A.C. Ly

Student Learning Services, Concordia University