Some Forms of Reading

Realizing that my team and our interviewees had various ideas in mind when we asked about "reading," I figured I should offer definitions of various kinds. 

Academic reading is the study of texts for the purposes of learning or completing assignments within scholarly or classroom contexts.

Book-length reading is the experience of reading a complete, extended work,, such as a novel or nonfiction book, that unfolds ideas or narratives across chapters.

Close reading is the detailed, line-by-line analysis of language, structure, and meaning within a specific passage.

Deep reading is the slow, cognitively demanding process in which skilled readers move beyond decoding to integrate perception, analysis, inference, reflection, and empathy, constructing layered meaning while continually strengthening the brain’s reading circuits.

Digital reading is the engagement with text through electronic devices, often across multiple platforms and formats.

Immersive reading is the act of becoming fully absorbed in a text, entering its world with focused attention and minimal distraction.

Informational reading is reading primarily for facts, updates, or practical knowledge rather than aesthetic or interpretive engagement.

Long-form reading is the sustained engagement with extended texts that require continuous attention over significant stretches of time.

Screen-based (or onscreen) reading is the act of reading text displayed on phones, tablets, or computers, typically within environments shaped by hyperlinks, notifications, and multitasking.

Scroll-based reading is the rapid, continuous consumption of short segments of text, often on social media or news feeds, characterized by movement, brevity, and frequent shifts in attention.

Skimming is the strategic scanning of a text to identify key points, themes, or relevant sections without reading every word.

Related:

• Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture

Maryanne Wolf and Deep Reading

The research and writing my team has been doing has me thinking about the concept of “deep reading” as presented by Maryanne Wolf in her works, in particular in Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (2018).

She describes deep reading as a slow, cognitively demanding process that engages multiple regions of the brain in order to analyze, infer, reflect, and empathize. For Wolf, beyond simply decoding words on a page or screen, deep reading is also about constructing meaning through background knowledge, critical thinking, and emotional engagement with a text.

She notes at one point that

“We who are expert readers process and connect our lower-level perceptual information (i.e., the first rings of the reading circuit) at near-breakneck speeds. Only such speeds can enable us to allocate attention to the higher-level deep-reading processes, which in turn constantly feed their conclusions back and forth with the lower-level processes, thus better pre- paring them for the next words they encounter” (37).

Later, Wolf explains that

“The formation of the reading-brain circuit is a unique epigenetic achievement in the intellectual history of our species. Within this circuit, deep reading significantly changes what we perceive, what we feel, and what we know and in so doing alters, informs, and elaborates the circuit itself” (68).

Related: 

• Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture

Something Unexpected about Students' Reading Preferences

By Albert Smith

While interviewing Black men regarding their reading habits and digital culture, I was surprised to find out just how many students preferred engaging with literature physically instead of digitally.

With the rise of digital reading, especially in the forms of e-books and podcasts, I had assumed that most students would have expressed interest in newer and more accessible formats. I had to rethink these assumptions following numerous interviews where students noted that they preferred physical books as they were less distracting.

The desire to engage with physical books despite there being accessible options online speaks to a community of traditional readers at SIUE that value tangibleness over convenience. While most assignments and reading at SIUE are assigned digitally, there are benefits of reverting to classic learning methods that students identify with and actively seek.

In an everchanging world of digital advancement, students of SIUE are expressing interest in relationships with physical media.

Related: 

• Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture

Non-identified Interest as a Major Barrier for Black Men Readers

By Albert Smith

I view non-identified interest as a major barrier facing Black men readers at SIUE because many interviewees mentioned that they were not interested in reading material related to their primary area of study.

This is a barrier as sustained recreational reading requires identifying interesting material that will warrant engagement. Without properly identifying the kinds of literature that one enjoys, the potential for wanting to discuss or critically analyze that material goes down drastically. Second-year student Brandon Perry mentioned that much of the literature associated with his coursework wasn’t interesting because he wasn’t interested in the major he had originally chosen.

To identify reading interests, instructors should seek relevant topics that students have expressed curiosity about. The approach of giving reading options to students (when applicable) should be considered, as this method allows students to choose what they want to read and can engage with their choice accordingly.

Black men readers are often assigned reading that they can’t identify with; there is little acknowledgement that they may have alternate interests, which can increase their engagement with reading.

Related: 

• Five Major Barriers Facing Black Women Readers

• Five Major Barriers Facing Black Men Readers

• Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture

The Data Rangers Research Team

By Kenton Rambsy

The Black short fiction annotation project depends on sustained, coordinated labor, as each story must be read line by line with consistent decisions about dialogue, space, and character so that shared standards and protocols keep the dataset even and analytically reliable.

