When I had my daughter, I walked around stores looking at all the adorable baby clothes that I couldn’t afford. My daughter was only about 1 month old when I decided to permanently borrow my mom’s sewing machine and teach myself how to sew. After reading a couple of sewing blogs and watching a handful of YouTube videos, I was not only confident I knew exactly what I was doing, but that I could sew beautiful baby clothes in a fraction of the time.
My plan? To skip what I decided were time wasters.
I worked without a pattern, I sewed without pins, and I certainly never plugged in an iron. And, the truth is, I sewed my daughter a cute little denim jumper. BUT - it took me almost 10X as long as it should have, and it left me sitting on a couch with sore fingers while I angrily plucked out stitches because I would have to drive back to the fabric store and spend more money.
It took a solid 6 months for me to realize reading essays and sewing have more in common than I thought. Just lIke sewing, reading a scholarly essay isn’t about rushing to the end. It’s about prepping properly so you don’t end up wasting time and feeling frustrated (possibly even angry!) halfway through.
Here's the deal: reading a scholarly essay isn’t like breezing through a novel or scanning your favourite blog post. Why? Because scholarly essays are meant to make you think deeply, analyze complex arguments, and connect the dots between different ideas. They’re written by experts for an audience that already has a background in the subject. So, if you’ve ever felt like you’re drowning in technical jargon and dense text, you’re not alone.
The good news? There are ways to break through the dense fog, scratch beneath the surface of a text and make observations that will help you extract the author’s ideas and have something of your own to say about them. But before we get to that, let’s talk about why reading a scholarly essay is such a struggle for so many students.
The Mistakes That Leave You Spinning Your Wheels
Most students make the same mistakes when reading scholarly essays.
Let’s do a quick survey and see if you’re like many of the students I work with:
☑ You skip over acquainting yourself with an essay in favour of diving into it
☑ You skim the first few paragraphs to get to the “good stuff”
☑ You read every word of the essay from start to finish
☑ You nitpick paragraphs before getting a handle on the broad strokes of an idea
Does this sound like you?
Does this sound like you?
Yep...this is SO me.
Guilty on most accounts - but not all.
Wait...people actually do these things?!?
Here’s the problem: scholarly essays aren’t linear like a story or even a textbook chapter. The argument might not be clear until you’re halfway through, and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s easy to get lost in the details.
So, what happens? You end up frustrated and questioning your intelligence on every level. And, when it’s time to write your own paper or participate in class discussions, you’re left thinking, Did I actually get anything out of that?
The Good News: There’s a Better Way
Alright, There's no magic formula that will make scholarly essays instantly easy to read. (I know, I wish there was too.) But, with a few strategic moves, you can turn what feels like an impossible task into something manageable. It’s all about approaching the essay with purpose and engaging with it in a way that gets your critical thinking gears turning.
Let’s walk through some steps you can take before reading to not only understand the material but reflect on it in a way that actually sticks and sparks ideas that you can share in the classroom and your essays.
Before You Read: Shake Hands With the Essay
1. Scan the Whole Essay
Before diving in, take a minute to scan the whole essay. Look at how it’s laid out: are there section titles? Subheadings? Charts or illustrations? Any prefacing quotes or data that stand out? These elements can give you a good sense of the essay’s structure and key points. This quick scan will help you get a feel for the flow of the argument, so you won’t be caught off guard as you read.
2. Read the Abstract and/or Preface First
Scholarly essays typically begin with an abstract or introduction that lays out the main argument. This is like your road map—don’t skip it. Quite often, this is a good place to find a short summary of the author’s line of reasoning and a sentence or two explaining the author’s main argument. Read the abstract slowly, look for and underline the thesis, and keep an eye out for key terms or themes that will guide the rest of the essay.
