Besides the sights, food, and sense of adventure that comes with the appeal of studying abroad, there are other elements to the program that can be beneficial to a student’s future. If you are a student, and money is not the main issue that you consider before studying abroad, perhaps you should think about these other facts about studying abroad that will help broaden and nourish your education. You will notice that each point builds off of another.

#1 Become Cultured

Being cultured does not mean that a person becomes snooty. It is becoming well-versed and knowledgeable with other’s surroundings, becoming aware that there are other cultures and people who live different lives than your own. Being cultured is a form of education because you are learning about other people, which actually make you also learn more about yourself.

#2 Learn Independence

This may actually be the immediate appeal of studying abroad for some people – getting away from authority figures. Depending on whether it is a foreign exchange or a group study abroad program, there are still people who you have to check-in with and answer to. However, being without your ordinary care-givers and learning the rules of another chaperone actually forces you to depend on yourself to deal with the changes around you. You may need to go shopping for yourself, get used to the foreign transportation, and learn to communicate with new people. Adjusting to the different lifestyle and regimen makes you depend on your own ability to mature with an ever-changing life, whether it is in a foreign country or when you eventually go back to your own home soil.

#3 Become a Better Student

Learning independence can greatly improve your study habits, which in effect creates a better student. Although there is much to offer with the surroundings in a foreign country, a study abroad program forces students to study hard. If you believe that you are traveling to a foreign country to slack off, you are under the wrong impression. Study abroad programs keep their students busy with classes and homework. A friend of mine told me that his trip to Spain kept him so busy with his school work that he only had time to sight-see on the weekend. And, having spent the money as well as the effort of getting into the program, students feel more inclined to do a good job, and learn to depend on themselves to get a good grade since there isn’t really anyone else to force you to do your homework except for you. But, with all of your new friends around you studying hard, you can feel inspired to try just as hard as everyone else.

#4 Learn a Second Language

Usually, students who study abroad visit with a country that speaks another language. Although this is not always the case, since students could easily study in England, Ireland, or Scotland where they speak English, if you do go to a country with a different language, you are forced to pick up some of it. Even if you do not become fluent in the language, you will at least learn enough to have broken conversations or get by. Knowing a second language is extremely beneficial in regards to your education since schools want students to learn a second language anyway, and speaking at least two languages is even beneficial to your career since most jobs are impressed with applicants who speak more than one language.

#5 Improves Resume

Learning a second language, earning independence, and become cultured are all parts of studying abroad that impress employers. Everything that you can gain from a study abroad program will help you be a better worker in the future, and employers recognize that. Putting your study abroad program on your resume is a great addition to the skills and education you have earned.

Step #1 Prewrite

Yes, you hear your instructors tell you all the time to prewrite, but do you ever listen to them? Prewriting (which is listed in another blog) is not just a way to organize your thoughts and get down ideas, it is another way to look at your writing project and force yourself to write. Getting past your writer’s block is often just a matter of looking at your task from a different perspective (or looking around your writer’s block, if you will). If you can brainstorm or outline some ideas for your writing, then you have a better chance at feeling confident and putting your pen to the paper to start writing. With all of the different methods of prewriting, there really isn’t any reason not to use at least one of them when you’re stumped.

Step #2 Write Backwards

Even after the prewriting is finished, you may still feel uncertain how you want to word your thoughts exactly. If that’s the case, jot down your ideas out of order – write the end first and the beginning last if you must. Sometimes your ideas may be scattered, which is why you are having trouble focusing on just one idea. Maybe your mind is blank with your introduction, but you know what you want to write for your body paragraphs. If that is the case, then just skip ahead. Write down whatever good ideas you think you have and reorganize them later.

Step #3 Take Your Opposing Side

If you are really uncomfortable with your topic and feel you have absolutely nothing to write about, then you may want to take yourself out of your own head and put it into someone else’s. This has nothing to do with cheating. You are supposed to write the opposite of what you really feel. Or, think of what other people would say about your subject. It may be easier putting down what you think other people feel or believe than what you actually believe. Your confidence in your own ideas may be what stops your writing. Do not use this technique all of the time though. There are some assignments where you need to give your honest opinion, and this method of breaking writer’s block may not always be suitable.

Step #4 Just Write!

