How do you read? (academic texts)

[theregalrenegade]

Oh, you too believe Foucalt's style is bad? And I was thinking - was it me or was it translations I was reading... Reading him was really painful for my brain...

Foucault for Beginners by Lydia Alix Fillingham <---- best book ever on understanding Foucault and his work! Matter of fact, I haven't met a For Beginners book yet that I haven't liked or benefit greatly from.

[Eigen]

Skimming in the sciences usually involves generally looking over the equations, and then deciding later whether you need to go back and work through them or not.

Not all equations, derivations or proofs are things you need to know intimately- sometimes it's more important to note that someone has proven something, or derived something, and know where you can go back and find that proof/derivation later if needed.

Unless you're trying to practice your general math skills, working painfully through every mechanism, diagram, derivation or proof really isn't necessary, especially not on your first brush. You do the fine reading/work through when you're trying to design experiments based on the work done in the paper, expand on the work in some way, or apply a similar process to a new system.

[IRdreams]

Oh, you too believe Foucalt's style is bad? And I was thinking - was it me or was it translations I was reading... Reading him was really painful for my brain...

We had a nickname for Foucault when I did debate that I think he earned largely due to his inability to write something that translate well into english: fuc*o.

Every time I pick up one his books I wind up feeling illiterate. I had problems learning to read when I was a child so this still an emotionally difficult thing to deal with.

[Strangefox]

We had a nickname for Foucault when I did debate that I think he earned largely due to his inability to write something that translate well into english: fuc*o.

[Bonkers]

Glad I am not alone! I always feel like a slow reader compared to my peers. Often times when I am parallel reading with someone, I feel anxious to see how much further my study partner is along. I read every single word and annotate. I think reading the abstract and conclusion before reading the entire article helps.

[ogopo]

Seems like reading style varies considerably depending on the subject of study. As a biologist, I do a whole lot of skimming. I go the abstract, graphs (only if they are clear) and discussion route. If their conclusions seem strange I go back through their methods and results. If I am having a hard time understanding the paper then I will read in introduction and go through the paper again in order. I find that it is easier to get the key points from a paper if I skim. I find that if I read it from beginning to end, I get lost or bored.

I also don't make a lot of notes, which is probably to my detriment but I use the program Papers, which is awesome and super helpful. It's very easy to do full-text searches of all of my papers to find those that might be relevant to a topic I am thinking or writing about.

[Eigen]

Proofs and derivations help me understand. Not everyone learns the same way though. I don't work practice problems, but I need to know derivations. I've had to derive stuff in tests if I don't remember the equation, or to make sure of my equations and assumptions.

I'm confused... Are you reading papers for tests? Once you make it past the "testing" phase of your academic career (and I assumed that's what we were talking about here), the way you need to learn something changes. Things that you use all the time, you need to be able to derive on your own. Most other work, you need to know where to look back to find the derivation- there's no use learning hundreds of derivations that you will (rarely) use. You need to know what has been done, and where the equation/derivation can be found, but once you finish classes, not only are you allowed to look these things up, it's encouraged. If you're basing a publication off of it, you won't rely on just your own memory of the work, you'll go back and double check it anyway.

As you get more familiar with the math, it certainly does become easier to "skim" equations and get a feel for the method they're using without having to slow down and go step-by-step.... My point is just that many people overestimate the number of papers they need to understand inside and out. Most of the papers you come across you just need a qualitative feel for what was done, and then a good reference database that lets you go back and find that paper should you need it in the future.

Hence, skimming- 1) What are they trying to do? (The introduction) 2) How did they approach it? (End of the introduction, skimming the methods) 3) Did it work? (Conclusion). You don't often need to be able to duplicate the work done in the derivations, just have a general grasp of where they started, what approach they took, and where they ended up.

[Just me]

I think I read a little faster than normal, but mostly because when it comes to college reading assignments, I know the pieces chosen usually involves some dickbag who decides they need to say something in two dozen words that a normal person could say in eight or nine words. And I gotta say, from my own experience, no one is more long-winded and avoiding of the point of their writing than art critics and aestheticians. Holy crap, these pricks could go on and on for days rather than just saying what they mean outright. So I try to not lose my train of thought on one confusing sentence. I highlight things I think might be important too.

