My idea to utilize 1100 Foundation of
self-directed learning
Hiroshi Fukushi
Executive Summary
HOW TO READ A BOOK is a practical guide book to speeding up reading and deepening one’s understanding of books.
To complete my Ph. D. in Rushmore University, I have to do a lot of
reading. I would like to control my
total study hours close to the standard 1200 hours, thus I need to brush up my
reading skill to shorten the time required for reading and understanding books.
Adler explains various ways to raise the efficiency of reading books, including
a syntopical reading technique that is most useful way to construct my Ph.D.
dissertation. Also, as a going concern for my life time learning, I will apply
Adler’s technique to all my reading.
1.0
Over view
My reason for wanting to study How to Read a Book is that reading, whether
it is in English or Japanese, is a critical skill for
learning and completing my Ph. D. at Rushmore University. I have recently
completed an MBA at the USQ (University of Southern Queensland), Australia. It
took about 4,000 hours of study to complete the program, whereas the standard
study time for native speakers of English is only 1800 hours. This time, I
would like to complete my Ph. D. program at Rushmore in close to the standard
study time of 1200 hours. To be able to do that, I need to almost double my
reading and writing speed. The author stresses active reading by comparing the
reader or the listener to the catcher in a game of baseball. Catching the ball
is just as much an activity as pitching or hitting it; both a pitcher and a
catcher are active although the activities are different. Successful
communication occurs when the reader receives what the writer wanted him to
receive. I read books to get new
information, understanding and learning new things for completing my Ph.D.
course. Since my Ph. D. program is based on learning by discovery (i.e. without
any teachers who answer questions), I need to ask myself questions therefore I
need to know how to make books teach me well. The authors stress that this is the
primary goal of the book.
2.0 How to read books for learning my
Ph. D. course in Rushmore
2.1 Levels of reading
Completing my Ph. D. course at Rushmore simply means
that I need to read books without anyone to help. I can only do it efficiently
if I improve my reading skills. Adler and van Doren use four levels of reading
skills and I need to understand the procedure, then analyze and improve my
skills by following the requirements. The four levels consist of: the first
level (Elementary reading); the second level (Inspectional reading); the third
level (Analytical reading); and the fourth level (Syntopical reading).
2.2 The first level (Elementary reading)
The first stage of reading is elementary reading which
is taught in elementary school. The authors explain in detail about definitions
and the meanings at the first level, however this level is that of beginners
and I mastered it a long time ago. There is not much necessity for me to
re-learn this level.
2.3 The second level (Inspectional reading)
I need to read books to get information and to learn
new things through reading for the Rushmore Ph. D. program. Since I am a part-time learner, I cannot
spend a lot of my time studying so I need to improve my learning efficiency.
The second reading level (i.e. Inspectional reading) is a technique to screen
the book at the initial stage of reading when I am not sure whether the book deserves
analytical reading.
The Ph. D. program requires a lot of inspectional
reading. The more I read, the broader the information I can get. The
inspectional reading procedure is summarized below and can be mastered
quickly. I can do
inspectional reading fairly well in Japanese, but it is tougher in English so I
need to master the technique in reading English, which will certainly also
increase my inspectional reading ability in Japanese.
2.3.1
Systematic skimming or pre-reading
1.
Look at the title page and, if the book
has one, at its preface. Read quickly. Adler
and van Doren explain that I need to place the book in the appropriate category
in my mind and preferably make notes of the titles which I am interested in as
a list of references for my reading requirement in the Rushmore Ph.D. program.
2.
Study the table of contents to obtain a
general sense of the book’s structure. Sometimes
I used to jump into the subject of the books even before taking a look at the
title of the book. When I studied
for my MBA at the USQ, it was almost a must to read the texts thoroughly.
However a Ph. D. in Rushmore is totally different. I need to find the
information which I really need to learn, understand the contents and reference
the most useful books. This requires
inspectional reading.
3.
Check the index if the book has
one. This is the part which I have rarely done. The reason
for doing this is to recognize crucial terms and to take a look at references
which will help me to understand the topics covered by the book.
4.
Read the publisher’s blurbs. I
usually do this, because it can give me a summary or an essence of the book.
