Reading for Understanding
Some notes on reading:

Effective reading requires your full attention and concentration.
Taking notes is effective when reading, but it can be time consuming.
Thus, underlining, annotation and asking questions can be very effective and less time consuming.

Underlining is used for selection and emphasis. When you underline, you are distinguishing between what is important and what is less significant. Underlining when you first started reading a text is usually hard because you don’t know what will be important. A good strategy for this is to skim through the text first and then start reading it carefully and underline the important information.

Skimming: read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. In this way, you get a main idea of what the text is about.
Underlining means selection: Some points are worth reviewing but some aren’t. You would probably want to underline:
Important generalization and topic sentences
Examples that have helped you understand a difficult idea
Points/ideas/arguments/information that are connected to the main idea of the text

Annotation refers to the comment you write in the margins when you interpret, evaluate or question the author’s meaning, define a word or phrase, or clarify a point.
Not every reading deserves to be annotated. Since this process requires some extra time and concentration, save your marginal notes for material that is especially difficult or stimulating (interesting).

Asking questions is another process for effective reading. As you read actively and try to understand what you read, you will find yourself asking questions about your source. See examples in your book (Writing from Sources) on Page 5-6.