This post will discuss "active reading", specifically with the help of a Tablet computer and a PDF annotation software application. After my previous posts on what one could call "the speedier acquisition of knowledge", I think it is appropriate to discuss the opposite end of the spectrum, in which you carefully and attentively consume your literature.
First of all I will explain what active reading is, then I will explain why I believe a tablet computer is essential, then I will introduce a couple of notable PDF annotation applications, and finally I will demonstrate how I used this technique to read one of my most recent books "Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" by Robert Cialdini, Noah Goldstein and Steve Martin.
What is Active Reading?
Active reading is an enhanced and more conscious way of imbibing written material. It may help you to understand what active reading is by first imagining the opposite, or passive reading. One who is reading passively is perhaps allowing the words to enter "in one eye and leave out the other", so to speak. They aren't really considering or contemplating what is being expressed, let alone taking notes to assist with prioritization and retention of the concepts.
Contrast this with active reading, in which you actively take notes and jot questions about what you are reading. These notes are ideally placed in the margins of the text, but an external notebook could also be used. Since the margins are in my opinion a better place (because the notes are directly associated with the context of the passage, and serve as pointers to the real body) I will focus on this method.
These little notes, scribbled in the margins and in the white space of the page could contain your interpretations of the text, as well as questions provoked by the text (and which you should endeavor to answer post-text). Another great technique is to use a highlighter to highlight key words and concepts. It takes discipline to not get carried away and end up with more highlighted than unhighlighted copy--in fact one should strive to highlight as little as possible, since according to the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule), the majority of the value of the material is contained in a minority of the text. If you keep this in mind when reading, and highlight only the core concepts (while skipping the explanations, justifications, long winded stories and examples), on reviewing the text after you're finished reading it you can efficiently refresh your memory on the key aspects of the information.
As you can imagine, these activities can result in the deterioration of your book or reading material, and therefore you must weigh up whether the net benefit of more effectively acquiring the knowledge is worth the cost of damaging your book. In most cases, I posit that the answer is "yes", and if not it must be either an exceptionally valuable book, or exceptionally useless knowledge. :)
Active Reading--in DIGITAL
You will be pleased to learn that the above concerns, however minor they may be, are irrelevant if one chooses the digital route to active reading.
First of all you will need a computer (preferably a Tablet PC), a digital book to read (in Portable Document Format or PDF), and software that is capable of modifying or more specifically annotating PDFs. I will spend a little bit of time discussing each of these requirements.
Although it is possible to annotate a PDF book using a normal computer (by typing your annotations), there is something to be said for the experience of writing by hand on the document itself. It is for this simple reason that I think that a tablet computer is essential.
PDF Annotation Apps
So far I have evaluated two PDF annotation applications, PDF Annotator ($69.95) by Grahl Software Design and PDF Revu ($149) by Bluebeam. Both of these applications are more than capable of performing the functions I am discussing, the main difference between them (other than price) is in the markets the developers are targeting. PDF Revu is a much more robust and professional application, obviously targeting business and enterprise customers with a nice custom interface and a CAD version. PDF Annotator on the other hand seems to be aiming at the more budget end of the spectrum, however I must mention that PDF Revu is offered for $30 for academic users.
Both applications allow handwritten annotations and highlighting in multiple colors. One of the amazing things about these apps is that the annotations are searchable, even without converting them to text!
A Practical Example of Active Reading with a Tablet PC
I recently annotated a PDF version of "Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" by Robert Cialdini, Noah Goldstein and Steve Martin
using PDF Annotator. The book itself was a pleasant sequel to the Cialdini's Influence (one of my favorite reads of 2007), and was structured in 50 chapters, each a different way to exert influence & persuade people. The title of each chapter was a clever quip, and the body of the chapter described the principles behind the quip, with explanations of the psychological experiments that led the authors to their conclusions, and real world examples of the theory in action.The two main tools I used were the red pen & yellow highlighter. I used the red pen to underline sentences and concepts, and write the types of notes & questions I introduced above. I used the yellow highlighter to highlight the key passages of the text. I also used the red pen to write the chapter titles in my own words, removed .
These processes all helped in different ways. Using the highlighter was a very effective technique. If I were to go back & just read the passages I highlighted, I would have an ultra condensed distillation of every key point the book made--which I could do in the fraction of the time. The examples & explanations were fun and interesting to read, and certainly helped to make many of the abstract notions more concrete, but they were just support for the sentences I highlighted.
Here is an example of an annotated page in Revu:
Whilst reading every chapter, I tried to rewrite a summary of the key point under the chapter heading. This helped during the review process. You can also see some key sentences that I have highlighted, and some red annotations around the text, which demonstrate some of my thoughts while reading. In Revu, I couldn't find an option to automatically straighten the highlighter, so they are freehand. This is not important for the meaning but I preferred the straight highlighter in PDF Annotator, as you can see in the example from that application below:
As you can imagine, after I was finished with it the book had a completely different feel to it. Reviewing the book was quick and pleasant, I could skim over my annotations and know that they contained my interpretation of the pure essence of the material.
I highly recommend this technique for anyone who would like to optimize their retention & recall of books they can find in PDF format (all major online retailers are moving towards offering digital versions of their catalogs, and if you can't find it there chances are good that some altruistic pirate has scanned the book and converted it to PDF for you). Finally, it is worth keeping in mind that the output of this process is a PDF file compatible with any normal PDF reader, including of course Adobe Acrobat, so you can share your lovely work with anyone!
Enjoy!
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