There are a variety of different strategies that an individual can use to read a particular piece of material, but it is important for an individual to find the best strategy for the type of resource that the individual us using. There is a wide range of different written materials that an individual may have to use in order to study for an exam, interview, or other similar purpose and each type of written material requires a different reading strategy in order to use that resource in the most effective way possible. One of the strategies that an individual can use to read and study a variety of different material is known as Survey, Question, Read, and Write (SQRW.) This reading strategy is primarily intended to help an individual take notes chapter by chapter on information that the individual is reading for the first time. As a result, SQRW is very similar to the SQ3R method and is usually used for taking notes from textbooks. However, SQRW is sometimes more practical than the SQ3R method if the individual is attempting to study in a location where reciting information aloud may not be allowed or the individual does not have enough time to use the complete SQ3R method.
SQRW consists of four separate steps that are designed to help the individual determine the most important points of each chapter and take notes on those points. First, the individual should just quickly survey the chapter for titles, headings, subheadings, captions, chapter summaries, and any other easily identifiable indications of the main idea of the chapter and its sections. Next, just as in the SQ3R method, the individual should take each of these items and turn them into questions that the individual can answer while he or she is reading the chapter. Once the individual has identified the questions that he or she needs to answer, that individual should read each section of the chapter and find the answers to the questions for each section. Finally, the individual should write down each question and the answer to each question in his or her notes as he or she completes each section. The major difference between the SQ3R method and the SQRW method is that SQRW does not include the recite step included in SQ3R and the review step is assumed to be something the individual does after SQRW has been completed instead of being considered part of the method.