It may sound harsh, but sometimes you just have to force your pen to move on the paper or to have your fingers move across the keyboard. Often people refuse to write anything because they don’t think their ideas or words are good enough. Well, when you’re struggling, writing something is better than writing nothing. Put down whatever comes to mind whether or not you think it sounds good. You can always fix it later, which is how we come to Step 5 in breaking the writer’s block.

Step #5 Walk Away… and Come Back

Sometimes students are just not in the right state-of-mind to write. If there are a bunch of things running through your head, you may need to just set up your writing assignment as best as you can and walk away from it for a while. When you come back to whatever writing you have put down, you may feel more inclined to fix your ideas and even add more ideas down on paper. Depending on how much time you have for your writing, walking away from your assignment for an hour or a full day may be just what you need to come back to your writing and look at your project with a clear head. When you come back to your writing, look it over with a critical eye, as if it were someone else’s paper, and see what you do and do not like about it. And then, take your writing from there. Unless you are taking an in-class essay, this method can be a great way to clear your mind. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on a different method of break down that writer’s wall.

Study, study, study… it’s what students do almost every day of their life. And, if they aren’t studying, then they are worried about when they have to start studying again after their short break. Unfortunately, that is just the way of the student. There are good and bad ways to study though. If you are a student who wants to improve your grades, then there are simple tricks and tips to keep in mind that will not only improve your grades, but possibly make your own studying habits a little simpler on yourself.

Overall, it comes down to planning. Think ahead a little bit and try out these 7 things to help improve your study skills and, ultimately, your grades.

#1 Get Rest

Although this has been gone over many times, it is never said enough – Get enough rest before you go to school. Showing up to school tired means that you are not focused on the material that your teacher is lecturing or on what you are reading. If you are having trouble focusing in class while you yawn every ten minutes or more, chances are that you are not getting enough sleep during the night. If you are still skeptical on the importance of getting sleep, there is an entire blog on Eduify that is dedicated to the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation.

#2 Eat Before an Exam, (but don’t drink much)

Food is fuel. When people do not eat properly they become tired, weak, and grumpy. None of those symptoms of hunger are conducive to proper concentration while you try to study or attend class. If you are in class and you stomach is grumbling because you skipped breakfast again, you are going to end up daydreaming about food rather than listen to the lecture. Do yourself a favor and eat something that will tide you over while attending class. However, you may not want to drink anything in excess. The feeling of a full bladder and needing to run to the bathroom in the middle of class can be just as distracting as an empty stomach.

#3 Arrive to Class Early

When students are showing up to class late they are often out of breath or are interrupting the instructor’s lesson. A late entrance not only distracts the students, but it distracts the teacher, which is no way to get on a teacher’s good side. Being late also means that you have missed some material that was first given in the beginning of class, which may leave you a bit frazzled and possibly missing even more information as you ask a fellow student, “What did I miss?” I recommend showing up five or ten minutes early to class, so you have time to take your seat and set up your books without disturbing anyone with your backpack’s zipper or adjustments of your chair. An early student is prepared and in a ready state-of-mind to be taught.

#4 Make Flash Cards

Many students make flash cards when they are preparing for a test. I suggest making flash cards even before your test. Make early preparations for your test. If there is some information that you feel will be difficult to remember, you should put it on a flash card, that way when it is time to take your test, most of your flashcards will already be set for you, which should make you more relaxed than having to prepare cards last minute for your test.

#5 Record Lectures

If you happen to have a teacher who goes over material quickly or does not seem to stay on a topic long enough for you in class, ask the instructor if he or she would mind that you record the lecture. With a copy of the lecture in your pocket, you can later rewind and listen to any important parts that you may have missed jotting down in your notes. Most teachers do allow students to bring a recorder in to class, as long as they are warned ahead of time. It is not ethical to record a person talking who is not aware of it, so be sure to ask your teacher for permission before doing so.

#6 Read the Material after the Lecture

It may seem simple, but there are far too many students who only listen to the teacher lecture over a subject, but never actually read the material in the book. After the lecture, make time to read over the same material your instructor went over. Going over a lesson twice will help solidify the information in your memory better.

#7 Discuss Material with Friends

Although most students do not want to talk about their homework, having a discussion about the material you are studying is a great way to help remember information. If you are reading something confusing or interesting, relay that exact information to a friend or family member. When you force yourself to repeat the material and think about the topics in a conversation, you help yourself remember the information better. Since I had trouble remembering dates in history, I used to spout off facts to my brother with, “Did you know…?” He would usually roll his eyes or ignore me because he didn’t want a history lesson, but I just continued talking at him and it was a lot of help for me to remember the facts easier.

