Technical Reading

This semester you will read articles in technical journals in your field. Please use articles in technical journals available in the HCC Library. Please use the survey method you learned in class in order to ensure your full understanding of the articles.

For each article you read you need to complete a journal article form and submit it to your teacher. Please photocopy the article you read, highlight the main ideas with your highlighter pen, and staple it to the journal article form.

You will complete article assignments of different types (trouble--shooting, general problems, in--depth treatments, etc.,) and in your journal article forms you will indicate which type of article it is.
 

In most textbooks the chapter review questions will tell you what the most important points of the chapter are In other words, chapter review questions cover the main ideas--the info that will be on exams Thus, if you find the answers first, you will know what the most important sections of the chapter are to study--saving yourself some time.
 

1. For each review question highlight the key words. Key words are nouns, verbs, and sometimes adjectives, and adverbs.

 
2. Find the section of the chapter where the key words in your first question appear usually this will be in a heading sometimes it will be in italics in the text sometimes it will be in the caption for a visual.

 
3. In the margin where the key words appear in the text write the question number. Do not try to answer the question at this time.

 
4. In the margin next to the review question write down two pieces of information: the page number where the key words appear the quadrant on the page where they appear the quadrant is the upper right, upper left, or lower right, lower left of the page.

 

• Use key words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) to find the general location for the answers to study review questions before you read the chapter in order to find out what's important in the chapter.

 
• "Read" the illustrations to find out what they mean and what the main ideas of the chapter are. Highlight the visuals and the section of the chapter that they refer to.

 
• Make up vocabulary cards for new technical words, using layout color, and visuals to help you memorize the words.

 
• Take lecture notes using the following method.

1. Fold a sheet of folder paper 1/3 2/3.

 
2. Take notes in class only on the right side of the paper.

 
3. Abbreviate, use symbols; leave space for ideas you miss, use?

For unclear points, get down as much as you can.
 
4. After class, make questions for chunks of info and highlight key ideas.

 
5. Ask students or teachers about missing ideas or questions.

 
6. Use your notes to quiz yourself.

 

Use headings in your chapter to make questions for your textbook.

1. Fold a sheet of folder paper 1/3 on the left and 2/3 on the right.
 
2. Write your questions on the left side.
 
3. Then read the section to find the answers to the questions.
 
4. Summarize the answers on the other side of the paper.
 
5. Highlight key words in the answers.
 
6. Make up your own visuals, tables, and flowcharts to study for tests.
 
7. Form a study group with 3 or 4 students and meet regularly to quiz each other using the study materials.

 

1. The writer of the textbook creates chapter review questions to help students learn the most important points of the chapter. Sometimes the review questions are at the beginning of the chapter, but more often they are at the end.

 
2. These points are the ones most likely to be on tests.

 
3. If you read these questions, find out the key words and most important points, and discover the general location for the answers to these questions first, then when you start reading the text of the chapter, you will already have some neural connections in your brain that you can attach the new knowledge to, thus making it easier to master the information in that chapter and to decide which sections of the chapter are the most important ones to study intensively.

 

1. Read each review question and highlight the key words. These will be nouns, verbs, and, sometimes, adjectives, and adverbs. You should highlight the words separately, not just highlighting the whole sentence since that defeats the whole purpose of making your eyes focus on the key words.

 
2. Start at the beginning of the chapter and read the boldface headings, italicized words, and, sometimes, the in the caption for an illustration to find the section of the chapter where the key words in your first question appear. All or most of the key words should be in the heading; if only one or two key words are in it, look a bit further to see if there if another section that is closer to the key words of that particular question.

 
3. In the margin at the start of the section where the key words appear, write the question number so that later you will know that you should give this section extra attention.

 
4. Do not try to answer the question at this time. At this point you may not understand the vocabulary completely, so you may not choose the exact sentences that correctly answer the question.

 
5. In the margin next to the review question write down two pieces of information: the page number where the key words appear and the quadrant, or section, on the page where they appear. You can eyeball a page and in your mind divide it into four sections, upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left, and you need to include this information too. Later you will not waste a lot of time searching an entire page for the information you need.

 

Illustrations in technical textbooks play significant roles. In a chapter very frequently they will indicate the main ideas of the chapter. If students read the technical illustrations before they read the text itself, they will have a good idea of the most important points of the chapter. The more important illustrations will usually be larger than the less important ones, and so you will usually want to pay more attention to these larger illustrations.
 

In reading illustrations you need to pay special attention to:

1. the type of illustration (photograph, graph, pie chart flowchart, table, schematic, etc.,)

 
2. the title of the illustration

 
3. the caption explaining the illustration

 
4. the information describing the illustration

 
5. the part of the text that the illustration relates to

 
6. the size of the illustration

 
7. the colors used in the illustration.

 

 

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What types of illustrations are there?

There are several different kinds of illustrations you may find in your technical textbooks, and they each serve different purposes.  You need to be able to recognize the different types and their purposes so that you can determine their significance in your textbook.

Bar graphs vertical,horizontal, line, pie charts, schematics, drawings, flowcharts, photographs, schematics.

See the section on types of illustrations for an explanation of each type of illustration.
 

Easy Steps to Read Illustrations

1. Read the title

 
2. Read the caption

 
3. Highlight the figure number

 
4. Read the information

 
5. Find the section of the text where the visual is mentioned.

• Look for the figure number in the text.

 
• Highlight that place with your highlighter pen.

 
• Draw an arrow between the figure and the place in the text where it is mentioned.

 

6. Read the pieces.

Read the headings on the sides, top, and bottom to figure out what the visual means.

 

Read the key so you know the meanings of symbols.

 

Check out what the quantities of numbers mean.

 

Determine the role color plays.

 

7. Relate the Visual to the Text

Read the section in the text where the visual is mentioned.

 

Write a note on the visual telling what the point of the graph is.

 

Write a second note on the visual explaining how it is related to the text.

 

 

Study Charts

In certain cases reading notes using the question-answer method may not be the most efficient way to cover the information in a chapter of your textbook. In those cases you should use other methods; one of these methods is making a chart.
 

Some chapters in a textbook might discuss several types of the same thing In technical fields, for example, a chapter might discuss several types of compressors, several kinds of roofs, several varieties of engines. In professional fields, a chapter might discuss several types of substance abuse treatment program, several varieties of child abuse, several types of felonies. In liberal arts classes, a chapter might discuss the geography of several different countries, several different varieties of government, several different ethnic groups. If your chapter is like that, then a better way to cover the material is with a study chart, which will take up less room and make it easy for you to make comparisons and contrasts between the different subjects. The other reason is that this study aide can help you in preparing for multiple-choice tests.
 

A study chart is a chart that consists of WH-questions about common characteristics shared by the different types and columns that list the different types.

To fill in the blanks you would read in the chapter to find the answers. As you read the chapter, you might think of more questions you would want to answer.

If you cannot fill all the blanks with answers from the textbook, then this provides you an opportunity to learn more.
 

If you do not find all of the answers to your questions in your textbook, you can still find all of the answers to your questions.

1. You can do research in other books in the library.

 
2. You can look in your lecture notes to see if your question is answered.

 
3. You can show your teacher your chart and ask him/her what the answer would be, find out the answer and impress him/her with your organization and diligence.

 

What are the names of all the Hawaiian Islands?

For the following questions below, these questions pertains only to Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii.

What is the population?
What is the main city?
What is the average salary?
How much growth in tourism has there been in the last year?
What is the island flower?
What are the colors of the island?
What are the main tourist attractions?
What are the most famous beaches?
How many visitors come each year to this island?
How much do visitors contribute to the economy?
 

There are studies that show that it is easier to learn new information if it is presented using color. This is especially true for visual learners, which most men are.

Use a highlighter pen to highlight important information in your textbook, and it will be easier to learn it.

You may want to use the colors that already have associations for your particular technical field, for example:

blue for water in RAC
red for danger in many fields
green for environmental concerns
yellow for caution
another tip is to assign colors for the different resistors.

Another way to approach this is to assign meanings to certain colors, and always use those colors for that information, for example:

blue for all vocabulary words
green for all processes
red for all equipment
yellow for all symptoms, etc.,.
 
 

Technical Journal Article Record