Why Underlining And Marking Work
- Marking forces you to sift through what you have read in order to identify important
information. This helps keep your mind on what you are doing.
- Marking keeps you physically active while you are reading. This helps to direct your
concentration to what you are reading.
- When you are marking, you must evaluate what you read to decide whether or not to
underline it.
- Marking helps you see the organization of facts and ideas.
- Marking demonstrates whether you have understood a passage you have just read. If
you have difficulty marking, you will know that you did not understand the passage.
The following example illustrates how one student underlined a passage from an economics
textbook. Notice the additional markings in the left margin.
