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How to explain a text to yourself while you read
Self-explanation means you stop after a paragraph and say what it means, in your own words, before you read on. A 2020 study of 193 ninth-graders found that students trained to link ideas across a passage this way scored higher on a science test than students given no training.
Key points
- Self-explanation is a pause, not a summary: say what the text means and how it connects, not just what it said.
- A 2020 study found the trained group's advantage on a science test held up four months later.
- The method costs you production: you must say the point, not only recognise it.
- It pairs well with a hard text: chunk the passage first, then explain each chunk.
What counts as a self-explanation?
- Self-explanation
- A pause during a read, where you state the meaning of the section in your own words and connect it to what came before. The pause forces you to notice a gap that a silent read hides.
A self-explanation is not a restatement of the same words in a different order. A restatement copies the structure of the sentence and swaps a few terms. A self-explanation answers a harder question: why does this sentence follow the one before it, and what would change if it were missing? Two of the common forms are a bridge, which links a new idea to an earlier one in the same text, and an elaboration, which links a new idea to something you already knew before you opened the text.
How do you do it, paragraph by paragraph?
- Read one paragraph, or a section of about 150 words.
- Stop. Cover the text if you are able to.
- Say, in one or two sentences, what the paragraph means and how it links to the one before it.
- Note the part you cannot explain. That is your real gap, and not the part that felt hard to read.
- Uncover the text, check the gap you found, then move to the next paragraph.
Say the explanation aloud, or write it in the margin, rather than form it silently in your head. A silent explanation is easy to skip halfway through, because nothing forces you to finish the sentence. A spoken or written one stops the moment you cannot finish it, and that stop is the useful signal.
What is the difference between a summary and an explanation?
| Habit | What you do | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| Summary | State the main point of a passage, usually in fewer words. | Compression. You can summarise a sentence you do not fully follow. |
| Paraphrase | Restate the same sentence with different words, same structure. | Substitution. It shows vocabulary, not necessarily understanding. |
| Self-explanation | State why the sentence follows from the one before it, or from what you knew already. | A connection. You cannot produce it without seeing how the idea fits with another one. |
When does self-explanation help the most?
The method costs time, so use it where the cost is worth paying. It helps most on a passage that packs several linked facts into a small space, where missing one link breaks the rest of the paragraph. It helps least on a passage that states one plain fact with no argument behind it, where a summary is enough. A text with a title and no further heading structure is also a good target, because a self-explanation gives you the structure that the page itself does not.
The guide on how to understand a difficult text covers the step before this one: how to prepare for a hard passage and how to split a long sentence into smaller pieces. Self-explanation is the check you run once you have read the pieces.
What does the research show?
A trained group scored higher, and kept the advantage
Sason, Michalsky and Mevarech (2020) trained 193 ninth-grade students (89 boys, 104 girls; mean age 15) to generate their own linking questions while they read science texts. One group of 61 students learned to link different parts of the same text to each other. A second group of 57 students learned to link the text to what they already knew. A control group of 75 students received no training. On a science literacy test given right after training, the first group scored significantly higher than the other two groups, F(2,190) = 24.39, p < 0.001. Four months later, on the same measure, that group's advantage over the control group still held.
Production beats recognition
A 2006 experiment found that students who took three recall tests on a passage remembered 61% of it one week later, against 40% for students who reread the same passage four times. A self-explanation asks for the same kind of act as a recall test: you produce a sentence from your own understanding, instead of recognising a sentence that is already on the page.
Sources
- Sason, H., Michalsky, T., & Mevarech, Z. R. (2020). Promoting Middle School Students' Science Text Comprehension via Two Self-Generated "Linking" Questioning Methods. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 595745. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.595745
- Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-Enhanced Learning. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x
Common questions
Do I have to write it down, or can I say it aloud?
Either works, as long as you produce the sentence in full. Writing gives you a record to check later. Speech is faster and suits a short section. Avoid a silent, in-your-head version, because it is easy to leave unfinished.
Does this work on a technical or a mathematical passage?
Yes, with a small change. Explain why a step follows from the step before it, and not only what the step computes. "This step follows because the previous line established X" is a self-explanation. "This step multiplies by two" is closer to a paraphrase.
How often should I stop to self-explain?
Stop after every paragraph on a hard, dense text. Stop after a whole section, of several paragraphs, on an easier text. The right rate is the one where you still find a real gap most of the time you stop.
Is this the same as active recall?
They are close relatives, and not identical. Active recall usually happens after you close the text and asks you to produce what you remember. Self-explanation usually happens with the text still open, one section at a time, and asks you to produce a connection rather than a full memory.
Where do you go next?
- What to use instead of a highlighter — another active habit that replaces a passive mark on the page.
- How to test yourself while you read — the version of this habit that runs after you close the text.
Start with a topic
Read one short step on a new topic. Stop at the end of it, and say aloud why the step follows from the one before it.
Open the catalogue