I established the Data Rangers Annotation Initiative to give a team of emergent researchers opportunities to gain experience and sharpen their skills working with large-scale data projects in the humanities. The initiative brings together students working at the intersection of Black Studies and Digital Humanities who annotate stories using defined methods and quality control practices. We meet regularly, compare interpretive decisions, and refine guidelines so the dataset remains consistent and replicable.

This collaborative approach builds on a longer tradition in Black Studies. W. E. B. Du Bois worked with students to collect and visualize data for the “Exhibit of American Negroes” at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. The Slave Voyages project required decades of coordinated archival reconciliation. Douglass Day, launched in 2017 by the Colored Conventions Project, organizes an annual transcribe a thon dedicated to preserving Black historical documents through collective labor. Knowledge production in Black Studies has long relied on structured, collaborative documentation.

Each Data Ranger is responsible for a group of stories that contribute to a growing research archive whose annotations extend beyond a single semester and will inform future publications, visualizations, and public-facing tools related to Black short fiction. The project also develops advanced research skills, as students document interpretive decisions, apply Excel functions to verify data, and translate literary nuance into structured datasets. What distinguishes the Data Rangers is their ability to combine close reading with computational precision, producing scholarship grounded in Black Studies and designed for long-term impact.

Data Rangers:

Howard University

Nandi Chase (Washington, DC): Sophomore, Economics Major
India Crowe (Hampton, GA): Sophomore, Sociology Major
Cheyenne Freeman (Washington, DC): Senior African American Studies Major
Lyric Hoover (New Orleans, LA): Junior, English Major
Giselle Huggins (Suwanee, GA): Sophomore, African American Studies Major
Nyla Jones (Orange County, CA): PhD Student in English
Abiba Moncriffe (Desoto, Texas): Sophomore, African American Studies Major
Gabriella Pardlo (New York, NY): Sophomore, Economics Major
Damarian Washington (Brooklyn, NY): Junior, History Major

Morgan State University
Kweku Schmidt (Bowie, MD): Senior, English Major

Related:

The Black Short Story Project

How Overwhelming Obligations Affect Black Women Readers

By Joyce Woodard

Overwhelming obligations are one of the many barriers Black women readers face at SIUE.

I view this as a barrier because it has been a common reason Black women readers have mentioned as to why they don't read more. Junior TaKara Gilbert mentioned, since being in college, “...all of my free time to explore books, I really want to see, I don’t have time for that.”

To me, this suggests that Black women readers at SIUE need to find a better balance between required reading/assignments and leisure reading. It can be overwhelming trying to balance so many obligations while in school, but if we made a better effort to improve reading habits, I think it would be extremely beneficial.

Addressing the reasons why Black students don’t feel motivated to do some kinds of reading -- like book-length reading and immersive reading -- is important for making reading more accessible and helping them find a balance.

Related: 

• Five Major Barriers Facing Black Women Readers

• Five Major Barriers Facing Black Men Readers

• Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture

Being A Very Good Reader

Given the work I've been doing on readers, sometimes struggling reading, I took note of words from Toni Morrison, someone on the other end of the spectrum.

Years ago, I noticed Morrison stating in interviews, “I’m a pretty good reader” in one instance and, elsewhere, “I’m a very good reader.” In her book On Morrison, Namwali Serpell reflects on Morrison and herself, writing: “Over the years, through my work and experience as a literature professor and fiction writer, I’ve learned a lot about the Black cultural traditions that ground her aesthetics. And I am, as she often said of herself, a very good reader” (20).

I love these public declarations, from Morrison and now Serpell, about being very good readers. They also raise questions: What distinguishes a good reader from a very good one? How does someone move from good reader to better reader to very good reader? And under what circumstances does one feel compelled to mention it aloud?

Maybe calling oneself a very good reader is less a claim about talent and more an acknowledgment of years spent building the habits and interpretive range that serious reading demands.

Related:

• Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture

Considering Different Kinds of Reading

We may need to do more these days to distinguish among different kinds of reading, since we are engaging in more of some forms and less of others.

On one hand, we might refer to long-form, deep, book-length, immersive, or academic reading. On the other hand, we might consider digital, screen-based, onscreen, or scroll-based reading. These are not simply different formats; they often involve different rhythms, attention demands, and cognitive patterns.

When students say they prefer physical books, I sometimes wonder if they mean that book-length reading offers a needed break from the constant stream of words encountered on phones, computers, and tablets. 

Making distinctions among types of reading is important because without them, we risk misunderstanding both how much people are actually reading and what kinds of cognitive engagement those reading practices require.

Related:

• Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture