Students discuss the exercise

It’s quite a long text, and I think it’s difficult because I have no idea about the content. Maybe it’s Jakthilus or Jakthilus. [LAUGHS] I don’t know. So yeah, it’s difficult to read through. Yeah, with the Jakthilus assignment, it’s a longer document. So I went quickly through each paragraph looking for some keywords to get an idea of what the article is going to do, where it’s going to take me through, and what are the things that I needed to capture from it.

I first scanned it and tried to go through the text. But it’s difficult for me. I first read the title and after that, I read every first line of the paragraphs to get a clear overview.

I think previewing is a good technique for me because I can get a general idea of the text in a short amount of time. Yeah, previewing is very helpful to me because I structurise the text instead of just randomly read the text. I like the Topic Comment approach because for me, it helps me capture what the paragraph is about and then the key points that were made underneath it, and just making a bullet point with what was mentioned in each of the paragraphs. I guess you are wondering what a Jakthilus actually is. I’m sorry to say the Jakthilus does not exist.

Actually that was the whole point of the exercise, showing you that you can preview a text even when you don’t know what it is going to be about. Previewing can be especially difficult with a text like the Jakthilus because it does not have any headings. In cases like this, it is wise to read the first sentence of each new paragraph. Did you find out that the text was about history and reasons for popularity? Then you did a good job. Let’s go through the text bit by bit. The first paragraph is a very short introduction about the popularity of the Jakthilus. It continues with the history of the Jakthilus.

The history is divided into different periods, but you don’t need to look at them while you’re previewing. That will be going into too much detail at this stage. The text then goes on to discuss a number of reasons as to why the Jakthilus is so popular. And then there’s the conclusion, which states that it’s no wonder that the Jakthilus is back. So there you have it. Just four words, and preview is done. Now you know how the text is structured. If you can preview your texts before reading them, your brain will automatically remember the text more easily.

Previewing will take only a few minutes per chapter, but throughout the study process that follows, you will be able to make sense of the text more quickly. Give yourself some time though to master the skill of previewing and to make it into a habit. Your brain will thank you.