For the majority of students at university - particularly students of humanities, business and social sciences, academic reading is by far in a way the most labour-intensive academic process. However, many students receive very little support about things they could do to read more efficiently and effectively. Much support at university is focused upon writing, but students need to have consulted enough sources and made sense of the content in order to write high-quality assignments.

This concise and practical text will equip students with the effective reading strategies they need when preparing for their university assessments. The book:

· dispels a number of dubious assumptions that students hold about university reading

· helps students to understand the different types of texts they will encounter at university

· provides a range of strategies that students can use to understand their field of study, particular texts and the relations between texts

· helps readers to speed up their reading, as well as read in a more focused and slower way, depending on what's needed

· provides worked examples of how reading features in the research and writing process by analysing how readings feature in (1) an essay and (2) a literature review

Introduction
Twelve dubious assumptions about reading at university
The purpose of universities and the nature of academic publishing and what this means for your reading
Marking criteria related to reading
The different types of sources encountered at university
Optimising the environment in which you read
Making notes when you read
Reading to work out what a source is generally about
Reading in depth
The assignment-production process: reading, planning and writing
Reading critically (part 1): different ways of using information in your writing, including critiquing
An extended activity about how to find, evaluate and use information from a single source
Reading critically (part 2): Comparative reading and synthesis
Reading to understand your field
Reading to write: developing your academic voice by imitating good writers
Reading widely to enrich your studies and life
Conclusion.