Have a Good Study Plan to Read and Revise all your Subject Books and References.

More than any other type of writing, highly specialized technical writing must be read with a plan. You can’t approach your reading assignment merely with the goal of completing it. Such mindless reading will leave you confused and frustrated, drowning in an ocean of theories, concepts, terms, and examples. Your plan should incorporate the following guidelines:

1. Learn the terms that are essential to understanding the concepts presented. Knowing the precise definitions that the author uses will enable you to follow his chain of thought through the text.

2. Determine the structure or organization of the text. Most chapters have a definite pattern that forms the skeleton of the material. A book may begin with a statement of a theory, give examples, provide sample problems, then summarize. Often this pattern can be discerned through a preview of the table of contents or the titles and subtitles.

1. Skim the chapter to get a sense of the author’s viewpoint. Ask questions to define your purpose in reading. Use any summaries or review questions to guide your reading.

2. Do a thorough analytical reading of the text. Do not proceed from one section to the next until you have a clear understanding of the section you are reading—the concepts generally build upon each other. To proceed to a new section without understanding the ones that precede it is, at best, futile.

3. Immediately upon concluding your thorough reading, review! Write a summary of the concepts and theories you need to remember. Answer any questions raised when you skimmed the text. Do the problems. If possible, apply the formulas.

Technical material is saturated with ideas. When reading it, you must be convinced of one fact: Every individual word counts! You will want to read such material with the utmost concentration—it is not meant to be sped through. Good readers know that such material demands a slow read that concentrates on achieving the greatest level of retention.

• Every definition has to be digested.

• Every formula must be committed to memory.

• Every example needs to be considered. To improve your reading of such technical material, you will want to hone the skill of identifying the devices an author uses to communicate. In so doing, you will be able to connect the chain of thought that occurs. When reading such texts—or attempting to work out technical problems—try the following “tricks”:

■ Whenever you can, “translate” numbers and formulae into words. To test your understanding, try to put your translation into different words.

• Even if you’re not particularly visual, pictures can often help. You should try translating a particularly vexing math problem into a drawing or diagram.

• Before you even get down to solving a problem, is there any way for you to estimate the answer or, at least, to estimate the range within which the answer should fall (greater than 1, but less than 10)? This is the easy way to at least make sure you wind up in the right ballpark.

• Play around. There are often different paths to the same solution, or even equally valid solutions. If you find one, try to find others. This is a great way to increase your understanding of all the principles involved.

• When you are checking your calculations, try working backwards. I’ve found it an easier way to catch simple mathematical errors.

• Try to figure out what is being asked, what principles are involved, what information is important, and what is not.

• Teach someone else. Trying to explain mathematical concepts to someone else will quickly pinpoint what you really know or don’t know. It’s virtually impossible to get someone else— especially someone who is slower than you at all this stuff— to understand if you don’t!

1. Reading Foreign Language Texts Foreign language texts should be approached the same way, especially basic ones teaching vocabulary. If you haven’t mastered the words you’re supposed to in the first section, you’ll have trouble reading the story at the end of section three, even if you’ve learned all the words in sections two and three. So take it one step at a time and make sure you have mastered one concept, vocabulary list, lesson, and so forth, before jumping ahead.