I saw the film L’Auberge Espagnole shortly before I made the decision to spend six months studying in Granada, Spain. The 2002 movie, which translates to “The Spanish Apartment,” follows a French grad student during his adventurous and life-changing year studying in Barcelona. I was considering taking on a Spanish minor, and knew that if I really wanted to master my language skills, I needed to invest in cultural immersion. Somehow, the idea of spending another six months filling out language workbooks in California wasn’t nearly as exciting as the prospect of actually having to survive in another language 24 hours a day, seven days a week, far from home. After a consultation with my academic counselor, I discovered that if I found the right program and the right university, I could fulfill requirements for my major and minor abroad. I marched to my university’s study abroad office, and stayed for an hour, mesmerized by the array of brilliantly colored brochures advertising foreign study programs. Where did I want to go? How much would it cost? Did I want to live with a host family? Did I want to go for a summer, a semester, or (gulp) a year?

Today, we’ll share 5 Programs that Sponsor International Study, while keeping in mind the criteria when considering foreign study programs.  Namely: school accreditation, transferring academic credit, housing options, school financing, term lengths, language requirements…If you are considering studying abroad, you might start by perusing the following online resources.

5.  The Institute of International Education

Average grade level participant: undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral, or professional

Average term length: varies, depending on the program, although usually between 6 months-one year

Average cost: varies, but the IIE has links to many government-sponsored programs, which can offer varying amounts of funding, depending on your field and level of experience

This organization is home to a variety of study- and work-abroad programs, and its study abroad portal is a comprehensive search engine for associated foreign study programs. The IIE is a great place to go to get information about prestigious fellowship programs, such as the Fulbright Scholarship, which offers funded trips for graduate students, teachers, and researchers.  When in doubt, try stopping by one of their American offices, in San Francisco, Washington D.C., Houston, New York City, Denver, or Chicago.

4.  The Rotary Youth Exchange

Average age: 15-25 years old

Term length: short term (3-6 weeks) and long term (one year)

Average cost: participants pay for travel, clothing, and insurance

Famous for being the world’s “first service club organization,” Rotary International sends more than 8,000 students around the world each year as part of an international exchange. Students live with host families, attend local schools, and serve as cultural ambassadors. Rotary also hosts local community service clubs through Rotaract, as well as a teen exchange program called Interact.

3. The Council on International Educational Exchange

Average age:  high school, college, graduate, professional

Average term length: varies anywhere from one week to one year

Average cost: varies depending on the program

The CIEE website breaks down its offerings as “study,” “work,” “train,” “teach,” “hire,” “host,” and “connect.” This is a great way to browse international work and study programs, whether you are a high school student looking for an exchange abroad or a teacher wanting to participate in the International Faculty Development Seminars. A great resource not only for academics, but also for any recent college graduates considering a year teaching abroad.  I enjoyed my semester in Spain so much that after completing my bachelor’s degree, I worked as a Language and Culture Assistant in southern Spain as part of their Teach Abroad program.

2.  IIEPassport

This website presents study abroad programs from around the world in a way that’s simple to navigate. If you have a specific idea country or field of interest in mind, the database will help you narrow down your options.  It also summarizes the differences between major American study-abroad companies, such as the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS), CEA Global Education, and Academic Programs International. Although there is less comprehensive financial aid information, IIEPassport does promote diverse offerings, and might help you if you are looking for a private company to work with.

Age, term length, and cost varies from program to program, although most of them listed are privately owned, so they are likely to be more expensive than government-sponsored exchanges.

1. Your University Study Abroad Office

The number of great study abroad programs out there can be overwhelming, and perhaps your main goal is to fulfill requirements for your degree. If that’s the case, a surefire way to insure that you get the right credit for the right classes is to go through your own university’s study abroad program. Most universities have partnerships with schools abroad, or may even have academic affiliations with departments in other countries. If that’s the case, go for it! If you plan to study in a non-English-speaking country, this may be the best bet, because it will often require you to take classes with other international students or non-Americans.  Sound scary? It might be at first, but the immersion will do wonders for your speaking and comprehension skills!

If your school does not have a study abroad office, you can still get credit for going through other university programs. Make an appointment with your academic advisor to review the programs you are considering, and together you can map out a way to get credit for your classes abroad.

A few good examples of university programs include the University of California’s Education Abroad Program (EAP), Boston University International Programs and Arcadia University College of Global Studies.

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? What would you study? What would your Spanish apartment look like? We hope this is the first step in getting you to explore the world, if you haven’t already….

Don't contemplate seeing a counselor... just see one!

No, they are not therapists or psychiatrists; they are guidance counselors who help guide students with their future goals. Although many students may think that a school counselor is going to be a drag or just a plain waste of their time, it is important for students to regularly visit their counselors to help themselves keep track of their career goals. Anytime a student needs to register for new classes, they should see their counselor beforehand. So few students take advantage of the help that a counselor can provide for them, and yet without these counselors, it is easy for students to fall off the right track or take a longer rout in getting to graduation. Here are some noteworthy reasons why every student should visit his or her school counselor.

They Help You Avoid Unnecessary Classes

It is easy to look at the description of a class and feel that it would be a lot of fun to take, but it may or may not be beneficial to the requirements of your major. It is also very common for students to take classes they think are required for their graduation, but later find that those classes served no purpose. To avoid wasting your time and possibly you money, take the time to see your guidance counselor and save yourself a lot of trouble. Your counselor can give you a layout of what is required for your degree and can help you stay on track for the rest of the school year.

Counselors Help with Career Goals

Your counselor is your best resource for giving you information on the kinds of classes or even internships you should be taking in order to pursue your dream career. And, if for some reason your particular counselor cannot answer questions about the career you are interested, then he or she can probably direct you to someone who can. All in all, asking your guidance counselor about what you need to look into for your future job is beneficial.

They Keep Your Status Realistic

So many students feel that they can depend on themselves to keep track of their requirements, and think they know the best way to plan out their education. But, on realistic terms, your counselor is the best person to ask if your plans are capable of taking fruition. Counselors can give you a time-table of how long or short your goals may be. They can let you know how much work is required for particular classes, and whether it is wise to take six classes that may completely drain you of time and energy. If you are interested in adding a minor to your degree or taking some extracurricular classes like painting when your major is in math, ask your counselor whether your hopes will ruin your graduation plans. Your counselor can tell you whether or not any extra classes would be beneficial to your degree. I once thought a particular literature course would delay my graduation, but my counselor found that the class could actually count as necessary credits for my graduation.

Counselors Help Find What Interests You

There are plenty of students who have no idea what they want to do with their lives, but even if you are that kind of student, do not feel discouraged. Counselors are meant to help students with that problem, too. High school students, in particular, are usually at a loss when it comes to figuring out what they want to do for the rest of their lives. A counselor will have discussions with you to help you figure out what you want to do with your life and how education can help you fulfill your dreams. Of course, college students can benefit from this, too. Your counselor can help you go over your current interests and let you know what your career options are.

Counselors Can Be Supportive

Having a supportive person who is friendly and concerned about your future comes in handy while you earn your education, which is another thing that a good counselor can provide. Let’s face it, sometimes being a student is a struggle. But, having people around you who support your hard work and efforts act as encouragement.  It can motivate you to continue studying as hard and as strong as you can. I remember an old friend of mine in high school who had no idea what he wanted to do after graduation, so his counselor took it upon himself to help my friend and spend time with him to try and figure out what my friend’s interests really were. Not all counselors will have that same spare time for you, but the idea is that your counselor is there to support you.

Maybe you are familiar with the writing major’s curse: once the semester ends, and there are no looming deadlines or in-class essays, your motivation to write suddenly shrinks. It’s a bit of a paradox, really, because there are few students who long for homework assignments, and yet the regularity of a school schedule does insure productivity. But what happens when classes end, and you sit down to a blank page or a glaring computer screen, only to realize that you have no idea what to write? Today we suggest 5 Ways to Write Outside of Class, ideas that hopefully will rev your creative engine, and, who knows, beef up your resume while you’re at it.

5. Journalism and Media Internships

Whether you are a diehard poet or a regular blogger, your interest in writing already makes you stand out as a potential journalist. Although many say that the era of print journalism is dying out, some skills, such as pitching stories, interviewing subjects, and working under deadline, are universal in any medium. Regardless if you live in a bustling metropolitan hub or a small college town, there is always a reliable news source nearby. Some independent corporations offer internships in specialized fields, such as The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Media Internships in Health Reporting , while most newspaper chains such as The Washington Post have regular, term-length internship programs.

