Highlighting: A very important tool in studying

By Olaleye Boluwatife Ezekiel

Have you ever read a book whereby you need a particular information or Idea from after finishing it, say after some few days and when you go back to the book, you are unable to find what you need? Or have you ever typed or read a document on the computer but find it difficult locating a point that you deemed important during the course of exploring such document? Have you ever asked yourself why you can’t pinpoint exactly the line, paragraph or page where you found an important message in a book you read not quite long ago?

The answer is here: If you are having these problems, the reason is because you didn’t highlight such important info while reading, you just read through thinking your brain would accommodate every single detail in the book hook, line and sinker.

Highlighting is both applicable in hard and soft copies. In the case of hard copies for instance, reading a textbook, novel or a bible, it means to mark with a usually fluorescent marker as a means of memory retention or for later reference while in the case of soft copies, it means to cause a text or an icon to be displayed in a way that stands out on a computer screen but nevertheless, they perform the same function.

From a personal research, I have observed that most, not all students don’t realize the importance of highlighting. Not many read to understand what they are reading but they view cramming as the best way of studying-reading hastily for an impending exam which is quite unfortunate. The power of highlighting is often underestimated by students which is a very bad habit. The truth is that it is not every time one has the time to read a whole note or document but the words highlighted captures your attention and you are forced to check it out and in the process, you are reminding yourself of very important information.

Let me tell you of how “highlighting” helped a boy succeed in what was a seemingly impossible task. His name was Ayomide, an interpreter in his church, well-known and respected. One day, the Youth Coordinator came to him telling him that he was going to be representing his church for a bible quiz along with a female and they were to read the whole chapters in a book in the bible, 2^nd Samuel to be precise but he complained saying he wouldn’t have time for it because he had his school’s duty to attend to-doing assignments, studying for tests, projects and so on, that he wasn’t going to be having the time to open his bible to read whenever he came back home at night but the woman insisted that he was going to do it because she believed and the church believed in him. 

It was just a week they had to prepare prior to the quiz competition and Ayomide kept reminding himself that he couldn’t let a lot of people who believed in him down so one day he picked up his bible to read but it didn’t last because lecture came up.

For all the days of preparation, Ayomide only read his bible twice and on the day of the quiz when the Youth Coordinator asked to know about how well he had prepared, he told her that he had only read 14 out of 24 chapters in the book and concluded that he was not ready, that another person be chosen to replace him but this woman refused. She told him that he was still going to be among the church’s representatives and whatever position they ended in, so be it.

However, while praises were been sung by the host church’s choir, Ayomide brought out his bible to glance through it one last time before the quiz began but while surveying his bible, his eyes attention was captured by some yellow colour on the text of the bible- He had totally forgotten but while reading his bible the first time, he had highlighted a sentence that he considered imperative and could possibly be asked as a question in the quiz. As he continued to flip through the pages, his continued to go through all the highlighting he made and to his own surprise and to the glory of God, the first two questions thrown to his church were exactly drafted from the words he highlighted and much to his own delight, he gladly stood up to answer the questions while his partner was completely befuddled and dumb-founded. The remaining two questions were answered by his partner though, but the first two questions he had been able to answer because of his habit of highlighting was enough to inspire them to victory over eight contestant churches and in the end the Youth Coordinator came to him telling him, “I told you that you could do it. I am proud of you and I am sure the church will be as well.”

My fellow students, I want us to learn from the story of Ayomide and inculcate the habit of highlighting. It is not an exaggeration when I say that we will never know when we might need an information from a book or document either that we read willingly out of interest or we were asked or enjoined to read or study but highlighting will save you the stress of opening page after page with little chance of finding what we are looking for and practically reading the book all over again. Let us develop the habit of accentuating or underscoring information we consider paramount or that we have never heard of before in anything we read or study because no man is an island of knowledge. It might seem irrelevant or unnecessary but the function it performs or the effect it will take in our life and on our day-to-day activities is vital and invaluable. 

Cultivate it!