There isn't space in this booklet to write a comprehensive study skills guide. The OUHK Press publishes a guide called Developing Skills for Distance Learning which you can purchase from the OUHK Information Centre. However, as this is a good time for you to be thinking about your skills, and possibly doing some work to improve them, we thought we'd briefly consider the skills of reading and note-taking. If you want to know more, look at the study skills guide.

Reading

Even nowadays, with the introduction of new technology to many courses, there is a lot of reading in distance learning. To cope with it all, you'll need to develop some reading techniques. Here we'll talk about scanning, skimming and reading for study.

Scanning

When you scan a text, you search for one particular item (or set of items) while ignoring everything else. Suppose, for example, that you're writing an essay on Hong Kong financial markets, and you're looking through a copy of Asiaweek to see if there are any relevant articles. You scan the list of contents to find the economics section, then scan the articles listed there. You find an article on South-east financial markets. You then turn to the article and scan it for mentions of Hong Kong. When you find one, you can then read more closely the paragraph it's in to see if it has any information you can use.

Skimming

Whereas you scan for specific information, you skim a text to get a general idea of what information it contains. In this instance you might pick up the copy of Asiaweek in a bookshop, skim through the contents, turn to a couple of articles that interest you and skim through the paragraphs to get a sense of what they are saying. But you wouldn't read every word, or even look at every paragraph. You just want to read enough to find out whether the magazine is worth buying.

Reading for study

Scanning and skimming are ways of speeding up your reading, but once you start detailed study, you may need to slow down. Often scientific or technical reading requires you to read very slowly. You may have to 'crack' a single idea or concept a sentence at a time, and you may need to go back over the text several times. Some sections of material may require that you understand every sentence and that you know how each sentence, and sometimes each equation, relates to the next. It does not pay to have a passive approach to reading at the tertiary level. Be active, and re-read parts that are complex and difficult.

If you don't understand something, even reading it slowly several times, go on to something else and try again later.

Other things you could try when you are reading for study are:

• Marking the text as you go -- highlight key concepts, and try to sort out which information will be critical to the tutorial and assignment questions on which you will be working; look for problem models and for patterns for solving problems. You may wish to write margin labels on them for reference when you review the materials. (We'll discuss this further in the next section on noting and making notes.)
  
  
• Using visual images -- most people use mental images to help them understand scientific and mathematical concepts. Becoming aware of how you visualize can help to improve your understanding of your study materials. Try to visualize as you read, whether it is for historical chronology, a description of a process or theory, or a scientific description. If there are diagrams or illustrations in your study materials, learn to use them to complement the text. When there is no diagram to illustrate a process or idea, make your own. Your own diagram will stick in your mind long after the descriptive words are forgotten.
  
  
• Noting new terms -- you will find that your textbooks have many terms that are new to you. Since these terms stand for essential concepts and ideas, you must know precisely what they mean if you are to understand the subject matter. Your study units and textbook usually provide you with help; important new terms are often emphasized by italic or bold type at their first occurrence, and they may be specifically defined at that point or in a glossary. Put extra time and attention into memorizing these terms and into learning what they mean. A good idea is to put these terms on small flashcards. These cards can be used in your spare minutes to build up your technical vocabulary.

Activity

Practise your reading skills On a day when you've read a Chinese language newspaper (for example, Mingpao, Singtao or Appledaily), buy one of the English language ones (for example, SCMP or iMail). Pick a minor news story (the sort that take up three or four paragraphs) in the Chinese newspaper and think what the headline would be in English (think of two or three options). Then scan the English newspaper to see if the story is covered there. If it isn't, pick another story and try again. Skim the Hong Kong section of the English newspaper to see what stories are covered. Are any there that weren't in the Chinese paper? Are any missing? Select one of the long feature articles and read it, highlighting the main ideas and noting unfamiliar terms (or making flashcards of them).

You don't have to do this with a newspaper; you can think of your own materials to practise skimming, scanning and reading for study. It's a good idea to practise before you get to the real thing.