Daniel, T Willingham’s Outsmart Your Brain chapter 5 has gave my new insightful improvements to make on my writing and reading skills. When we study, we tend to focus on the tasks we can most easily control such as highlighting and rereading but these practices only give the illusion of mastery. As Dan Willingham, explains, familiarity is not the same as comprehension. Willingham suggests the use of SQ3R, which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. The reading method SQ3R will benefit me a lot, this method follows up with gathering information necessary to focus and formulate goals, helping my mind engage and concentrate, filling information around the mental structures, retraining my brain to concentrate and learn, refine my mental organization and began building memory. Before reading I never really ask questions or expect any answers I just want to read along without trying to pose questions. However, with these new methods I will implement them and it will sustain me for efficient comprehension.
Another issue of mines is skim reading. When reading a text I sometimes skim through it all hoping to understand and comprehend the context completely in a short period of time. However, Willingham states skimming through a text, one which you are not entirely familiar with, will result in diminished comprehension. His suggestions it to use allocative significant time to reading, I will be sure to allocate enough time to reading tasks in order to ensure understanding. With these insightful methods I will surely enhance my reading skills and furthermore enrich my comprehension skills of any content.