Part of the academic experience involves coming up against new or unfamiliar terms or words. The best way to expand your grasp of the subject you’re studying is to look things up in dictionaries, textbook glossaries or encyclopedias. Believe me, there is no shame in using a reference book or site. It’s an accepted, and expected, academic activity. It may be helpful to develop a personal glossary as you read; keep a list of words or concepts you’ve looked up.

A Guide to Reading and Analyzing Academic Articles, by Amanda Graham, 1997-2012, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.