Many of us confuse this familiarity with a good understanding of the material. Why? After looking at content that’s phrased a particular way and presented on the same part of a page a couple of times, that content can pretty quickly become familiar to a reader. Rereading in this way can contribute to illusions of competence-the feeling that we know more than we actually know. In addition, many students who highlight while reading then use these highlighted sections of the text as the main substance of their studying, rereading this content as their primary study strategy.
Focusing on which details to highlight can get in the way of a deeper understanding of the big picture. The problem is that instead of thinking critically about the content, they primarily spend their mental energy sorting the content into what’s important and what’s not.
Why do students highlight? Usually students highlight because they want to focus on the important parts of the text and highlight-literally and figuratively-those parts for later study. This handout shares effective reading strategies that you can use instead of or in addition to highlighting and shares tips for highlighting well. However, despite its popularity, highlighting tends not to be a very effective reading strategy. Many college students use highlighting as a reading tool.
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