The key to being a good reader in any language is to read, read, and read some more! Even leisure reading may help you expand your vocabulary, increase your reading speed, and improve your comprehension. Use Rasmussen's learning resources to cultivate strategies that work for the different kinds of reading you will be doing in your courses and career.
College coursework requires a lot of reading, and there's only so much time in a day. Successful students use strategies to read for understanding, which helps them comprehend text efficiently and retain new information. It's critical to use pre- and post-reading strategies while also paying attention to the features of a given text, including organization, use of graphics, and disciplinary conventions for conveying knowledge.
Your coursework will become increasingly rigorous throughout your program, and learning the specialized terminology in your field and in academics, in general, will help you learn complex concepts as well as read and write effectively in your discipline. While inferring meaning from context clues is still a useful strategy, notice the jargon used in your field, study it as necessary, and incorporate it into your writing.
Interact with your course content and assigned readings by marking and annotating to support comprehension. Highlight within your e-books, and implement note-taking strategies to paraphrase in your own words and draw connections between curricular concepts. Translating into your first language may help initially, but strive to take notes in the language of instruction in order to practice new vocabulary and ensure clarity of detail.