3. Get to Know the Author
It’s a good idea to know who you’re giving your time to so take a second to note the author’s name. Maybe you’ve read other essays or texts by this author that will give you a bit of an insider’s view into this specific essay. Maybe you’ve heard the name cited in other works or during class lectures. If the name’s not familiar, make a note of it and do a 3 min google search and read his/her bio. Knowing someone’s area of expertise, primary discipline / area of study, and a little about their approach to academia (the lens through which they look at the world) gives you a bit of a foothold and a heads up for what to to expect.
4. Activate Your Prior Knowledge
After you’ve read the abstract and any passage or quotes that appear before the first line of the essay, give yourself a couple of minutes to reflect on the title. Is it cheeky? Sarcastic? Controversial? Limited in scope? Then pause and take a quick inventory. I have 4 questions I tell my students to ask themselves before tackling the opening sentence. Based on what you know about the essay so far:
How much do you already know about this topic?
Have you read other articles or texts that address the topic (or a related topic) either in a current course or past course?
Can you relate to this topic in any personal way?
Are there any unfamiliar words or terms that have popped up that you’re pretty sure are central to the author’s argument? If so, take a moment to look them up, see what they mean, and consider how the author is using them.
Activating your prior knowledge is a crucial step. It signals to your brain what to do with the new information—what to attach it to and how to make sense of it. By making these connections, you’re setting yourself up to better understand what you’re reading because you’re attaching new info to info you already know and understand.
NOTE: If the essay you’re reading doesn’t have an abstract or preface, this is a good exercise to repeat after having read the first few paragraphs of the essay.
5. Scan the Conclusion
Yep, you read that right—jump to the end. The conclusion often revisits the main argument and might even clarify points that felt muddy in the intro. Having a good sense of the author’s final destination will help you stay focused as you wade through the body of the essay.
6. Look for Section Headings
Many scholarly essays (though not all) have headings or subheadings that break up the text. These are your friends! They’ll help you navigate the essay’s structure and let you know what each section is about without getting bogged down in the details. Also, I like to tell my students after they’ve finished reading a section to do 1 of 2 things: either give the section a title that captures the big idea, or write an open-ended question the section attempts to answer. Doing either one of these things holds you accountable to check-in with the text and keeps your understanding on track.
7. Know What You’re Looking For
Are you reading this essay to find specific evidence for an assignment? To understand a particular theory? Knowing your purpose will help you filter out what’s relevant and what you can skim. Not every word will be important, and that’s okay.
Not sure how to set a reading intention and put some time-saving boundaries around your research? You're not alone. Arguably, this is the most overlooked and poorly taught essential academic writing skill. But, don't worry. I've got you covered. In my 1 hr video tutorial, Read So You're Ready to Write, I walk you through step-by-step how to set a reading intention, organize a narrow and and defined research question, and strategically dig into an author's ideas to save you time reading unnecessary articles and to create a stacked set of research notes that will get your first draft down on paper in record time!
Here’s the Takeaway
I want to wrap this up by saying I know this seems like a lot of “extra” work and you’re probably thinking, “Uhh, Jenn. I need to knock things off my to-do list. Not add to it.” And, I hear you. But, the thing with critical reading is that it’s a process. And, when you don’t work the process, you don’t get the big wins. You get the big time wasters, the big disappointments, and the big feelings of frustration.
To circle back to my sewing story, time wasters are often time-savers. When I started sewing, I had a long-list of time time wasters. Drawing and cutting patterns? Time wasters. Ironing and pinning? Time wasters. Turns out the time wasters were really time savers.
Reading a scholarly essay doesn’t have to feel like an uphill battle. By prepping yourself before you dive in - scanning the layout, activating your prior knowledge, and knowing exactly what you’re looking for - you’ll not only save time but also sharpen your understanding of the material. Sure, it might feel like extra work at first, but trust me, the payoff is worth it. Embrace the process and know that with a little practice and strategy, you’ll be well on your way to to breaking down even the most complex essays and leaving the overwhelm behind.
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