# Active Reading & Recall Sheet

Use this for one important text at a time: a report, a chapter, a paper, a long article you need to actually retain, not just summarize.

## 1. Preview (Before Reading)

- Title / source / date:
- Why this text, specifically (what decision or understanding depends on it):
- From the headings/abstract alone, what do you predict the argument is?
- Two questions you want this text to answer:
  1.
  2.

## 2. Active Questions (While Reading)

Stop at each major section and answer without copying the text verbatim.

| Section | One-sentence claim | Evidence given | Question this raises |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |

## 3. Unaided Recall (Book Closed)

Close the text. Do not look back until this section is done.

- Main argument, in your own words:
- Three supporting points you remember:
  1.
  2.
  3.
- One thing you are unsure you remembered correctly:

## 4. Check Against The Source

Reopen the text only now.

- What did you get right?
- What did you get wrong or invent?
- What did you forget entirely?

## 5. Source-Checked Synthesis

Label every claim as one of three things. Do not blend them.

| Claim | Type (quote / paraphrase / model inference) | Source location |
| --- | --- | --- |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |

A "model inference" is something an AI tool added or connected that is not directly stated in the text — useful, but it needs your own verification before you repeat it as the author's claim.

## 6. Application

- One way you will use this understanding in the next week:
- Who you would explain this to, and the one-paragraph version you'd give them:

## Boundary

Only upload or paste text you have the right to share — your own notes, open-access material, or excerpts covered by fair-quotation use. Do not upload a restricted book, a paywalled article beyond a short excerpt, or someone else's unpublished manuscript into a third-party AI tool.