I bet you can’t name one student over the age of 18 that doesn’t
own a highlighter… That’s because highlighting is often an
important part of note taking, reading and studying - especially
in college! College students are inundated with information
overload and use highlighters daily as a tool to cut through the
clutter to help them clarify, organize, and synthesize subject
matter. Highlighting helps to cut down the excess so that
students can more easily focus on the main concepts that are
important to them and study more effectively and efficiently.
Highlighting correctly can be very helpful for students, however
it can often be a distraction when done incorrectly. Have you
ever looked back through your textbook after reading a chapter
only to find either, A) You had so perfectly colored every page
a bright neon hue that your kindergarten-self would be jealous?
Or B) you retained ab-so-lute-ly NOTHING? If you answered yes to
either (most likely both), you are a victim of “Over-
Highlighting”!! “Over-Highligh