Intr101 02 critical reading Abright
- 2. What do you do when you are assigned a reading for class?
- 3. Embrace Reading How does it help? • Acquire knowledge • Develop an understanding of the material • Introduced to new ideas and terms • Gain more exposure to class material • Get ideas for major assignments and projects • Critically think and process information
- 4. Find and Understand the purpose • Reading before class • Introduce ideas, concepts, and formulas • Ground the lectures • Gain the basics of the class lecture • Reading after class • Clarify concepts and look for connections to lecture material • Reinforce class time
- 5. Before Reading Preview the material and prepare questions • The preface or introduction, will help you understand what the text is about • Observe the Table of Contents, chapter summaries, and section headings • Develop questions about the material • General or specific
- 6. Read with focus Engage with the text • Mark up key aspects of the text • Definitions, examples, connections • Highlight and underline things that stick out • Formulas, definitions, main ideas • Key concepts • Take notes while reading • Works well with especially dense material
- 8. Read with focus Clarify confusing material • Carefully reread any material you find confusing • Write questions • Look up definitions • Glossaries • Footnotes • Ask a classmate or instructor for help • Build a foundation of knowledge
- 9. Develop a system for your own reading!
- 10. Develop a system for your own reading! • Think about what you want to get out of the reading • Keep the amount of symbols minimal • Adjust your system to what you are reading • Example: If there is a list of terms for each chapter, then you probably don’t need to highlight them
- 11. After Reading Revisit the material • Write your own summaries • Create questions and try to answer them • Reread important sections • Look for where emphasis is placed • Identify bold or italicized words • Rewrite your margin notes into a notebook
- 12. After Reading Discuss the material • Connect with professor or TA • Look for common questions and points of confusion • Summarize the material to someone unfamiliar with the text • Turn to your peers for added clarification • Utilize Drop-In tutoring or SI-PASS
- 13. After Reading Reread with supplemental sources • Review sections that are confusing • Search YouTube • May contain summaries or explanations of the text you need to read • Look for supplemental readings to help clarify • Example: Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory
- 15. Assignment Prompts Figuring out what you need to do • When you get the prompt • Read it completely! • Underline keypoints and requirements • Ask Questions
- 16. Assignment Prompts: Breaking Down the Assignment • Figure out the background information that contextualizes the task you're being asked to do • Understand what you’re being asked to do • Determine the technical guidelines • Due dates • Expected length • Style guidelines
- 17. Assignment Prompts: Additional Questions to Consider • Are there any guiding questions that should be included in the assignment? • What is the purpose of the assignment? • Is there a style that the field uses that you could incorporate into your assignment? • Academic papers • Lab reports
- 18. FINDING SOURCES For research papers and projects Found a really good research paper to cite, and looking for more? Look at that paper's works cited for the names and articles they used for their research. Take note of any scientists/researchers/big minds that your professor mentions in class. Their work might be the sources you want to use! You can filter your search results on the University of Idaho Library web portal by whether or not they are peer-reviewed! Each college has a reference librarian. Students can make an appointment with the reference librarian to find sources appropriate for any research topic. The University of Idaho Library is the place to start. https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/ Peer-reviewed, published research is the gold standard for sources to cite.
- 19. EVALUATING SOURCES ESPECIALLY PUBLISHED, PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH How to not waste time reading a 20 page paper and then realize it doesn't fit your project. Read the Abstract Does it address the topic you are working on? If not, throw it out. Find another paper. If yes, it is relevant to your topic, go to the next step.
- 20. EVALUATING SOURCES ESPECIALLY PUBLISHED, PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH How to not waste time reading a 20 page paper and then realize it doesn't fit your project. Read the Conclusion • Does it still appear to be relevant? If not, throw it out! • Yes, it's relevant? Download it and add it to your works cited! The next step is a deep read of the paper, including methods and findings.