Reading academic English

Managing your reading is a critical part of doing well at university. So, becoming a faster, more efficient reader of academic English should be your aim, whatever your background.

Approach this like an athlete, by adopting active reading strategies:

Active strategies to build your reading fitness and endurance View

Reading challenges and how to handle them

There are some common challenges which all students face when reading academic writing. Watch the video below for an overview of strategies you can use to handle common challenges. This video was produced in partnership with Monash University students.

Click on the topics below for more detail about each of the challenges.

University students are required to read extensively and academic English texts are often long and dense. Most students struggle with reading loads at first.
Steps you can take:
☑Plan regular, uninterrupted blocks of reading time.
☑Build your reading tolerance gradually, taking regular breaks.
☑Change your expectations. You will rarely understand everything the first time.
☑Re-read relevant or difficult sections for better understanding.
Academic English texts tend to contain a lot of unfamiliar information, ideas and concepts, which may be abstract. What is more, each field uses its own terminology, vocabulary and acronyms. This can create strain for your working memory.
Steps you can take:
☑Interact with texts often as you read, by making notes and comments.
☑Focus on meaning and use the context of the sentence to decode new words.
☑Use word attack skills to unpack difficult words e.g. note the grammatical form, look for a root form within the word and look at prefixes and suffixes.
☑Trust your best guess at the meaning of difficult passages and check later.
Academic English is usually formal and objective. Unlike journalism and social media, the tone is professional and focuses on the issue or the object rather than the writer. The main purpose of academic writing is to inform and persuade through logical examination of evidence and reasoning.
Steps you can take:
☑Pay attention to how the writer uses language to inform and convince you.
☑Constantly question the text, rather than accepting it on face value.
Academic English uses formal and precise vocabulary and terminology. Many everyday English words like ‘so’, ‘think’ and ‘to look at’ are replaced in academic text with formal words like ‘therefore’, ‘consider’ and ‘to inspect’. Academic English needs to be accurate, detailed and professional to communicate to an expert audience.
Steps you can take:
☑Notice the formal language choices made by the writer in a piece of text.
☑Become familiar with the specific language and terminology of your field.
Recognising the structure or organisation of a text makes reading much easier. Consider the structure of academic English from four different perspectives:
1. Linear structure
Whatever your discipline, you are likely to read texts from book chapters, text books, academic articles and professional and academic reports. All of these texts include:
- introduction
- body
- conclusion
Articles and reports will also commonly include:
- methods
- results or findings
- discussion
- recommendations.
Steps you can take:
☑Use the linear structure of an academic text to read selectively.
2. Organisational features of the text
Many academic texts direct your reading using features like abstracts or executive summaries, paragraphs, headings and subheadings, images, graphical information, a table of contents and a reference system. Even white space may have a purpose.
Steps you can take:
☑Use all the organisational features within the text to direct your reading.
3. Shifts in academic writing style
Different sections within an academic text use different styles of writing. The one document may include: description, analysis, discussion, critical evaluation and argument.
These different styles may influence your reading comprehension because they affect sentence length and complexity, verb tense choice and directness.
Steps you can take:
☑Recognise the shifts in style within an academic text as you read.
4. Signposting within the text
Writers of academic English use signposting, ordering and linking language to highlight the flow of their information, ideas and arguments. They guide the reader through their logic and reasoning with devices like topic sentences, repetition, questioning, emphasis, pronouns and transitional words.
Steps you can take:
☑Identify and use all the signposts in a text to guide and improve your reading.
This includes the way the writer positions themself in the text and the way they discuss their own and others’ work in order to persuade you. Let’s look at three examples:
1. Grammatical voice
Academic writers intentionally choose whether to use passive or active voice. Passive voice focuses on the object of discussion rather than on the subject or ‘doer’ of an action. It puts the spotlight on what is being studied or what has been found. For example, ‘the study was conducted’ may be used rather than ‘I conducted the study’. Or, ‘changes in the DNA were observed’ rather than ‘the scientists observed changes in the DNA’. Other ways in which passive tone may be used include ‘this paper will discuss’ rather than ‘I will discuss.’
2. Tentative language
This technique, also called hedging, enables a writer to reduce the risk of making strong statements, observations or judgements, by acknowledging a degree of uncertainty.
When the writer uses tentative language, they are less open to challenge by their peers or other scholars. For example:
- ‘the results suggest that’
- ‘the findings may indicate’
- ‘there appear to be several reasons for’
- ‘It would be useful to consider’
If these forms were not used, each of these statements could sound too confident or critical. Hedging is commonly found in the sections where analysis or evaluation are presented. Find out more about hedging here.
3. Persuasion
Another example of academic voice is the way the writer co-opts you as a reader into sharing their view. This includes statements like:
- ‘clearly, more evidence is required’
- ‘it is evident that’
- ‘as can clearly be seen’
These statements imply that the reader sees what the writer sees.
Steps you can take:
☑Observe how academic voice is used to position the writer and their content.
☑Notice the use of tentative language to qualify statements or observations.
☑Become aware of the way the writer uses academic voice to convince you.

