CRITICAL READING

How do you read - a novel? - a newspaper? - assessment feedback on a miniproject? - the blurb on a DVD ? - an email from a friend? - other

Speeds & depths of reading

We change according to our purpose: skimming and scanning light reading normal reading intensive reading i.e. reading with great attention

Critical reading

to evaluate texts & then answer specific (research) questions

Reading Research Reports:

What strategies are you going to use to read it?

Strategies for Surveying Research Reports

use the abstract to get an overview of content skimming & scanning read the intros & conclusions first scan headings & sub-headings other

 scan graphical information: tables, figures read topic sentences & concluding sentences of paragraphs glide over each paragraph to pick up key words

Reading Research Reports: Surveying

Now have a go at surveying the report as a whole using the strategies just suggested.
Spend about 7-8 minutes

Reading Research Reports: Surveying

What did you learn? What is the overall structure of this article?

IMRaD
Many scientific & engineering reports are based on an IMRaD structure: Introduction Method Results And Discussion In some reports there is also a conclusion.

Can you trace an IMRaD structure in this article? If the terms are different, what are they?

Other Strategies

What other strategies & information did you use to help you work out the main idea of the article?

SQ3R
Weve been using the 1st stage of SQ3R The 5 stages are: SURVEY QUESTION READ RECALL REVIEW

Reading Research Reports: SQ3R- Surveying

Once you have an idea of the overall structure by surveying the text you can reduce your processing load when you come to read the article closely.
you can then work out the structure & meaning of smaller chunks You can also identify which bits to glide over and which bits to concentrate on

Reading Research Reports: SQ3R- Questioning

The 2nd stage of SQ3R is to question This involves making questions about what you want to learn from the article adopting a critical i.e. evaluative frame of mind

Reading Research Reports : Questioning Why formulate questions? Reading to answer specific questions allows you to read more purposefully & time-efficiently give you points to look out for allows you to glide over unimportant sections means that youre reading criticallyinteracting with the content and evaluating, thereby reading at postgrad level

Reading Research Reports : Question

Now use your knowledge of the article from the surveying stage to make 3-4 questions about the topic of the article [maximum 5 minutes] What sort of questions did you formulate?

Reading Research Reports : Reading

Spend 10 minutes reading the article with the purpose of finding answers to your questions

Reading Research Reports : Read

What questions did you ask? Did you succeed in finding answers to your questions? How well has surveying & questioning worked so far?

Reading Research Reports : Recall & Review

The final two stages are: Recall Review Recall- unless you have a remarkable memory youll probably forget 50% of what you read, shortly after reading. So youll need make a deliberate attempt to recall the key ideas &/or take notes

Reading Research Reports : Recall

You can record your notes in a number of ways including: Linear notes Flow diagrams Mind maps

Reading Research Reports : Recall

Use subordination to identify the importance of information: -key information on the left hand side -detailed points in the middle -comments & questions on the right hand side Symbols and abbreviations can save valuable time, enabling you to write less and identify the main points more efficiently

Reading Research Reports : Recall

When taking notes: remember on each page of your notes to record author[s], year, title of book or journal, article name,+ pages if journal. paraphrase the key ideas put quotations i.e. any identical chunks of the original article in speech marks These techniques will help you to avoid plagiarism, the serious offence of using other peoples ideas as if they were your own

Reading Research Reports : Review

Review How well can you recall the key ideas? Look at your questions. Can you still remember the answers? If not, reread to refresh your knowledge and fill the gaps in your knowledge