Reading

[Chiqui74]

Just out of curiosity, when reading for your classes (several books and articles a week), do you read the foot/end notes too?  I'm trying to master, or at least get better at, the art of academic reading or I won't get through a week, let alone five years!

[rising_star]

It depends on what the foot/end notes are about! I usually glance at them early on when reading an article to see what they cover. If I'm reading an historical book and the endnotes are all about where to find stuff in the archives, then I ignore them. But, if I'm reading a sociological/anthropological text and the endnotes cover theoretical or methodological stuff, then I'm more apt to read them. I have no standard way of treating them but I do at least glance at the them to see if they are relevant to my interests or will further my understanding of the text.

[knp]

Now, I'm not enrolled in graduate coursework—I'm doing my best to read up for graduate applications, but I'm certainly no expert. But personally, I read more footnotes than endnotes, because they're easier to glance over (me: lazy). Otherwise, I look at notes for any particularly interesting paragraphs. As rising star notes, though, this is frustrating when you flip back and just find a list of archival locations. But if I'm reading a 3-page mini-section quickly because it isn't the most relevant to what I find interesting in the book, I almost never bother.

Or if I think the author is wrong or making weird assumptions, then I almost always check the notes. For example, when I found a very famous and much-respected book (published in the mid-90s) by an elder male professor whose acknowledgments thanked forty-eight men, his secretary, and his wife, you betcha that his assumptions got extra scrutiny.

Edited August 30, 2015 by knp

[ashiepoo72]

I've made a habit of looking at endnotes when I finish a chapter, skimming through to get a feel for the sources used and looking for any longer ones that describe historiographical debates, secondary literature or archival material at greater length. When I read something interesting/questionable/controversial/etc in the chapter I go to the endnote immediately to check it out. 

Like KNP, I read footnotes pretty much immediately (and I love me some footnotes).

i do like to go through the bibliography before I even crack open the book. Generally I look over the table of contents, index and bibliography very closely before delving in, which helps me figure out what I should be looking for. This helps me narrow in on more important endnotes too.

I don't think it's exaggeration to say I spend way more time reading footnotes/endnotes, the index and bibliography than the rest of the book (excluding the intro and conclusion, which I spend the most time on out of everything).

[dr. t]

If the professor leading the seminar is any good and you don't pay attention to the footnotes enough to know who the author's having an argument with, you will be found out and mocked. In my experience, anyway.