The authors explain that it is not uncommon for authors to try to summarize the
main points in their book as accurately as they can.
5.
Look at the chapters that seem to be
pivotal to its argument. I have never done this, however this will
help me to understand the structure and important points.
6.
Turn the pages, dipping in here and there,
reading a paragraph or two, sometimes several pages in sequence, never more
than that. The purpose of doing this is to grasp the main
contention of the book. The last two or three pages, or an epilogue if there is
one, are the main parts of the book. Authors tend to keep the main contention
until the final part.
2.3.2 Superficial reading
1.
Superficial reading is
going though the book without inspecting the contents in detail to grasp the
main arguments or points of the book. If you look only at the trees, you never
view the entire forest. The key
point in mastering speed reading seems to be to change the speed of reading
according to the importance of the sentences. I should concentrate on
understanding only the important parts and skim through the other parts of the
book. Practice improves the skill
to identify and distinguish the important parts from the rest at speed. Breaking the eyes’ fixations is
very important. I tend to follow each word of English sentences, however this
sacrifices speed of reading. By using fingers as the guide for focusing words
and sentences and by moving my fingers a little more quickly than usual, I can
increase my reading speed. Trying to look at and understand the meaning of
several sentences at the same time is also important to speed up reading. Once
I can master the speed reading technique then the speed of comprehension would
be the bottleneck in the total process of reading books. The technique of
analytical reading help increase comprehension speed. To read analytically,
being a demanding reader is the key point. To be an analytical and demanding
reader, it is recommended to have questioning attitude (Appendix-1) so that I
can have an active role in understanding the book. Furthermore, knowing how to
convert the book to my own use is important. This means that I need to have an
active role to understand the content of the book and try to best utilize the
content of the book for my own purpose. Writing memos and note-making
(Appendix-2) are good techniques to indicate the points of learning. None of
the small rules and techniques would be efficient unless they are done as a
habitually. I need to develop a good way of reading books by following
instructions until they become habits.
2.4 The third level (Analytical reading)
How to be an analytical reader is the key point of
further development of my reading ability. Literally, analytical reading
requires analyzing the content of the book for better understanding. To analyze
the content, I have to find what the book is about (i.e. the first stage) then
I have to interpret, in my brain, what the author has said (i.e. the second
stage). Finally I have to criticize the book as a communication of knowledge
(i.e. the third stage).
2.4.1 The first stage of analytical reading
The authors propose four rules (Appendix-3).The first
point is to understand what kind of book it is, even before actually starting
to read the book. The aforementioned technique of skimming the book is very
important. There is no point in wasting my scarce time resources to read a book
which contributes little to my knowledge. The books I read for my Ph. D. are
relatively easy to classify, because some of them are course books and others
are mostly categorized in the area of environmentally sustainable business.
Sometimes the title of the book is deceiving so the skimming technique to gain
a brief overview of the content of the book is important. My major project will
cover practical and theoretical aspects of managing an environmentally
sustainable business. Judging books only by the titles could be deceiving. I
need to analyze the content to know whether the content is theoretical,
practical or a combination of both.
Once the book’s contents have been identified, the
next step is to assess the structure of the book. It is like looking over the
architectural plans of a house before doing a tour of it. When I know the whole structure of the
book, I am better able to relate the detailed information to the main
structure. The classified information gained by such a structured approach can
be stored systematically in my memory so that I can manipulate and arrange the
information efficiently. Unity is a brief statement of what the
book is all about. The unity of a book can be perceived differently by different
readers, because unity represents the reader’s way of viewing things. The point is that I should have a perception
of the book based on a firm point of view and careful analysis. It is like
drawing a picture of a statue. The way of viewing a statue determines how the
picture is going to be drawn; and in a similar way my perception of the unity
of a book will determine my understanding of it, which will eventually affect
my ability to understand and apply the contents of the book to my main
project. Adler and van Doren describe outlining
the book as an art. Reading and writing are reciprocal processes
thus if I can read well, I can write well. In this meaning, reading skill
relies on the ability to x-ray the book. This learning process will train me to
write a well constructed paper. Knowing the contents, unity and then the
relationship of the parts to the whole structure is the process of discovering
the author’s intention itself.