Even if a paper or organization doesn’t advertise an internship program, it never hurts to ask. Many small news organizations and publications rely on a small staff, and might offer to train you if volunteer your services.

4. Volunteer at Your Local Theater

This is a great opportunity for future Tony Kushners and Suzan-Lori Parkses . Sometimes the best way to become a better writer is to expose yourself to as much as possible: drama, comedy, one-acts, solo performances, dance, music, and community theater. Many theaters host rotating theatrical seasons, or might feature celebrated playwrights or artists-in-residence. Prominent theaters, such as the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky, offer internships in everything from dramaturgy to education to acting.  If you’re not certain yet what kind of theater interests you the most, you can always volunteer as an usher, which, as I’ve been told, is a great way to get free theater tickets.

3. Become a Tutor

For many people, the best way to learn is to teach, because it reinforces what they already know. Many elementary and middle schools may need counselors for after-school activities, or might offer tutoring workshops for kids in specialized areas. Some university programs, such as the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, offer arts programs for local kids, and rely on a young staff to help teach fun classes such as poetry, photography, and painting. Smaller schools might also offer opportunities to work as a teaching assistant, which is a valuable experience for potential teachers.

2. Check out Your Local Radio Station

Many college radio stations reserve time slots for beginner deejays and novice news producers. If you are interested in digital media or the music industry, radio is a great place to start. Prominent National Public Radio member stations, such as KQED in San Francisco, WNYC in New York, and WBEZ in Chicago, often accept interns and volunteers on a rolling basis. Smaller stations, such as San Francisco’s KALW, produce local news programs and often train volunteers how to report, as well as how to engineer audio.  If anything, the opportunity to weave writing skills into serving your community always looks good on your resume.

1. Join a Writing Workshop

I know what you’re thinking—another class? Writing workshops aren’t exactly equivalent to classes, although they can be if you want them to. Many communities host writing classes and clubs through social organizations, and some site-specific courses, such as San Francisco’s Writing Salon or New York City’s Gotham Writing Workshop,  are popular. Or, you can start your own group—why not? Gather a group of friends, set up a writing schedule, and make time to swap stories and offer feedback.

Writing, unlike, say, medicine, isn’t a craft that must be studied chronologically in order to be understood. Therein lies the inherent dilemma: how can one seemingly absorb all the skills necessary to be a successful writer while maintaining an original style and personality? We hope that our 5 Ways to Write Outside Class have offered some insight into the world of writing beyond school.

What gets you to write? Share your tips with us!

Step 1: Read the Directions Slowly

Do not read the instructions fast. This is not a race, and getting through the instructions quickly will not do any good if you do not understand the instructions fully. It may sound silly or overly simplistic, but all too often students hastily read over the instructions and start writing their essays without realizing that they have missed a particular point in the prompt.

Step 2: Read the Directions More than Once

Some things are missed on the first read-through. Go over the instructions at least twice before you start writing your essay; read them again while you are in the middle of writing; and, read them at the end of writing your essay. It may sound like a lot of reading, but it is very easy to forget certain bits of information required in your compositions. You could start writing your essay, get some really good ideas, and have a great flow of words pour forth. But, your writing could also have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Instead of writing a biography of yourself, you began to focus on your mother’s history instead of sticking to how she raised you. This is why it is important to refer back to your instructions in the middle and at the end of writing, so you know that your ideas are staying on track.

Step 3: Highlight or Underline Specific Points

If the directions are a bit long, then it is a good idea to highlight or underline steps in the prompt you may forget. It is far from juvenile to write on your directions to clarify things. If anything, there are many teachers who are pleased to see that students underline important points. Teachers feel that if you are underlining parts of the instructions, you are doing your best to follow them correctly.

Step 4: Look Up Confusing Words or Phrases

Understanding directions is your top priority. If there are parts in the directions that are confusing, either ask your teacher to explain them, or look up the words in the dictionary. Do not be embarrassed to ask your teacher questions. It is better to ask for help before following the directions than to get back a bad grade that confirms you misunderstood the prompt.

