Long Reading on a Computer Screen – The Need

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Category: Little Writings

Published on Saturday, 09 May 2009 05:04

Written by Daniel Shin

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I am taking a lot of classes that require a LOT of reading. Most of the readings are from academic journals or books, and thankfully my professors distribute these reading materials as scanned PDF documents (I am not going to reveal which documents my professor has been distributing – for the spirit of learning!). The convenience has been remarkable, because the file is portable enough to be downloaded anywhere on a computer with an internet connection (Opposed to carrying your textbook every time you try to study the material), and you can even print the documents as many times as you need fit!

The problem for me, however, is that these readings are long (We are talking over 50 pages per reading assignment), and I feel I am wasting a lot of paper by printing all of them. There are conveniences for having a hard copy of the document, such as the ability to take notes or highlight sections right on the spot. But as the academic semester moves on, I accumulate stacks of these printed PDF documents on my desk, and it creates a mess. Also, I rarely revisit these documents unless an assignment or an exam requires me to do so.

So, most of these readings are in a way one time use products, and there is a lot of paper waste resulting from the printing. I try to save paper by printing two or four pages per side on both sides, but the paper waste still accumulates nevertheless, and it’s hard to read when the text size is so small!

Initially, reading on a computer did not seem to be a quite attractive option for me, because first, I have a small laptop screen, and second, I find myself not productive when I try to read long documents on my computer. However, I have decided to find a way to make reading long PDF documents as comfortable and productive as possible.

[To be continued!]