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How to decode your reading list

How to decode your reading list. Dr Emma Coonan Research Skills Librarian, Cambridge University Library. Course overview. What is a reading list anyway? What’s what in scholarly formats LibrarySearch and LibrarySearchPlus What next?: active reading and notemaking.

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How to decode your reading list

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  1. How to decode your reading list Dr Emma Coonan Research Skills Librarian, Cambridge University Library

  2. Course overview • What is a reading list anyway? • What’s what in scholarly formats • LibrarySearch and LibrarySearchPlus • What next?: active reading and notemaking

  3. 1. What is a reading list anyway?

  4. Is it … • A list of everything you must read for your course or supervision? • Something you approach in order by starting at the beginning and working straight through?

  5. Collection of pointers to things that may be useful • You have to select where to start and what to read • Interaction between the question/title and your particular perspective • Availability is also an issue

  6. How will YOU choose what to read?

  7. Key value indicators • Authority author’s research credentials, design of research method, analytic rigour • Publication date currency may be important • Source e.g. established publisher or random webpage? • Format e.g. peer-reviewed article; scholarly monograph • Citation ranking see e.g. Google Scholar

  8. Why are you reading? • To understand a concept or a field? • To gather specific facts or data? • To understand an author’s argument or point of view? • To find alternative views so as to challenge an argument? http://sfl.emu.edu.tr/dept/alo/active4.htm

  9. Prioritize your reading

  10. 2. What’s what in scholarly formats(and what will they do for me?)

  11. What’s what in scholarly formats McKnight, Scot. Jesus and His Death: Historiography, the Historical Jesus, and Atonement Theory. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2006.

  12. What’s what in scholarly formats Davidson, D., ‘Locating literary language,’ in Literary Theory after Davidson, ed. Reed Way Dasenbrock (University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1993)

  13. What’s what in scholarly formats Tip: if you’re asked to read a chapter, don’t read the whole book! Davidson, D., ‘Locating literary language,’ in Literary Theory after Davidson, ed. Reed Way Dasenbrock (University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1993)

  14. What’s what in scholarly formats Kieling, C. et al. Child and adolescent mental health worldwide: evidence for action. The Lancet, 378(9801): 1515-1525.

  15. What’s what in scholarly formats Kieling, C. et al. Child and adolescent mental health worldwide: evidence for action. The Lancet, 378(9801): 1515-1525. Tip: journal article references tend to have a string of numbers at the end

  16. 3. LibrarySearch andLibrarySearchPlus

  17. http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk http://searchplus.lib.cam.ac.uk

  18. Your supervisor: There’s a great article comparing Ingres and Delacroix, by a guy called Shelton. I can’t remember which journal it’s from … “ ”

  19. Find your material

  20. 4. What next? Active reading and notemaking

  21. Active reading: “what’s in it for me?” • What’s relevant/useful for my own argument? • What other work does this piece link in with? • Does it spark any lightbulb moments? • What might be a white rabbit?

  22. Beware of white rabbits Ideas and arguments that lead away from your topic

  23. Beware of white rabbits Ideas and arguments that lead away from your topic Maintain your critical distance: Keep asking: how does this contribute to my understanding/my argument/ my essay/my research?

  24. Active notemaking Image: Beth Kanter, flickr.com

  25. Tagging • Subject-based keywords – e.g. “entropy”, “Derrida” • Logistical – e.g. “chapter2” • Evaluative – e.g. “low priority” • Pragmatic – e.g. “read”/”unread”

  26. Futureproof your notes Make sure you can identify: • Which parts of your notes are quotations (including single significant words) • Which parts are paraphrases of the author’s points • Which parts of your own writing are a response to the argument or inspiredby ideas in the text • Will you be able to tell the difference in a month’s time?

  27. Active notemaking http://tlc.uoregon.edu/publications/studyskills/Double%20Entry%20Notes.pdf

  28. Course overview • What is a reading list anyway? • What’s what in scholarly formats • LibrarySearch and LibrarySearchPlus • What next?: active reading and notemaking

  29. http://training.cam.ac.uk/cul research-skills@lib.cam.ac.uk theUL Cambridge University Library

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