4a. Read

4a. Read#

Introduction#

Reading is an important part of studying and an essential part of the research process. There are different types of reading you will use throughout your project, and it is important to be aware of which type of reading you should use for what purpose. Have a look at this video from Leiden University for a detailed explanation about the different types of reading, or read the different steps below:

Step 1

Skimming and Scanning
Skim the article to get a feel for its structure and contents and scan specific sections

Step 2

Close Reading, Note-taking and Updating Your Search
Read in more detail and take notes. Use your knowledge to update your search strategy

Step 3

When to Stop
Evaluate if you have read and found enough information

Step 2: Close Reading, Note-taking and Updating Your Search#

Close reading is a more focused and slow type of reading which includes actively asking yourself questions about the text and taking notes while reading. Reserve this type of reading for articles you have selected, scanned and deemed highly relevant for your project. After you have close read a source you should be able to understand and summarise it. When you do close reading, you often combine active reading and asking questions with techniques like skimming and scanning. Before close reading the full article, make sure you have done an initial scan of all the relevant sections. Focus first on the abstract, discussion and conclusion before moving on to the rest of the article to make it easier to understand the contents and goals of the article before diving further into it.

The video below tells you more about the process of reading and which sections to focus on first:

"How to Read a Scholarly Article" by PittCCLibrary is licensed under CC-BY

Note-taking#

As you go through the text and close read, make sure you take notes. If you don’t, you may lose a lot of time finding back certain quotes or information later in your project.

Include citation of the source when note-taking, or take notes on the article itself
When you close read a scholarly sources, you should also critically evaluate the source. This means asking yourself questions while reading, which also promotes active reading:

How does the author know this and do they give any scientific evidence?
How does this compare to other things I have read or know?
Are there certain things, such as terms, concepts or arguments, that I do not understand yet? Make a note of this so you can come back to it.
Do I understand the methodology, reasoning and evidence?
Are the results, methods and conclusions consistent with each other?
Does the author correctly explain any surprising results?
Do I agree with this author?

Take notes related to your questions, show for each note if it is a summary, quotation, paraphrase, own ideas, or criticism (Lumen, n.d.)
Pause and revisit if necessary: It can happen that you don’t immediately understand certain parts of an article. In this case, you can always come back to it later, for example when you have read more basic articles and your understanding of the topic has increased.

Tip: Connect to your reference manager

You can connect your notes to your reference manager, either by connecting them to the references in your reference manager library, or by using plugins to cite sources directly from the reference manager as you do your notetaking in Word or other note-taking apps.

Updating Your Search Strategy#

While you have made an initial search strategy using the knowledge you had at the time, as you close read relevant articles your ideas will likely evolve and you may need to adapt your search strategy to find more relevant articles. Some suggestions:

When you are close reading through your sources, take notes of relevant keywords you come across and update your literature search.
If an article is highly relevant, consider using this as a key article to do snowballing or similar document searching to find additional literature (see also: 2d - additional search methods)

Step 3: When to Stop Reading and Searching#

There are multiple moments during your thesis when you will need to search, evaluate and read information from others. The figure shows the different phases of the project and the information steps needed.

There are specific moments when relating to what others have written is necessary:

Beginning of your project: You conduct an in-depth review on what others have done (literature review), based on a preliminary research question or topic. These results help you formulate your final research question and methodology.
Conducting your research: Throughout your project you should be reflecting on your findings and connect them to the literature you have already found. In addition, while conducting your own research, you should periodically search for sources, based on new concepts you encounter, the results you are finding, and to check if any new research has come out.
End of your project: When you finish your project and write your conclusion and discussion, you synthesise your findings with what others have done. This means looking once more at the sources you have processed throughout your project, and discussing how your findings connect to these sources. For example, how do your findings differ from what others have found before?

This means that you do not stop searching and reading entirely throughout your project.

However, at the beginning of the project you do a more in-depth review and search of the literature, and at some point you need to move on from the literature review phase and start conducting your research. To avoid staying stuck in this phase for too long you can follow the guideines below:

You stop searching and reading for your literature review when you either don’t find any new literature anymore, or the literature you find doesn’t have any new approaches, or your time has run out. Watch this video from Erasmus University, where Professor Liesbet van Zoonen explains approaches to evaluate how far you are in your literature review process:

"When to stop reading and start writing" by Erasmus University Library is licensed under CC-BY

Some practical guidelines you can take when you are reading to find out when you should either stop, or continue searching and reading:

Check with your supervisor. Share your findings and ideas. They can help you figure out whether you have found enough literature, or if you should continue.
Check how much time you have and plan accordingly. You will not be working on your thesis for 2 years, so it makes no sense to spend months conducting the literature review. Dividing your time for a literature study, can be done using the following rules of thumb from Erasmus University:
- 1/3 of your time reading
- 1/3 of your time searching
- 1/3 of your time writing up your findings Take these guidelines into consideration and try to plan accordingly (Erasmus University Library, 2020)
Keep a narrow focus on your information search question. If you feel like after a significant time reading and searching you are still overflowing with research articles, maybe revisit your literature search question. Can you make it more specific?

References#

Erasmus University Library. (2020, April 20). When to stop reading and start writing [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojRfybNJNuk
Leiden University ATC Academic reading & writing. (n.d.). Reading well [Video]. Leiden University MediaSpace™ video portal. https://video.leidenuniv.nl/media/t/1_6ggi9g46?utm_source=edusources.nl&utm_content=link&kalturaSeekFrom=2&kalturaClipTo=526&kalturaStartTime=1
Lumen. (n.d.). Reading, Noting, & Synthesizing Sources. College Reading and Writing. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-esc-introtocollegereadingandwriting/chapter/research-writing-synthesizing-information-from-multiple-texts/
PittCCLibrary. (2016, January 6). How to Read a Scholarly Article [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3tV8g70YuU

4a. Read

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