Buy quality highlighters that will not damage your text and consider buying multiple colors that can be used for color-coding. Avoid using regular markers as substitutes, as they may leave behind text no longer legible. Highlighters that begin drying out can rub the text and some highlighters bleed through paper worse than others. Investing in a few good highlighters will help you avoid mishaps.
Preview the text to get an idea of what you can expect. If you are reading a textbook chapter, read the chapter summary and review the end-of-chapter materials. Also read the introduction and scan through the chapter, including any highlights. If you are reading a book, read the introduction or preface and scan through the chapters.
Formulate a highlighting strategy before beginning. Decide how you can make the most use of highlighted text by examining the purpose of your reading. For example, if you are reading a section of a textbook that will result in an exam, you may want to highlight material you feel will be on the exam. If you are reading literature for a class discussion, you may want to highlight material that relates to the theme of the book. It is important to know why you are highlighting and highlight accordingly, rather than blindly highlighting everything that looks interesting.
Read your text and highlight content that serves your purpose. Highlight after reading a sentence, not while reading it. Ask yourself why something you are highlighting is important to help make cognitive connections to the reading. Jot down any questions the material poses, your reactions to the content or any content that you are struggling with, using pencil, in the margins. By interacting with the text in this manner you create meaning, which will increase your recall of the material.
Highlight minimally. The point of highlighting is to make important concepts stand out from contextual material. The University of North Carolina in Greensboro's Learning Assistance Center recommends to avoid highlighting more than 20 percent of the text.
Color code highlighted content to make reference even easier, if desired. For example, you may want to highlight terminology using yellow, key concepts using blue and examples using pink. There are many ways to color code the text, how you will establish a code depends on your needs.