1. GET AHEAD POSTGRADUATE SUMMER PROGRAMME 2014
Reading at postgraduate level
Sara Steinke

2. Aims of the session To extend your reading and note making skills
- to cope with the large amount of reading expected at postgraduate level
- to deal with the more complex reading expected at postgraduate level
To understand the link between critical reading and note making skills and higher order critical thinking skills for postgraduate study

3. Common problems students encounter when reading for academic purposes
Are you a smart reader?
Reading skills for postgraduate study
Importance of reading skills for critical thinking
Writers are not authorities. They are participants in a public exchange of views. Be critical of their work.

4. Common difficulties with reading for academic purposes
Which of them apply to you?
I read the words on the page but am not taking them in.
I spend too much or too little time on the reading.
I have difficulty expressing what I have read in my own words.
I simply do not understand the material.
I find the language used too complicated.
I can not remember everything I read.
I find the amount of reading overwhelming.

5. Selective
Mapped
Achievable
Relevant
Time-limited

6. Retain more
Read more quickly
Read less
Active Reading

7. Academic reading Non academic reading
Reader is:
active
selective and interacts with the reading material
has a particular question in mind
re-reads with a purpose
Reader is:
passive
reads from page one till the end
does not ask questions
expects the author to guide them through the narrative

8. How to organise your reading
Five stage reading process: the SQ3R technique
Survey, Scan and Skim your sources in order to select the most relevant ones
Question: ask yourself what you want to get from the book
Read: analyse the argument
Recall: fully understand the author’s argument
Review: pause and take notes

9. Survey Aim: to get an overall idea of what the text is about
How to survey a book:
read the title; look at the book’s contents and index
search the author’s institutional affiliation; who they cite in their bibliographies
bibliographies/reference pages are shortcuts/cues in making literature choices; scan the bibliography/ references
bibliography: includes all work consulted whether actually cited or not
references: includes only cited/paraphrased work

10. Scanning Aim: to read quickly a text to get particular information
How to scan a book: 7 steps to follow (Levin, 2004: 49)
‘Remind yourself of your key terms’
‘Scan the contents page’
‘Scan the index page’
‘More bookmarks’
‘Scan the whole book’
‘Photocopy the most important bits’
‘Organise and apply your results’

11. Skimming Aim: to quickly go through the text to get a general idea
How to skim an article/book:
read the abstract/summary (typically only available for journal articles, some book chapters)
read the introduction and conclusion
read the text according to subheadings and first/last paragraphs
look at the first and last sentence of each paragraph

12. Question
Aim: to frame queries about the book/article; ask what are the key concepts to understand; how they relate to each other; which are the central arguments that need to be mastered
How to question a book/article:
– what do I want to know?
– where can I find it in the book?

13. Read
Aim: to work through part of the text methodologically from beginning to end without making notes; concentrate on understanding what the author is saying; essential to critical thinking
How to read a book/article:
– does the book contain the information I need?
– use critical reading strategy

14. Recall Aim: to ask what have I learned?; essential for memory skills
How to recall a book/article:
– pause in your reading to summarise your understanding
– make notes of the author’s main points

15. Review
Aim: to ask have I found what I wanted? What are the next steps I should take? What further texts should I look at?
How to review a book/article:
– compare what you have recalled with the text itself, look for important points you missed
– check whether you now have answers to queries defined at the question stage
– ensure your notes accurately capture what the author says

16. Reading skills – reading decelerators
Sub-vocalisation
Finger-pointing
Back-tracking
Interruptions
Low light and discomfort
Fatigue
Poor vocabulary or comprehension
Reading session too long

17. Reading skills – reading accelerators
Eye movement : from left to right and from top to down
Our eyes move, pause and recognise characters.
Every time the eye stops it is called fixation, the
period in which reading matter is recognised,
understood and stored in memory.
If you have the habit of fixing your eye on every word, try to fix on every other word or every third or fourth word

18. Reading skills – speed and comprehension tips
Read at a speed that is comfortable for you
If you can read extremely fast, you might read more slowly to enjoy the text (novels) or understand it better (academic sources)
Practice using different reading speeds
Practice reading to improve your reading speed
Focus on attention and concentration
Grasp overall concepts, rather than attempting to understand every detail

19. Reading – recap Can you:
select and use different reading strategies (e.g. skim, scan, in-depth)?
think about what you need to find out before you start reading (are you reading to verify facts, to understand a subject in general or to analyse a particular argument)?
critically evaluate reading?
deal with new vocabulary?

20. Useful sources (for reading)
Cottrell, S. (2008) The Study Skills Handbook, 3rd
ed., (London, Macmillan) Chapter 6 ‘Research
skills’ pp
Northedge, A. (2005) The Good Study Guide
(Milton Keynes, Open University Press) chapter 5
‘Reading’ pp
Wallace, M. & Wray, A. (2011) Critical Reading and
Writing for Postgraduates, 2nd ed., (London, Sage)

21. Active reading (SQ3R) and effective note making go hand-in-hand
Common problems students encounter when note making for academic purposes
Note making skills for postgraduate study -linear notes, mind mapping
Importance of note making for critical thinking
Active reading (SQ3R) and effective note making go hand-in-hand

22. Common difficulties with notes
Which of them apply to you?
I try to take down everything that is said/on the
PowerPoint presentation in lectures.
I am unsure what the purpose of note-taking is.
I am uncertain about how many notes to take.
I am unsure what to make notes on.
I do not take time to organise my notes so that I can retrieve them later on.
I only know one way for note-taking.

23. Techniques for linear, sequential notes
Make headings and subheadings
List key words
Number the points
Underline, colour, use capital letters for emphasis
Use abbreviations. Examples: = for equal, < less than, > more than, increase, decrease, re regarding, cf compared with
Only use one side of a page in case you want to add more
Note name of authors you want/need to read in margin

24. Linear notes Advantages Disadvantages
Your notes are probably too wordy and messy
The temptation is to scribble down everything the lecturer says. Until you have some experience of the subject, it is difficult to decide what is and what is not important. Your notes from reading may be too copious and you may be copying whole sentences.
Linear notes do not give you a good overview. You might end up with thick folders of detailed notes but cannot get a sense of the essence of what you are studying.
If an article or lecture is well structured, your notes will be well structured too
Look at the opening sentence of an article, then the first sentence in each paragraph
In a lecture the tutor will emphasise at the beginning the key points, concepts or themes they will talk about
It is the easiest method when you do not know anything, or very little, about the subject

25. Techniques for radial, concept notes or mind maps
Turn the paper sideways, A3 landscape is best
Write the topic in the centre of the page
Write related ideas around this centre
Add secondary ideas to the main ideas
Link up these ideas to show relationships
Use colours, different line thickness, symbols, pictures
Add details to points as you go along

26. Mind Maps Disadvantages Advantages
More difficult to make when you are new to the subject
May need to make a map of a map soon after reading or the lecture to do some tidying up
Making radial or concept notes takes some practice before you can do them easily and efficiently
Quicker to write and read
Gives an excellent overview of the topic
Forces you to be brief
Relationship between ideas becomes obvious
Can add more details around the map at a later stage
Visually, more easily remembered than linear, written notes

27. Note making skills – from your reading
Read with a question in your mind (see SQ3R reading strategy)
Look carefully at the content and index. Is it relevant to your question?
Note: Author, title and publication details of book/article, the facts, the theories, other people’s opinions, definitions, quotations for later use? (write down page number).
Never copy directly from a book - write it in your own words.
At the end of each paragraph or section stop reading, summarise in your head what you just read and make notes.
First sentence of a paragraph - called the topic sentence - and sometimes the last sentence, should give you a good idea what the paragraph is all about.

28. Note making skills – from your lectures
Preparation begins before a lecture
Read recommended reading before the lecture
Print out the lecture notes, slides or hand-outs before the lecture
Identify/anticipate main points and structure of lecture
Recognise when lecturer is digressing or getting into too much detail - do not bother to make notes
Listen/watch for verbal transition cues and non-verbal signs from your lecturer

29. Note making skills – transition cues
Lecturers/writers use the signposts to signal how
their points relate to each other. Some examples:
To tell the listener/reader that you are providing additional information:
also, furthermore, besides, equally important, moreover
To move to specific examples:
as an illustration, particularly, for instance, specifically, notably, to demonstrate
To clarify a point:
in other words, that is to say, put another way, in this case

30. Note making skills – more transition cues
To emphasise a point:
as a matter of fact, obviously, in any case, indeed, most importantly, undoubtedly
To signal that you are about to begin or end a digression:
incidentally, by the way, to change the subject, anyway, as I was
saying, at any rate, to return to the subject
To state an effect or result:
as a result, because of this, for this reason, consequently,
To summarise what you have already said:
all in all, overall, as I mentioned, by and large, briefly, given these
facts, in short
To introduce the conclusion:
finally, in short, in summary, in conclusion, on the whole

31. Condensing notes
‘Boil’ notes down to essential information. This is often easier to do a few weeks later, because your understanding of the subject has increased. You can see more clearly what is important information and what is not.
Note gaps in your knowledge, any confusion and contradictions
Move from linear notes to conceptual notes (charts, radial outlines, mind maps)

32. Organising and storing your notes
By systematic from the beginning
Make sure you can (re)read them before filing them away - but do not rewrite them ‘neatly’
Condensed notes can be copied and filed in at least two different ways:
- chronological order (as you go along)
- topic order (e.g. in anticipation of an assignment)
- personal interest (for your own research later?)
Write subject clearly in top right hand corner; number pages; colour code them

33. Importance of note making for critical thinking
To focus attention on what you are reading
To help you make sense of what you read/hear
To help you remember the key points
To alert you to what you have not understood
To help you when you are planning an assignment
To help you when you are revising for exams
To enable you to distinguish between facts, opinion and evidence

34. Note making – recap Can you: make effective notes when reading?
make effective notes when listening (e.g. during lectures)?
use more than one note making technique?
do you have a way of organising your notes?

35. Useful sources (for note making)
Cottrell, S. (2008) The Study Skills Handbook, 3rd ed., (London,
Macmillan) chapter 6 ‘Research skills’ pp
Northedge, A. (2005) The Good Study Guide (Milton Keynes, Open
University Press) chapter 6 ‘Making notes’ pp
Buzan T. (rev. 2003) Use Your Head (London, BBC)
Buzan, T. & B. (rev. 2006) The Mind Map Book (London, BBC )
Buzan T. (2007) The Buzan Study Skills Handbook (London, BBC)
ahead/skills/notetaking

36. Recap of the session To extend your reading and note making skills
- to cope with the large amount of reading expected at postgraduate level
- to deal with the more complex reading expected at postgraduate level
To understand the link between critical reading and note making skills and higher order critical thinking skills for postgraduate study

37. Next session Wednesday 27 August, 6pm-7.30pm, room 421
Writing at postgraduate level
– what makes English academic
– style and conventions of academic writing – the writing process
– developing your academic writing skills for postgraduate study