Managing intensive reading

Research involves a lot of reading. There is no alternative if you are to gain the knowledge of the relevant literature in your particular field to inform your research.. If that volume of reading poses difficulties for you, for example because of memory or language processing or you reply on assistive technology, then it is advisable to develop strategies as early as possible to overcome any challenges. 

Academic reading

To put it in perspective, reading is simply a tool which helps you access the thoughts of others. As you have discovered as an undergraduate, academic reading requires you to:

• identify arguments
• recognise whether they support or oppose the main premise
• find the evidence
• identify conclusions and whether the evidence supports the conclusions
• be a critical thinker

Dan Kurland provides insight into the meaning of critical reading and thinking stating that:

‘To non-critical readers, many texts offer the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. To the critical reader, any single text provides but one portrayal of the facts, one individual's "take" on the subject.’