Purposeful

Read to identify, summarise and debate facts and arguments.

Academic reading is always done for a specific purpose. This purpose is to gain the ability to identify, summarise, and debate arguments and facts.

This means that an academic reader will be approaching their texts very differently than somebody who is starting to read a story whose main purpose is to share an experience or perhaps to be able to say ‘they’ve read it’.

Points 2 and 3 will also be different from readers of an instruction manual or a public notice.

Choosing the Approach

This means that an academic reader should not be starting to approach a piece of reading to be able to say ‘I’ve read this’ but rather to be able to say ‘this text claims Y’ and ‘given X, it is or is not a justified claim’.

The approach the reader chooses will vary from text to text but it will rarely be simply sitting down and reading page after page.

Choosing Tools

Many default tools do not take into account the purposefulness of academic reading. When choosing the tool such as an e-reader, PDF reading app, or a note taking app, an academic reader may not find features that would support their main aim.