Here's a quick trick you can use today, whether or not you're enrolled in the course:

The One-Sentence Rule

After you finish a paragraph, cover it up and try to state its main point in one sentence, from memory.

• If you can do it easily → the paragraph had one clear key point. Highlight the sentence that best matches what you just said (usually the topic sentence).

• If you can't → you probably don't have a clear takeaway yet. Re-read once, looking specifically for the sentence that answers "why does this paragraph exist?"

• If you needed multiple sentences to explain it → the paragraph likely has more than one key point. That's fine — highlight each supporting sentence separately instead of the whole block.

Why this works: highlighting isn't a decoration step you do while reading — it's a compression test. If you can't compress a paragraph into one sentence, you don't actually understand it well enough to know what's important in it yet.

Try it on the next thing you read today (an article, a textbook chapter, even a long email) and see how much less you end up highlighting.

Questions or want feedback on a passage? Drop it in the comments below 👇