We read a lot, both in college and in daily life. Everything from textbooks to business memos contains necessary information, but it can be hard to retain everything we read. How can we improve our learning? Research from the University of Oregon shows that in college students with brain injuries, a technique known as “passage mapping” improves retention dramatically. The Iowa Reading Research Center suggests that the same technique also helps students without brain injuries. I know that it has helped me.
So what is it? Passage mapping is the process of writing a one or two sentence synopsis of every paragraph you read. For texts you can annotate, it helps to write that blurb above each paragraph. This helps to synthesis and cement the learning in your mind, and also makes looking for specific passages later much easier. While reading takes longer while using passage mapping, rereading becomes much faster and less necessary.
Works Cited: