Is highlighting important words a good idea?

Highlighting important words and concepts can help in two ways. Firstly to allow people to skim the content quickly, extracting the key points the text is trying to communicate without having to trawl through every word. And secondly by breaking up sentences into smaller and more easily digestible chunks.

1. Is highlighting text useful?
2. Why is it a good idea to highlight the main ideas and important words?
3. Is excessive highlighting good?
4. Is it better to highlight or underline?

Is highlighting text useful?

In a 2013 study, researchers concluded that despite being a widely-used strategy, “most studies have shown no benefit to highlighting (as it is typically used) over and above the benefit of simply reading.” In fact, when students relied only on highlighting as a study strategy, it came with a significant opportunity ...

Why is it a good idea to highlight the main ideas and important words?

The purpose of highlighting is to draw attention to important information in a text. Effective highlighting is effective because it first asks the reader to pick out the important parts, and then gives an effective way to review that information later.

Is excessive highlighting good?

Here's the point: it doesn't work. Highlighting made it on the list of worst study skills. Some study skills don't take much time. We recommend some of those skills because they provide a boost without much effort.

Is it better to highlight or underline?

Overall, underlining draws attention to individual concepts (facts) but does not facilitate the big-picture concepts. Further studies have shown that underlining is more associated with concepts that may be on a multiple-choice exam. The effectiveness of highlighting can be dependent upon prior knowledge of material.