2.4.2. The second stage of analytical reading
To understand the book, I have to use my brain to
interpret what the author says. To do this, I need to apply the practices
summarized as the second stage of analytical reading (Appendix-4) and find out
what is being said in detail and how.
2.4.3. The third stage of analytical reading
I need to decide whether the content of the book is
true or not. I don’t have to continue to read if I find firm evidence that the
content of the book is not true. If
I find the content of the book is true, then I can enjoy surveying the
significance of the content of the book by having an enquiring attitude, asking
myself the significance of the facts presented in the book. The authors explain
that the facts seldom come to us without some interpretation, explicit or
implicit. When I study statistical data, I always have to guess the meaning and
significance of the figure and I need to relate the meaning of the figure to
other data. The questioning attitude will increases the value of the content of
the book if I dig deeply enough for answers to the questions to affect my soul
from the bottom of my heart. The authors express this questioning attitude as
‘What of it?’ I understand that this means I should ask myself how I can
utilize the content of the book and what the book is suggesting I should do.
Information written in a book would not enlighten me, however true it may
be. I need to pursue enlightenment
and continue the search for significance. In other words, the purpose of
reading the book should be to gain the significance of the truth it contains,
not just to get as much information as possible. The information itself has
little value until the reader has found the significance of it. The authors note that in the natural
course of events, a good student frequently becomes a teacher, and so too, a
good reader becomes a good author. This is how and what I want to be. By training my reading skill as Adler and van Doren propose, I will be able to read efficiently and enjoy
the process, to the point of enlightenment and finally I will be a good
writer.
2.5 Aids to
reading
Reading other books to help understand a topic covered by a book deeply is
called extrinsic reading. I
need to know the basic rules for improving the
efficiency of extrinsic reading of books and how to use extrinsic reading for
its primary purpose. Extrinsic reading falls into four categories; relevant
experiences; other books; commentaries and abstracts; and reference books.
Using experience helps the reader to understand the explanations in the
book by mentally relating them to past experience. I agree 100% with this point but as
there are things which I have never experienced, relying solely on experience
would not be a smart way to read the book. Other books should help me to
understand the book, because they would give different perspectives on the same
information or would give different information that could be compared. This is
called syntopical reading and it is a very useful research method for my Ph.D.
dissertation. As a matter of fact, I have done this many times to write reports
and essays to earn my MBA from the USQ (University of Southern
Queensland), Australia, however I
had never thought of the efficiency and the right method of doing this.
This could be one of the reasons why I had to spend a lot more time to finish
writing these reports and essays compared to the standard time requirement.
Adler and van Doren explain how to use dictionaries and encyclopedias as
references. The point is that those are just references to help the
reader’s understanding from intrinsic reading. I don't have to spend a lot of
my time investigating words in dictionaries or encyclopedias. It is an era of the internet; I can use
search engines to find the right information more quickly than I could
before.
2.6 How to read books for a Ph.D. dissertation
I need to read a lot of books to complete my Ph. D.
dissertation. The main categories of books I need to read are practical books,
science and technology books and social science books. Adler and van Doren
suggest an efficient reading technique for each category. I understand the
point and apply the techniques as stated below.
2.6.1 Practical
books
I duly understand the point about the practical book
that only reading it would not solve my problems. I need to determine the
solution and actually practice it to solve my problems. For example, I want to
be an effective reader of books, and this is why I read HOW TO READ A BOOK. Unless
I make efforts to be an efficient reader by starting to apply the technique I
learnt, I cannot be an efficient reader. There are two kinds of practical
books, the one is related to rules and the other is related to the principles
underling the rules. Among the four rules of analytical reading (Appendix-3),
the last question, ‘Find out what the author’s problems were’ is the most
important to me, because this leads to the actions the author wants me to
do. Finally, if I am enlightened by
the points which the author makes and agree with them, I need to carry out the
recommended actions with a firm belief and strong will.
2.6.2 How to read
science and mathematics
I have a masters’ degree in chemical engineering, so I
have a fair skill and understanding of the fundamentals of science and mathematics.
One thing I need to consider to write my dissertation is to write it in a way
that makes it easily understood by those who might not have enough expertise to
understand science. This naturally brings me to a conclusion that when I read
science and mathematical books, I need to pay more attention to the story behind the algebra or
chemical formulae and less to the
algebra and chemical structures themselves.
2.6.3 How to read
social science
Social science is not composed of a single entity. It
generally includes law, education, business, social service, public
administration and psychology. This is certainly one of the interdisciplinary
studies. I need to be well aware of the difficulties of reading books of social
science. The difficulty in reading them derives from the fact that this field
of literature is a mixed, rather than a pure, kind of expository writing. As an
analytical reader I need to find out first what kind of book this is, although
the answer is not always easy to find.
I need to trace the terms used carefully and find out what the propositions
and arguments are. To answer ‘What of it?' I need to read many books, compare
them and generalize the idea to find out ‘What of it?’ as a whole. And this
will give me points of writing for my Ph. D. dissertations: the syntopical
reading technique is required.
2.7 Syntopical
reading
I have already done a lot of syntopical reading for my
MBA study and I need to improve my skill to complete my Ph.D. within the
standard study hours. To find out the right books for my Ph.D. studies,
basically I need to read many books. The more I read the greater the chances of
getting good books. To carry this
out efficiently I need to follow the five steps of syntopical reading
(Appendix-4). Adler and van Doren wrote their book to make the readers
effective. However, as they mention repeatedly, reading and writing are closely
related so I can train my syntopical reading skills also brush up my writing skill
for my dissertation. First of all,
I need to find out whether or not the book covers the topics of interest to me
so I need to inspect the book quickly, using the technique of inspectional
reading. Second, I need to find key terms from multiple books, which is the
most difficult part of the syntopical reading, because different authors may
use different terms; I might need to define my own terms considering all the
differences. Third, since I am the owner of the terms and the writer of my own
dissertation, I need to use the books I have read to design my propositions. Fourth, I have to define the issue to
construct the story of my dissertation. Finally, I need to construct my
hypothesis by analyzing the differences of opinions between authors and by
analyzing the opinions against theories. Then I
need to classify the analysis and hypothesis systematically
to build the story and the proposition for my Ph.D. dissertation.
2.0
Conclusion
1.
I understand the points of HOW TO READ A
BOOK thoroughly. By applying the recommended techniques to my reading, I will
reduce the time I spend getting the information I require to write my
dissertation. I will apply the techniques from this book to other areas of
reading besides the Ph. D. program as part of my ongoing lifetime learning
process.
2.
I have already applied this reading
technique to read THE TEN DAY MBA and other books. The study time required to
finish the unit 1144 was 24.0 hours (i.e. four hours over the standard). I can
feel that my reading is getting faster and more efficient. I first need to practice this technique
until I can finish my study at Rushmore within the standard learning time, then
I will try to brush it up further to become a good lifetime learner.
Appendices,
Appendix-1
The four basic questions a
reader asks
1.
What is the book about as a whole?
2.
What is being said in detail, and how?
3.
Is the book true, in whole or a part?
4.
What of it?
Appendix-2
Note making technique
1.
Underlining of major points.
2.
Vertical lines at the margin.
3.
Star, asterisk, or other doodad at the margin.
4.
Numbers in the margin.
5.
Numbers of other pages in the margin.
6.
Circulating of key words or phases.
7.
Writing in the margin, or at the top or bottom of the
page.
Appendix-3
The first stage of analytical
reading
Rule1: You must know what kind of book you are reading, and you should know
as early in the process as possible, preferably before you begin to read.
Rule2: State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence, or at most a
few sentences (a short paragraph)
Rule3: Set forth the major parts of the book, and show how these are
organized into a whole, by being ordered to one another and to the unity of the
whole.
Rule4: Find out what the authors problems were.
Appendix-4
The five steps in syntopical
reading
Step 1: Finding the relevant passages.
Step 2: Bringing the authors to terms.
Step 3: Defining the issues.
Step 4: Defining the issues.
Step 5: Analyzing the discussion.
The second stage of analytical
reading
Rule5: Find the important words
and through them come to terms with the author.
Rule6: Grasp the
author’s leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.
Rule7: Know the author’s arguments, by finding
them in, or constructing them out of sequence of sentences.
Rule8: Determine which of his problems the
author has solved and which he has not; and
as to the latter,
decide which the author knew he had failed to solve.