247 Hesburgh Library, Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship
This workshop illustrates and demonstrates a technique for writing in books for the purposes of “active reading”. The only reason one has been taught not to write in books is because the books were literally valuable and intended to be shared. With the advent of so many things “born digital”, it is entirely possible to download, print, and bind one's own books or sets of journal articles. Such things have little monetary value, and are certainly not intended to be shared.
Through an active reading process—writing in books—one can review, retain, and comprehend so much more even with a single pass over a text. Akin to diagramming sentences, the techniques described in this workshop enable you to quickly and easily identify names, dates, definitions, numbers, citations, examples, bulleted lists, numbered lists, quotes, hyperlinks, items of questionable authority, items of interest, and items of person noteworthiness in any printed thing markable with a pencil or pen.
Get more out of your reading. Write in books.