- Card Indexes
It is useful to note bibliographical details for everything you select as you can then easily arrange cards alphabetically for your bibliography. In addition, cards also allow enough space for useful quotations with page numbers or short summaries of chapters/sections/main ideas - which might be useful later, if not for this essay/piece of work.
- What are your objectives in reading? Only fiction is read in linear order (beginning to end). Your objectives are unlikely to be the same as the author's, who may be defending a position, making his name, publishing under academic pressure, writing a didactic (text) book, attacking another position. Beware of copying all aspects of style. Your purposes are different as students. You need to select the aspects of texts that suit your purpose. Your notes should be as near to your 'final product' as possible, not to the original text, so you can make work your own. Don't forget the usefulness of encyclopaedias.
- Multiple text reading - tabular notes for comparison (e.g. from Teferi)
Horizontal noting, laying pages side by side, gives instant access to comparison and interesting or important areas to analyse (look for or make comments on) and evaluate. It also helps identify 'gaps' - e.g. areas which theory I or case study I ignores or treats shallowly but which theory II/case study II treats in more depth, so helps with explanation. This method will also encourage you to check the balance and remind you that information is there to be made use of, not for its own sake. You may even develop your own tables (as Teferi did). This method exploits the networks of the brain and sets up a better background for ideas (creativity) to spring up. Remember, information can be presented in various forms. Tables, diagrams, charts etc. can contain a greater density of information but take up less space and so help avoid errors in English because full sentences are not required.
Reading texts and text purposes
[The purpose of the writer is one thing - the purpose of the reader is another.]
Reading rarely needs to be totally linear - i.e. in order of presentation - except in works of fiction. Ask yourself these questions before you begin, i.e. what are my ...
| READING PURPOSES? | |
|---|---|
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| PROCEDURE | |
| A | B |
| general
Read intro. and concluding paragraphs of chapters/papers and abstracts (if any) + first and last chapters of books. |
specific
Decide what information (facts, argument, theory etc.) you need for your purpose - At this point, you may not have a particular text in mind. |
| More detail? Consider chapter headings, sub-headings -- intro + final paragraphs of more specific sections. |
Select key words and refer to: Library catalogue Key words in abstracts of articles Key words in indexes of books. |
| More detail? Read first & last sentences of paragraphs - look for topic sentences. |
Scan referenced page for key words (or titles from catalogue & select and then use book index etc.) |
| More detail? Read intensively in appropriate sections - but ask yourself why? Do you really want, in detail, all aspects of the writer's message - unless you are studying that writer? Be selective within sub-areas. Check other writers' critiques! [Noting - close books and note or tape-record what you can recall. This will be reformulation using your own words which will help you 'capture' ideas.] |
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