Reading for your research

1. Reading for Research &
Effective Note-Taking

2. • Carrying out a research project will
almost invariably involve the
researcher in a significant amount of
reading, particularly if they are not
already well read in their subject area;
Introduction

3. • It is highly desirable to engage in related
reading while carrying out a research
project;
• Your research project needs to be
informed and stimulated by your
developing knowledge as you carry it out;
Why reading?

4.  The reasons for reading for research are:
 It will give you ideas;
 You need to understand what other researchers have
done in your area;
 To broaden your perspectives and set your work in
context;
 Direct personal experience can never be enough;
 To legitimate your arguments;
 It may cause you to change your mind;
 Writers need readers;
 You read so that you can effectively criticize what others
have done;
 To learn more about research methods and their
application in practice;
 In order to spot areas which have not been researched;

5. Reading at different stages and for different purposes
 Stages:
 At the beginning of your research, in order to check what other
research has been done, to focus your ideas, shape your hypotheses
and explore the context for your project;
 During your research, to keep you interested and up to date with
developments, to help you better understand the methods you are
using and the field you are researching, and as a source of data;
 After your research, to see what impact your own work has had and
to help you develop ideas for further research projects;
 Purposes:
 accounts of research on similar topics to your own;
 accounts of research methods being applied in ways which are
similar to your own plans;
 accounts of the context relating to your project;
 to enrich your arguments;

6. Basic reading strategies
Where to read;
What to read;
Whom to read;
How to find what you need to read;

7. Where to read
• The obvious place to read may seem to be the library,
particularly if you are doing a research project in an
academic setting;
• They may be wide ranging or specialized resources,
general or academic in function, for reference only or
available for borrowing;
• The other obvious place to read, nowadays, is on your
computer, making use of some of the vast range of
materials available through the Internet;
• Compared to libraries, the material available on the
Internet is much more variable in quality;

8. What to read
• The kinds of things you might read could include:
 Books: of all kinds;
 Journals: local, national and international, home and
overseas;
 Reports: produced by institutions or organizations of
different kinds;
 Popular media: the daily and weekly press,
magazines, radio and television broadcasts;
 Computer-based materials: an increasingly
important source, which may include both textbook
and journal materials as well as discussion groups
and web sites;
 Memos;
 Letters, diaries: and other personal documents
produced by individuals of interest;

9. Whom to read
• Faced with a bookshelf containing 20 or 30 books on the same
topic, it can be very difficult to decide where to start;
• You might choose one volume at random, or take a more
considered view; perhaps selecting the most recent book
written and published in your country;
• In doing so, it is important to be aware of whom you are
reading, where they are coming from, how authoritative a voice
they have, and what their motivations in writing might be;
• In part, your aim should be to read a range of views, exploring
both the founding thinkers or the great names of your field and
the diversity of current opinions;

10. Reading Strategies
 Before you start reading anything, ask yourself why you are reading it:
 Are you reading with a purpose, or just for pleasure?
 What do you want to know after you have read it?
 Once you know your purpose, you can examine the resource to see whether it
is going to help you;
 With a book, an easy way of doing this is to look at the introduction and the
chapter headings;
 The introduction should let you know who the book is intended for;
 Chapter headings will give you an overall view of the structure of the subject;
 Where you only need the shallowest knowledge of a subject, you can skim
material;
 If you need a moderate level of information on a subject, then you can scan the
text;

11. Read Actively
• When you are reading a document or book in detail, it helps
if you practice "active reading" by highlighting and
underlining key information, and taking notes as you
progress;
• This emphasizes information in your mind, and helps you to
review important points later;
• It also helps you keep your mind focused on the material,
and stops you thinking about other things;
• Different types of documents hold information in different
places and in different ways;
• By understanding the layout of the material you are reading,
you can extract the information you want efficiently;

12. Magazines and Newspapers
• The most effective way of getting information from
magazines is to scan the contents tables or indexes
and turn directly to interesting articles;
• Newspapers tend to be arranged in sections;
• If you read a paper often, you can quickly learn
which sections are useful, and which ones you can
skip altogether;
• Using the Table of Contents and Index can enable
you to directly locate relevant information;

13. • Previewing:
 Don't take any notes, don't underline, just scan the material.
 Preview the material by reading abstracts, listed objectives,
headings, subheadings, introductions and conclusions;
• Skimming:
 Skimming is the process of quickly locating specific
information from a large quantity of written material;
• To skim text:
 Allow your eyes to move quickly over a page untill you find a
relevant section;
 Look for key words or names;
 When you locate information requiring attention, slow down
to read the relevant section more thoroughly;
 Skimming is no substitute for thorough reading and should
only be used to locate material quickly;

14. How to critically assess what you are reading
"Reading academic material is not just about
becoming an elegant reader who can grasp the overall
sense of a piece, translate jargon in order to extract
facts from a text, while taking notes efficiently. Ideally,
readers should learn to engage with a text in a way
which enables them to assess its worth . . . being
critical is learning to assess the logic and rationale of
arguments and the quality of. . . data. . . . It is being
able to ask how important the flaws are, and so to
weigh the worth of evidence. This means being able to
ask questions of the text beyond what it means, what it
is saying" (Peelo 1994: 59).