How to improve your reading speed

Don’t read word by word. Read in meaningful phrases and chunks.
Turn off your inner and outer voice. Do not read the words aloud or even in your head. This slows down your reading speed. If you find this difficult, start by only saying every third word aloud and gradually reduce the habit.
Set a reading goal. As you read, give yourself a time limit and set a timer.
Notice how long it takes you to read 300 words. The average reader takes 1 minute. If you take substantially more than this, make an appointment to see a Learning Adviser.
Practise moving your gaze quickly across the page, taking in all visual clues (headings, images, graphs).
Move your gaze quickly across each line and only focus on the key words, concepts and information. Skip across less critical words like ‘to,’ ‘and’ or ‘the’. These do not carry meaning.
Try to limit your re-reading, unless it is to understand a difficult section.
Read often – everyday if you can. Read for pleasure as well as for study. Regular practice will improve your reading speed as well as your word recognition and your confidence.

Taking it further

Test and develop your academic language

Take the Academic Language Skills Analysis (ALSA) to help you identify your academic language development needs for academic study. Along with your results, you'll receive tailored resources to help you develop your skills.

Your feedback matters

We want to hear from you! Let us know what you found most useful or share your suggestions for improving this resource.

	1. Know your Purpose Always know exactly why you are reading. Give your mind a clear purpose to engage and maintain your focus before you begin. Keep asking ‘wh’ questions as you read (what, where, when, who, why and how) and note your answers.
	2. Be determined Don’t give up. Set a reading goal and keep reading, even if you do not understand 100% the first time. Re-read as necessary. Use the Pomodoro Technique and other key time management strategies to manage your reading time, e.g. Take a break every twenty minutes.
	3. Be Selective Vary your reading intensity according to your need. Start by skimming and scanning the whole text, and then move to the parts of the text that are most useful to your purpose. Don’t feel pressured to read from start to finish.
	4. Use Context Focus on the overall meaning as you read, not individual words, by: using context clues in sentences and paragraphs asking questions like: who? what? when? where? how? why? identifying difficult sections and re-read those later.
	5. Interact Note your responses and questions regularly. Remember that, as you read, you are in a conversation with the writer. Use these notes in tutorials and discussions with classmates. Talking about the readings will unlock meaning.
	6. Review and reflect After you have read your text, digest the content, and note new insights. Academic texts are dense and they may take time to process. Keep this three-way conversation going between the writer, the content and you. Don’t underestimate the unique position that you bring to the reading. Did you notice some gaps? Did you have an alternative view? Great! Note them down.

Student Academic Success

Student Academic Success

Reading academic English

Active strategies to build your reading fitness and endurance View

Reading challenges and how to handle them

1. Linear structure

2. Organisational features of the text

3. Shifts in academic writing style

4. Signposting within the text

1. Grammatical voice

2. Tentative language

3. Persuasion

How to improve your reading speed

Taking it further

Read difficult material

Read critically

Read more effectively

Test and develop your academic language

Your feedback matters