Student Life – Academic reading

It was a friend of mine

who just said to me one day,

"Oh, I've signed up for

ballroom dancing lessons,

do you want to come?"

I said: "definitely",

the two of us, off we went,

no partners, and I just,

oh yeah, on our own,

beginners' classes, and I've –

I've completely fell in love with it.

And that same friend

actually is the person

that finally inspired me

to do my degree course.

I am studying worlds of English.

The academic texts that I use

all form a complete part

of the course: they're,

they're written as

textbooks that are specifically

for that course.

I think to get the most

out of reading the academic texts

you've got to give it

proper time and

proper consideration.

I always plan

to do around about two hours a day

reading and note taking.

First of all, I'm looking to

get the gist of the subject

and understand it a little bit deeper

and then I'll read it

more thoroughly with

an eye to answering a question –

a particular assignment question.

When I'm choosing the bits that

I really need to focus on,

my main tool is

to keep referring back

to the question that

I am answering.

If you're trying to sort

out which bits of the text

are going to be most relevant,

just make best use of

all the contents pages,

the chapter headings, the indexes;

always reading through

the summaries,

the conclusions

and the introductions of each section

actually gives you a good overview

and you can pick out the bits

that are going to fit in well.

And also, using the contents

is quite detailed:

the chapter headings, they give

you a good indication of what's going

to be there as well.

A typical day for me

is my morning ritual:

I get up and sit down

and read the paper

cover to cover,

and do the puzzles.

After that I

do like to go for a walk.

That is one of my rituals

and I usually take about an hour.

I've got three or four

good sort of four-mile routes

around the local town

which takes me through the parks.

Then I come back,

do all my household chores,

bit of cooking, bit of gardening;

my partner's out

most of the morning playing golf –

he comes home at lunchtime.

As part of my in-depth reading,

I note the key terms

and then make sure I bring them

into the assignment.

Sometimes the specialist vocabulary

can be a bit trying.

Actually, the glossaries

in the back of the books

come in very handy for that.

What I most like about

the academic texts is that

they can introduce

new ideas to you:

open your eyes to all

sorts of subjects

but there's always a bit of

proof behind it.

My top tips for learning

would be: try not

to miss anything out

and don't just read the

bits that you think

will answer the question.

The thing that

I enjoy most about

the academic studying

is that it broadens the mind.

Next big dancing event

will be an exam which

is an Argentine tango:

that will be the ninth exam

we've taken in that

particular form of dancing.

My dance partner and I

like to take

the dancing exams,

it's by no means compulsory.

For me they are just

more of a marker,

put all that work in and

you have achieved a level:

they're quite significant for me.

Go the distance.