Whether it is your textbook, a journal article, an evidence based best practices sheet, or a care plan, readings in nursing and allied health are sometimes difficult to understand. Fortunately, there exist a number of methods for handling difficult texts.
Before beginning any note taking, simply read the text and as you read either think or write down any questions that it brings to mind:
Some students find it helpful to look for the different parts of a research article. They can then think about techniques, sample sizes, and the conclusions that the authors draw. Remember not all book chapters and articles are research articles. For more information, read Anatomy of a Research Article.
For some students, books seem too long. If this is the case, keep in mind that professors often assign only single chapters. Also, look for only the parts of a book that interest you by using either the table of contents in the front of the book, or index in the book's last pages.
There are also a number of structured reading methods that help students make sense of difficult material by giving them a step by step plan of attack for learning it. Not all structured methods work for all students. Feel free to tweak and adapt any structured method to your own needs.
SQ3R stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. Its creators designed it for textbook chapters and lecture notes, but it can work with articles and other materials.
KWL stands for Know, Want to Know, Learned. A student using this method first writes down what he/she all ready knows about a topic, and then what he/she wants to know, and finally what he/she learns from the text.