November 2 marks el Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday that spins death on its head. The holiday goes back almost 3,000 years, when indigenous Mexican tribes such as the Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Aztec, Maya, P’urhepecha, and Totonac used skulls and skeletons as symbols for cycles of life and death. Twentieth century Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada used images of skeletons (calaveras) to illustrate the influence of our ancestors, and to make political statements about the relationship between death and life. Other important Dia de los Muertos symbols include marigolds, pan dulce (sweet bread), calacas (masks), and Catrinas, skeleton figurines made famous by Posada’s famous etching of an elegant skeleton dressed to the nines. The Day of the Dead is perhaps best known as a holiday that mixes grief with joy: the juxtaposition of skeletons parading as humans, of descendants offering real food and clothes, sacred objects and long-lost memorabilia, to people who exist only as spirits or ghosts. Mexico City hosts an enormous procession every year, as do many communities worldwide, including San Francisco, Tuscon, and Missoula. People everywhere are encouraged to participate, regardless of their background, native language, or religious affiliation.

Every year, people are encouraged to construct altars devoted to their ancestors, family members and friends who have passed away.  For this week’s Write Like You Mean It, we challenge you to write a literary altar of your own. Honor your own ancestors, friends and people you love. But first, Chicana writer and poet Sandra Cisneros describes this powerful connection between life and death:

“Whenever anyone discusses death, they talk about the inevitable loss, but no one ever mentions the inevitable gain. How when you lose a loved one, you suddenly have a spirit ally, an energy on the other side that is with you always, that is with you just by calling their name. I know my father watches over me in a much more thorough way than

Sandra Cisneros

he ever could when he was alive. When he was living, I had to telephone long distance to check up on him and, if he wasn’t watching one of his endless telenovelas, he’d talk to me. Now I simply summon him in my thoughts. Papa. Instantly, I feel his presence surround and calm me.”

–from “An Ofrenda For My Father,” in the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 26, 1997

Cisneros, the award-winning author of The House on Mango Street and Caramelo, often uses memoir to tell stories. Her article in the L.A. Times was printed shortly after her father’s death, where she explores both her relationship with him and her familial connection to Spanish. The word ofrenda is a reference to offerings that people prepare for the Day of the Dead: snapshots of a loved one’s daily life, symbols of their culture and beliefs. Cisneros sees Spanish as her direct line to her ancestors:

“The language of our antepasados, those who came before us, connects us to our center, to who we are and directs us to our life work. Some of us have been lost, cut off from the essential wisdom and power. Sometimes, our parents or grandparents were so harmed by a society that treated them ill for speaking their native language that they thought they could save us from that hate by teaching us to speak only English. Those of us, then, live like captives, lost from our culture, ungrounded, forever wandering like ghosts with a thorn in the heart.”

In honor of the Day of the Dead, we’d like to see tributes to your past. Many personal statements and reflective essays ask students to describe people who have influenced them, whether it be family, friends, community leaders, teachers, or even cultural icons whose work has left an impression on you. Just how does make family history into a compelling story? One word: memoir.

Here are some tips for writing your own holiday memoir:

1. Choose your subject carefully. What specific details about this person make him or her stand out? Are there special traditions that you share? As Cisneros says in her article, her father loved his soap operas, or telenovelas. Clever witticisms, favorite clothes, peculiar habits? Readers will want a full picture.
2. Many Day of the Dead altars incorporate ancestral traditions with more contemporary objects. What culture does your family represent? What symbols can you use to describe where you are from? On the flip side, what daily objects are important to your family?
3. Flashbacks are an important literary technique in telling any story, but especially in memoir. Be selective in the memories that you highlight, and only choose those that are relevant to the story that you are telling. If you are writing about your grandfather’s special recipe for matzo ball soup, show us how he learned to cook, and who taught him.

Can you write a literary altar? If so, share it with us in the comments below or on our Facebook page!!

by Adam Krause

Let’s get this out of the way right now: you should never skim great literature. The comic intricacies of Gustave Flaubert’s prose should not be reduced to the details of his plot and Walt Whitman’s poetry deserves to be read at length, and out loud.

However, if you are really in a bind – say if you were writing a history paper until four A.M. the night before, and also studying for a physics midterm – you have to plan as much time as you can afford to focus on studying the book in question so that when it is your turn to present you will be prepared to talk about it. Here are 5 tips to speed read your way out of a bind.

1) Identify the crucial information.

Unlike, say, a well-ordered economics or chemistry textbook, a literary novel is not likely to signpost its meaning with bullet points, bar graphs or a synopsis at the end of every chapter. And if it does, beware: even footnotes, in a postmodern novel like David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest or Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, are additional slippery layers to the story disguised as helpful side information.

However, you can still isolate the places where the most significant content in a novel, story or poem is likely to be found.

