Simon Nash Te Puna Ako Academic Reading for Postgraduate study

Intros You, your programme and one word you’d use to describe reading for study Us and Te Puna Ako Learning CentreTe Puna Ako Learning Centre

Learning Outcomes Following this workshop, be able to: 1.Identify purposes for reading for PG study 2.Adopt strategies to decide how to read a text 3.Practice reading selectively, actively and critically

What do you notice about academic reading? How is it different to other reading? What are the key issues for you in academic reading? In PG study, why are we reading? What can we gain from reading?

How can we evaluate readings? Type of material? Purpose? Likely audience? Author credibility? When written? Lecturer’s and other’s recommendations?

Reading exercise (Reeves & Oh, 2008). Read the title and abstract: What seem to be the key words? What’s the writer’s purpose? How would you expect the article to be organised? What purposes might we have as readers of this?

We need to read in different waysread in different ways Scan:Looking for the structure Skim:Looking for the main ideas / overview Select: Locate the key material to read… Study: Close reading, carefully and slowly Skipping:Too difficult? Read another text first then return to the original one (see handout ‘The 4-S system’)

Task (Reeves & Oh, 2008). Read the literature review section: What’s the topic of each paragraph? What is the writer doing in this literature review section?

Examples of work the writer may be doing: Describing an issue Explaining reasons Defining keywords Giving evidence Comparing one writer’s view with another Moving on to a new topic Summing up what has been investigated before

Reading with a purpose Before you start reading in depth… Ask yourself: What do I want to know? What questions do I want answers to? Begin with a draft list of questions (see handout ‘Determining your purpose in reading’)

Effective reading requires synthesis

Synthesising from different texts Jones Smith Reagan Hernandez Kahlo

Reading and note-making Record the reference – publication details Skim the text first to select – your purpose? Summarise and paraphrase ideas Clearly note quotes with page nos. Note your thoughts, questions, difficult bits Use diagrams, maps, colours Relate notes to classes, other reading, your experience

Systems for scanning and making notes Mindmaps: Example of a mindmapExample of a mindmap Linear or topic based notes Notemaking table (see handout ‘Example of a Topic-based Notemaking table’) Annotations in the margins Summary notes

Task Read the concluding section: What do you think of the conclusions? How does it compare with the writer’s purpose? What else might readers like to know?

Critical Thinking (see handouts ‘Critical Thinking’)

A critical thinker: Questions and evaluates the information, for example: What is really important here? How does it relate to what I’ve read / learnt before? What standpoint does the writer have? Are there any weaknesses in the argument? What other opinions are there on this topic? Do I agree or disagree with the writer?

Active, critical reading (Paul & Elder, 2002)

Conclusion “There’s no point starting writing until I’ve done lots of reading” What’s your view on this statement?

Consider: New skills take time to develop Think about reading as you read What new strategies will you try?

References Paul, R. & Elder, L. (2002). Critical thinking: Tools for taking charge of your professional and personal life. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall/Financial Times Reeves, T.C., & Oh, E. (2008). Generational differences. In J. M. Spector, D. Merrill, J. van Merrienboer, M. Driscoll (Eds.) Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (3 rd ed.) (pp ). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. RMIT University. (2005). Literature Review. Retrieved from Tasks/04literature.htm Tasks/04literature.htm A resource for helping read faster: