A sixty-thousand-word essay is not a test of endurance. It is an argument with enough room to establish terms, follow evidence, and change direction; the useful question is not how quickly to finish, but how to keep track of what the essay is asking you to consider.
Begin With a Question
Before you start, write down what brought you to the essay. It might be a claim you doubt, a historical question you want clarified, or a graph whose meaning is not immediately apparent. A question gives you a thread to return to when the argument branches.
Notice the Turns
As you read, mark the moments when the essay defines a key term, introduces evidence, or draws an interpretation from that evidence. Those are different moves, even when they appear close together. Keeping them distinct makes it easier to follow the argument—and to see where you might disagree with it.
Leave Room to Return
A pause is part of reading, not a failure to keep up. After a section, note its main claim in your own words and identify one point you want to revisit. When you return, the notes can help you follow the argument without pretending that every passage carries equal weight.