A novel, in the eyes of many impatient readers, lives or dies by its first paragraph or first chapter, and that is where the tone, style and thematic resonances of the work are established. The last chapter, while it may contain a final image that encapsulates the entire book (such as “…he runs. Ah: runs. Runs.” at the end of John Updike’s Rabbit, Run) is usually a denouement, a falling action that quietly wraps up what came before. For the last significant plot twist you really need to know about, look for the climax about four-fifths of the way through the book. This works for short stories as well, on a compressed scale, though a story generally makes less time for falling action than a novel does. In both cases, look for the sentences at the ends of paragraphs (particularly a paragraph of physical description) to bear the brunt of the paragraph’s meaning.

While skimming poems, keep in mind that the poet almost always wants to end strong, and the most content-heavy lines in a poem are usually in the last lines or last stanza. If you’re in a hurry, read the title, the first stanza (which establishes the poem’s premise, or at least a starting point that it will then digress from and return to in some more complex way), then the last stanza, then the first lines of each stanza in between to fill in the bare outline of what you missed. Not the best way to enjoy the poet’s art, but it might keep you from stammering in surprise if your teacher asks you which road Robert Frost’s traveler ended up taking. (Hint: it’s not the expressway.)

2) Take in as much as you can at once, not necessarily in order.

Print is an interesting hybrid medium, in that it imitates the rhythms of speech – which take a certain amount of time to listen to – by putting them into a visual format that can theoretically be apprehended all at once. Ask a speed reader who can read in excess of 700 words a minute, and they will say that a large part of their technique involves reading multiple words simultaneously. This takes practice, but you can look at a page of print and pick out information – say, all the proper nouns, or the few lines of dialogue, or shorter, quicker sentences to convey action – without having to read each word in order, at least not the first time through. Then, using what you know about how sentences in English are put together, assemble them in your mind while digesting the page for comprehension and moving on to the next.

This is unlikely to work for poetry, where unusual, even ungrammatical syntax is often the norm. Poets know that some ideas are just too big to be conveyed in a small space by keeping words in the order you’re used to seeing them.

3) Don’t get bogged down.

Hemingway famously said that he wrote short stories in which not a word could be removed without changing the entire story’s effect. However, not all writers – not all great writers, even – hold themselves to this standard. Try to figure out which aspects of the text you are reading will be crucial to the discussion, and which are tangential or even repetitive. When reading a long Russian novel, you don’t have to linger over the names Katerina Ivanovna or Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov as if you needed to pronounce them perfectly. As soon as you know who does what in a scene, move on. The same goes for vocabulary words you aren’t sure of, especially if they are technical or specific to a certain time or culture: don’t spend too long trying to decipher them. You can always bring them up in class, which will undoubtedly be a relief to those of your classmates who didn’t understand that word either, but didn’t want to say anything.

Okay, let’s say worst comes to worst. You’ve speed-read as much as you can, but class is starting and you still haven’t finished the assigned reading. The last two tips are designed to help you deal with this emergency situation.

4) Get extra-textual.

So you haven’t read the book. What else do you know about it? Maybe the course is limited to one author or a small handful of authors, and you have discussed other works by the same writer before. Maybe the book is situated within a particular literary movement or historical context. You might even be able to get a discussion going about the book’s effect on the reading public (what is known in academic circles as reception theory.) For instance, you don’t have to have read James Joyce’s Ulysses to know that fans around the world celebrate Bloomsday every year on June 16, the day on which the entirety of the novel takes place.

There is bound to be someone in the room, besides you, who is more interested in the context of the book than what’s inside its covers. As French literature professor Pierre Bayard, author of How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, attests: “It’s possible to have a passionate conversation about a book that one has not read, including, perhaps especially, with someone else who has not read it.”

5) Steer the class discussion toward what you *have* read.

Students often don’t realize how much control they have over the direction that class discussions take. Your teacher may have specific nuggets of wisdom she wants to draw out of the text, but a significant amount of her preparation to teach it has probably been geared around ways to stimulate her students to talk about it on their own.

As long as what you have to say is not too tangential to the day’s reading, feel free to bring a close reading to that one passage that tripped you up or intrigued you. Your teacher will more than likely be glad that you are helping to carry the discussion along the lines of your own interests. Even if another student changes the subject to a section of the book you are less familiar with, you’ve already done your part, and probably earned your class participation credit for the day. Lean back in your seat, slip your ear buds on under your new winter hat, and crank up the volume.