Hi everybody, So throughout the whole semester, the importance of reading has been emphasized. I do agree that, although we do not read as much as the people in the previous generation did, reading is one of the most important abilities that we have to master during our law school (and legal) career.

I have to confess that I am not the most effective reader but I would like to get with the program and improve my reading skills. I was wondering if there were people who wanted to compile all the tips that was given during the class on this topic.

First, Professor Moglen emphasized the importance of memory. To improve our memory, we have to learn how to disconnect from technology (and use it smartly). By doing so, we will decrease the unnecessary and continuous stimuli that is given to our brain, thus, reducing frictions that the brains experience. On a related note, I also remember Professor's suggestion that we have to reduce the time spent on watching TV.

Second, I think it is helpful to link the theme of "hearing" to the reading. Our discussions on the reading have focused on deciphering what the authors/protagonists are really thinking and what they are really trying to communicate to us. This relates to the comment on being aware of the surroundings and really "listening" to what is going on. Instead of just superficially glancing through the reading to figure out what is the most important sentence, etc I think it would help to really pay attention to the context that the author is setting up and what function each detail serves in communicating author's narrative. (For example, one of our classmates discussed the role of describing architecture in conveying the message of appreciating the beauty)

Third, Professor Moglen sometimes stress the fact that we had chance to read the assigned piece multiple times but we chose to read it only once (if we decide to do the reading). I think this comment points to the importance of doing the reading more than once (I guess especially when we can't remember what the reading was about).

Please feel free to edit what I have said or add other tips that you can remember on this topic.

-- MinKyungLee - 27 Mar 2012

Here are two quick tips that I remember he said when a group of us asked him this same question after class:

1) Try to make an emotional connection with the material your reading. (This may not always work in practice because there just certain material that's hard to relate to.)

2) Eben said he'd adjust his body position every few minutes and remember things according to what he was doing at that time. For example, you can be sitting upright in your chair for several minutes reading about topic X, then you cross your legs and remember that in this position you were reading about topic Y. Then several minutes pass, you lean back, remember what you were reading at that point, and so on...

Good luck!

-- LizzieGomez - 27 Mar 2012

I'd like to add that Professor Moglen also emphasized the importance of getting enough sleep. I personally think that this habit is really key, and the connection between sleep and increased memory retention is well documented. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=snooze-or-lose-memory-ret.

Plus, "Sleep more." is the most consistent advice that I've gotten from 3Ls.

-- GechiNzewi - 14 Apr 2012