15. What is a critical reading?
It goes beyond mere description by
offering opinions, and making a personal
response, to what has been written;
It relates different writings to each other,
indicating their differences and
contradictions, and highlighting what they
are lacking;
It uses a particular language (authors
assert, argue, state, conclude or contend),
and may use an impersonal voice;

16. The purpose of critical reading is to gain a
deeper understanding of the material;
It involves reading in depth;
Some questions you should ask while reading
are:
 Has the writer backed up statements and ideas
with credible evidence?
 Are logical arguments used?
 Does the writer present the two sides of a case
even handedly?

17. Strategies for Critical Reading (SQ3R)
• The ‘‘SQ3R’’ Method of Reading is one of the core
activities;
• You need to be able to understand what you read
and to be able to recall the main ideas when you
need them;
• You can use the ‘‘SQ3R’’ method to help you
remember your reading;
SQ3R:
Survey;
Question;
Read;
Recall;
Review;

18. S= Survey
Before you start to read, survey the
material to gain an overview of the
contents;
 Approach a reading by scanning the
title(s), subheading and any summaries or
abstracts;
 Doing this will help you gain an idea of
the main idea or topic of the piece;
 You may also find that you get some idea
of the author’s position;

19. Q = Question
 Your reading will be more memorable if you
question the material;
 Think about specific questions that you
need to find answers for;
 Read any focus questions at the end of the
reading;
 If there are headings in the material, turn
the headings into questions;
 For example, if the heading is Qualitative
and Quantitative Research, your question
might be: ‘What is the difference between
these two approaches?’
 Make a list of your questions;

20. R1 = Read
 First, read without making notes:
 Look for the author’s outline;
 Read any headings, abstracts or summaries;
 Look for answers to the questions you first raised;
 Make sure you understand what you are reading;
 Reduce your reading speed for difficult passages;
 Stop and reread parts which are not clear;
 If you have difficulty understanding a text, look up difficult words
in the dictionary or glossary of terms and reread;
 If the meaning of a word or passage still evades you, leave it
and read on;
 Perhaps after more reading you will find it more accessible and
the meaning will become clear;

21.  Question the author’s reasoning:
Is each point justified?
Is there enough evidence?
 On your second reading, begin to take notes:
 Note down the main ideas of each paragraph;
 Look for important details;
 Take notes from the text, but write information in your
own words;
 In your notes, underline or highlight the most important
points;

22. R2 = Recall
You should now try to recall what you have
read;
Close the book;
Make notes of what you remember;
Check their accuracy against the notes you
made during your reading;
Return to the reading;
Read one section at a time and try to recall
what you have read;
It can also be helpful to recite ideas aloud to
help you remember;

23. R3 = Review
Now, Review what you have read;
Check the accuracy of your notes against
the original material;
 Go back over all your notes to make sure
you do not forget and to see how what you
have learned relates to the original;
This is an important part of the process
because it can really help you remember;

24. What is Note Taking?
 Effective note-taking after readings is an essential skill for
research;
 Good note taking allows a permanent record for revision of
relevant points that you can integrate with your own writing;
 Good note-taking reduces the risk of plagiarism;
 It also helps you distinguish where your ideas came from and how
you think about those ideas;
 Practice makes perfect;
 Notes enable students to retain important facts and data and to
develop an accurate means of arranging necessary information;

25. Effective note-
taking requires:
 Recognizing the main ideas;
 Identifiyng what information is relevant
to your;
 Having a note- taking system that
works for you;
 Putting the information into your own
words;
 Recording the source of information;

26. Reading Note-taking Strategies
 Be Selective:
 As you take notes from a written source, keep in mind that not all
of a text may be relevant to your needs;
 Highlight or mark the main points and any relevant information
you may need to take notes from;
 Finally read the relevant sections of the text carefully and take
separate notes as you read;

27.  Identify How Information is Organized:
 Most texts use a range of organizing principles to
develop ideas;
 Most good writing will have a logical order;
 However, not all writers will use an organizing
principle;
 Some of which are:
 Past ideas to present ideas;
 The steps or stages of a process or event;
 Most important point to least important point;
 Well known ideas to least known ideas;
 Simple ideas to complex ideas;
 General ideas to specific ideas;
 Problems and solutions;
 Causes and effects;

28. Taking Notes for Research
Organize Notes;
Write one idea heading or
quote on each note card or
page;
Write down all source
information for citing;
Always use quotation marks
around direct quotes from a
work, to keep from
unintentionally plagiarizing;

29. Note- taking methods:
 Mind mapping;
 Cornell style;
 Formal paragraphs;
 Outlining;

30. What is Mind Mapping?
 Mind maps, first developed by “Tony Buzan” in the 1980s are an
effective method of taking notes and useful for the generation of
ideas by associations;
 A mind map is a graphical representation method that consists of a
central word or concept, around which we draw the main ideas
that relate to that word;
 We take each of those secondary words and draw other sub ideas
related to each of those words;
 By following this method, a great number of related ideas can
quickly be produced;
 To make note- taking with a mind map, one starts in the centre of
the page with the main idea, and works outward in all directions,
producing a growing and organized structure composed of key
words and key images;
 Do not forget to record the source top and the page number at the
bottom;

33. What would informal paragraphs look like?

35. What would an outline look like?
 The Demise of the Communist Party:
A) Understanding the Soviet Collapse:
1) What the Soviet system was?
2) Why the Soviet system collapsed?
3) How the Soviet system collapsed?

