reflection 1

In english class we are now reading extremely complex pieces of writing. With reading all of these writings I had to develop a new reading process to be able to understand and get as much out of the reading as I can. I start off by skimming the reading looking for things that initially catch me eyes, words in bold or italics or in margins, then I open the reading and slowly skim over every paragraph paying close attention to names and making text to text, life, and self connections constantly as I go so I am able to relate the reading to myself to better understand it. I will then markup the text as I feel necessary. I realize now that I rarely ever read all of the assigned piece; I will only read all of the assigned material if I feel it would benefit me directly from doing so. I do realize since I am skimming most of the time that when I find a relevant piece of information to the prompt I will go back and reread it many times until it is remembered in my head. I also usually incorporate over two quotes from select readings in my formal writings. Those quotes are usually found a head of time but sometimes they are found after our professor gives us the prompt for the upcoming writing. Sometimes after being given readings we need to complete an informal piece of writing in response. I feel as though that when I know after the reading there is an assignment (ex: informal writing) I usually tend to read more carefully and make more annotations. I know that having an assignment after makes it more important in my eyes to make sure those annotations are correct and plentiful. I also like to get as close to the word count as possible in those informal writings as I can if I do not go over already. I do this because if I have to look back on the reading I can just look at my informal writing and the quotes to give myself a brief summary of what the reading was about (in my view/my own words) without having to repeat the reading process and re-reading the piece of writing. I find it very useful to make annotations because when you look back at the reading after not reading it for a while you can see how your brain was working and how it was thinking about the information it was given at the time it was given.