Developing Academic Reading Skills

1. Developing Academic Reading Skills Planning Research Chapter 2

2. Why Academic Reading? • Reading is the most critical part of the learning process. • Reading often appears to students to be the most boring of all tasks • BUT • Your ideas about research will come mainly from reading • Wide reading expands your perspectives

3. Selective Reading • It is unrealistic to expect that you can read everything! • You therefore have to read selectively • Criteria for selection might be: • Learning outcomes of module • Your research question • Overall purpose of the assignment

4. Is it worth reading this Paper? • Examine these three parts of the paper / project or article: • The abstract: • Dealing with the topic, results and findings • The introduction • Lining up the research • Where are the gaps? • The conclusion • Trying to convince the reader that this is worth reading!

5. Reading the PaperAbstract • Approach to the investigation of the topic • Will report on what was discovered during the work • Analysis, discussion or results – in short • What is ”new” about the work?

6. Reading the PaperIntroduction • This is where the authors make a promise • Like a contract between authors and the reader • Identifying relevant research gaps • At least some of them will be filled out!

7. Reading the PaperThe Context of the Research • Reading the ”background” section will give you a better grasp of the situation that gave rise to the research • The ”real world” location into which the research problem might fit

8. Reading the PaperThe Litterature Review • If you were an architct and we asked you to build a house in an earthquake zone, you would make sure that the foundations were strong and solid • This is how authors think of their dissertations and academic papers • Not just a description of others previous work, but the litterature review: • Appraises, compares and contrasts it with each other and relevant work

9. Reading the PaperResearch Design • Discusses how the research was carried out – often called methodology or research design • Research Strategy: case study, survey, observations • Research Methods • Why these methods? • Population, the sample, data collection, interpretation, analysis

10. Reading the PaperFindings • Do the findings confirm the litterature? • Do the findings dis-confirm the litterature? • Do the findings go further than the litterature? • There is no single manner or method of presentation of research findings

11. Reading the PaperConclusion • The authors do not try to ”reinvent the wheel” but: • To deliver the promise given in the introduction section • Make a ”minor” contribution to the body of knowledge on the subject • Should be MORE than a summary, namely synthesizing the overall arguments presented in the paper, and • Highlight meanings • Emphasize contributions

12. Extracting Value from your Reading • Finding the Claim • What question does the author pose? • What is the primary argument? • Why is this argument significant?

13. Validity of the arguments? • 1. Evidence: • What evidence do the authors offer in support of their position? • How convincing is the evidence • 2. Counter-arguments: • What arguments are made in opposition? • What evidence was used in the refutation • 3. Effectiveness: • What were the strength of the article? • Did you get a clear picture?

14. SQ3R Academic Reading Technique • Survey, Question, Read, Record, Review • 1. Survey (one minute): • Scan title, headings, figures and conclusion • 2. Question (30 seconds): • What is the research question? • 3. Read (takes some time): • Trying to find the answer to the question in each heading

15. SQ3R Academic Reading Technique • 4. Record (no more than five minutes): • Make a few notes, use highlighter, write in the margin • 5. Review (no more than five minutes): • Test yourself by trying to recall some of the highlighted phrases • How does these points fit with what you already think or know?