Reading Like a Graduate Student: A Framework for Developing Best Practices

As you enroll in graduate school, your bring your knowledge, information, and expertise based on you previous coursework, lived experiences, maturity, emotional intelligence, and self-knowledge.[1]

This brief guide offers general suggestions for best practices in reading on a graduate level for coursework and for research.[2]  Disciplines may have additional expectations of their graduate students.

The following selection of USC Libraries Resources may be of additional help:

• Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper Guide
• Organizing Research for Arts and Humanities Papers and Theses Guide
• Evaluating Information Sources Guide
• Guide to Citating Conventions

Additionally, this 7-minute YouTube video titled How to Read a Scholarly Article provides a good introduction regardless of disciplinarity. 

[1] These terms were widely introduced into usage through research and publications into leadership conducted by Daniel Goleman.

[2] Suggested practices in this guide were adapted from Purdue OWL, Claremont Colleges’ How to Read in Graduate School, and University of Pennsylvania’s Reading Effectively in Graduate School. Accessed in March 2025.