36. Cornell System of Note-Taking
• Developed in 1949 at Cornell University
by “Walter Pauk”;
• Designed in response to frustration over
student test scores;
• Meant to be used as a test study guide;
• Adopted by most major law schools as
the preferred note taking method;
• Now, used by most students in the
research field;

37. Cornell Note-
Taking
• The Cornell Method of
note making is a 2-
column system of
making notes;

38. • Use a large loose-leaf notebook on
which you will have ample room to
take notes;
• Draw a vertical line down the left
side of the page 2 1/2" form the
left margin. This is the Recall
Column;
• Notes will be recorded to the right
of this line and key words and
phrases will be written on the left.

39. Cornell Note-Taking
• Questions in the
Margins:
– Cornell works best
by creating
potential test
questions in the
margins.
– Important! Always
use complete
questions.

40. First & Last Name
Title
Pub. informationTopic
Questions,
Subtitles,
Headings,
Etc.
Notes
2 1/2”
3 to 4 sentence summary across
the bottom of the last page of the
notes

41. Subject: Why take Cornell notes?
PPRROOCCEESSSS
((oouuttppuutt))
MMaaiinn IIddeeaass ((iinnppuutt))
How can
Cornell notes
help me
organize my
ideas?
Which side for
diagrams?
Why use
concept maps?
What are the
benefits to me?
Can be used to provide an outline of chapter or lecture.
Organized by main ideas and details.
Can be as detailed as necessary.
Sequential-- take notes as they are given by instructor or
text in an orderly fashion.
After class, write a summary of what you learned to
clarify and reinforce learning and to assist retention.
Can be used as study tool:
1. Define terms or explain concepts listed on left side.
2. Identify the concept or term on the right side.
Can be used to provide a "big picture" of the chapter or
lecture.
Organized by main ideas and sub-topics
Limited in how much detail you can represent.
Simultaneous - you can use this method for instructors
who jump around from topic to topic.
After class, you can add questions to the left side
Can be used as a study tool -- to get a quick overview
and to determine whether you need more information or
need to concentrate your study on specific topics.

42. Subject: Notetaking
SSuummmmaarryy::
There are a couple of ways that you can take notes. The Cornell
method is best when the information is given in a sequential, orderly
fashion and allows for more detail. The semantic web/concept map
method works best for instructors who skip around from topic to
topic, and provides a "big picture" when you're previewing
materials or getting ready to study for a test.
• Summary is added at the end of ALL
note pages on the subject (not page)
• Summary added AFTER questions
are finished
• Summary should answer the
problem stated in the subject.

43. Recall Clue Column Record Column
Propaganda Techniques in Advertising
Define "Propaganda"
Intro
Propaganda used by politicians, writers.
Also by advertisers.
Def: Messages intended to persuade audiences to adopt a certain opinion.
List 4 common tech. used by
advertisers
Advertisers use propaganda. 4 techniques common.
1. Testimonial
Def: Celebrities used to pitch idea, sell product;
Audience associate star qualities of celebrity w/ product.
Define & explain
"testimonial" technique
Ex. Michael Jordan sells Nike shoes
2. Bandwagon
Def: Encourages people to buy b/c e'one is doing it.
Ads urge you to get on board; don't get left out.
Define & explain
"bandwagon" technique
Ex. "All over America, people are switching to...."
3. Plain Folks
Def: Product associated with ordinary folks like you & me.
Ads use "regular", next-door-neighbor types to sell product.
Define & explain "plain folks"
technique
Ex. New mother in hospital uses Tylenol.
4. Transfer
Product associated with s'thing that is attractive or respectable.
Car ads show gorgeous model - audience transfer feelings about model to car.
Ads use patriotic symbols like bald eagle - audience transfers patriotic feelings
to product, company.
Define & explain "transfer"
technique
Ex. Wal-Mart claims to sell only made-in-USA products.
SUMMARY:
Advertisers use propaganda.
Propaganda = Messages intended to persuade audiences to adopt a certain opinion.
4 common propaganda techniques used by advertisers:
1. Testimonial: celebrity endorses product.
2. Bandwagon: everybody is buying product.
3. Plain Folks: ordinary, non-glamorous people like us use it.
4. Transfer: transfer feelings of admiration to product.

44. Questions ……… ?

45. THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENDENCE