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Reading Strategies
How to get the most out of your complex sources.

Strategies: CARS

While each discipline is different, John Swales identifies a rhetorical strategy for approaching the introductions to critical articles/sources. (WaW Introduction)

CARS

= Create a Research Space

Strategies: CARS3 Basic Moves

According to Swales model, almost every introduction makes 3 basic rhetorical moves.

Move 1: Establishing Territory Move 2: Establishing Niche Move 3: Occupying a Niche

Strategies: CARS 1. Establishing a Territory

In this move, the author sets the context for his or her research, providing necessary background on the topic (Swales 6).
1: Claiming Centrality Explaining to your reader why this topic matters. (i.e. My topic is super important time). Recently there has been a spate of interest in Knowledge of X has great importance for 2: Making Topic Generalizations Statement about the current, knowledge, practices, or phenomena in the field (Swales 6). The properties of X are still not completely understood. X is a common finding in patients with 3: Reviewing Previous Items of Research Linking your research with those who have gone before you. Both Johnson and Morgan claim that the biographical facts have been misrepresented. integral Several studies have suggested that(Gordon, 2003; Ratzinger, 2009) nonintegral Reading to children early and often seems to have a positive long -term correlation with grades in English courses (Jones, 2002; Strong, 2009) non-integral

Strategies: CARS 2. Establishing a niche

Move 2 is about demonstrating that there is a space that needs to be filled through additional research (Swales 7).

1. Counter-claiming fancy way of saying the author disagrees with earlier research. While Jones and Riley believe X method to be accurate, a close examination demonstrates their method to be flawed 2. Indicating a Gap Earlier research was all well in good, but they missed a spot. While existing studies have clearly established X, they have not addressed Y. 3. Question-raising Exactly what it sounds like While Jones and Morgan have established X, these findings raise a number of questions, including 4. Continuing a Tradition You agree with those who have come before you, but still make your project interesting by saying it ADDS something Earlier studies seemed to suggest X. To verify this finding, more work is urgently needed

Strategies: CARS

Fill in the blank created by Move 2. This is the part where you conveniently offer to fill the gap you conveniently pointed out in Move 2.

1a. Outlining Purposes Lay out the main purpose(s) of current project In this article I argue. or The present research tries to clarify 1b. Announcing Present Research Describes the research presented/covered in current project. This paper describes three separate studies conducted between March 2008 and January 2009 2. Announcing Principal Findings Present main conclusions current research lead to. The result of the study suggests or When we examined X, we discovered 3. Indicating the Structure of the Research Article Lay out the organization of the article. This paper is structured as follows

Strategies: CARS3 Basic Moves

To Review

Move 1: Establishing Territory I know what is happening in this arena Move 2: Establishing Niche There is room for more research in this arena, a gap to be filled Move 3: Occupying a Niche Look, how handy, I happen to have just the thing to fill that research gap

Strategies: Mapping/Reverse Outlining

Swales CARS strategy gives us a way of tracking the rhetorical moves of an essays introduction.
Mapping (a form of Reverse Outlining) gives you a way to track the articles rhetorical moves throughout. The basic idea is that this is an effective reading strategy, which allows you to track the articles main claims.

This is a particularly helpful strategy for difficult, or new material

Strategies: Mapping/Reverse Outlining

Step 1: Read the entire Introduction of an article/chapter/essay. Step 2: Read the first and last sentence of every body paragraph. Step 3: Read the entire Conclusion.

These are the places where authors should/do place their main points, place their arguments into context, and set up their arguments. Thus, from reading them, you should be able to grasp the main points the author is trying to make. (This is why I have and will continue to harp on the importance of these things in your writing). Dont be afraid, or too lazy, to modify this. *Occasionally, you may not feel like the first/last sentences give you the point. Feel free to read the second sentence. *For sources with subsections, or longer sources (books), it will be more affective to re-map this strategy to fit these parameters. (i.e. read the intros and conclusions of smaller chunks)

Strategies: Mapping/Reverse Outlining

Step 1: Read the entire Introduction of an article/chapter/essay. Step 2: Read the first and last sentence of every body paragraph. Step 3: Read the entire Conclusion. As you read, keep notes on these major points as you go, creating an outline for the article.

Strategies: Annotating

Annotating basically means making notes on the bibliographic information of your articles on the main ideas of the sources.

Bibliography + Summary = Annotation

Annotating is a great way to keep track of which source says what, and it is super easy if you have done Reverse Outlining.