Also, try going online to find summaries in modern English of anything you must read - don't bust your ass trying to decipher a historical essay if you can find an interpretation on the internet. Once you know the point up-front, THEN read the material. It'll be a lot easier to understand.

[Strangefox]

Seems like reading style varies considerably depending on the subject of study.

You are right! It's more difficult to skim texts in social sciences.

[indalomena]

hello all! I completely understand the anxiety of slow reading and the guilt over skim-reading. However it is crucial, sometimes, especially when reading for a huge project like a dissertation, to remember that part of the purpose of reading is locating information, rather than understanding it -- you can't possibly read everything and understand it fully, and some texts, which you suspect may be peripheral to your work, can be quickly skimmed such that later you may remember something important and go back to it in more detail.

Thinking of it this way has saved me much anxiety and guilt (not to mention time!!)

[natsteel]

I felt the same kind of guilt about skimming texts. However, all of my professors have told me that skimming is a necessary skill for all grad students in the Humanities. For books, I generally read the introduction and epilogue very carefully and the first and last 2 pages of each chapter. Alternatively, I'll go through the book reading the first and last sentences of each paragraph. Of course, the better the writer, the more effective the technique. For an average 300-page book, you can read it in 2 hours or so instead of 8-10 hours.

[InquilineKea]

To be honest, I find that I remember things best when I post them on Facebook or Quora. =P Not many people reply, but when they do, I can explain more and then defend the author's thesis in my own words (and also evaluate the credibility of his thesis in public too). Plus, I also take the really interesting diagrams and post them on Facebook too. It sort of floods people's news feeds, but it's science, so it's awesome.

Usually I just post the main points (that I'm most likely to forget) on them, or on a Wordpress blog. If I don't fully understand something, then I'll get help from Stack Exchange/Quora/Reddit/Physics Forums. It helps more often than not (even if no one responds, it's easier to understand it later if I post it somewhere)

But most importantly - I simply can't track down what I've read more than a year ago - unless I post it online where it's searchable.

Edited July 30, 2011 by InquilineKea

[runonsentence]

Sounds like you need to start research blogging. Has the benefits of writing for an audience and having to explain something you've just read, with the added benefits of searchable archives.

[InquilineKea]

Haha, I should do that. But my signal to noise ratio is usually lower than that of most, since I will include mistakes and tentative conclusions in my posts (posting mistakes/tentative conclusions helps me develop the motivation to correct them later). But I write far less if I'm not allowed to make mistakes/tentative conclusions.

In other words - I'm one of those types of people who edits my posts far more frequently than everyone else

Edited July 30, 2011 by InquilineKea

[TypeA]

I tend to retain the "gist" of what I read pretty well, and I'll take notes if it's something I may need to know more thoroughly for an exam, as I find that rewriting ideas vastly improves my memory of them. However, when the situation is more that I'll want to refer back to an article/book/whatever for a written assignment, I like to go color-crazy.

I have an assortment of highlighters and pens, that I use, but it's mostly my handy-dandy yellow and orange highlighters. I highlight text I consider "important" in yellow. To make it easier to skim through that, I highlight over keywords in orange. I'll note in the margins the overarching themes of an article--usually in purple, but that's just because I like my purple pen. If dates and names are particularly important, I'll highlight/underline/circle them in green (names) and blue (dates). This way, I can skim the non-yellow bits when I need to go back to the text, and usually can find what I'm looking for in no more than a few minutes.

Mind you, I'm just now applying to grad school. I don't know if this is somehow "bettter" for undergrad--though I did have a professor ask me about it once, and he said he might start doing the same. But I think it vastly improved my performance in my political science/psychology/history classes after I made it part of my study regimen.

[runonsentence]

FYI, there's a new GradHacker post on reading strategies that's pretty useful: http://www.gradhacker.org/2011/08/29/how-to-read-a-book/