Reading and note-making

Overview

Reading Note-making

1. Surveying

• contents

• summary

• pages

2. Skimming

• quick look through

• subheadings

• diagrams

3. Questioning

• what do I need here?

• do I understand?

• is this interesting or valid?

4. Researching

• find what you need

• remember why you started

• deep consideration

5. Reviewing

• it’s not over yet….

Types of reading

Surveying

• Good for initial search

• Check the index – do your key words appear?

• ‘Have I heard of this author before?’ Activate your prior knowledge.

• ‘Do I need a whole book on this, or just a definition?’ Choose appropriate sources.

1. Surveying

• contents

• summary

• pages

Surveying is a vital stage in your initial literature search.

Skimming

2. Skimming

• quick look through

• subheadings

• pictures / theories

Skimming is useful for establishing relevance.

• Good for discriminating between sources

• Does it address your topic?

• How much of the text is devoted to your topic?

• Read introduction and conclusion FIRST. Then look at subheadings. Is it useful and relevant?

Questioning

3. Questioning

• what do I need here?

• do I understand?

• is this interesting or valid?

• Helps you remember your purpose.

• Develop critical distance.

• ‘What is relevant here? What can I use? Have I seen this argued differently? What are the alternatives? Do I agree?’

• Which part of your essay will this help you write?

No, questioning never stops! Does it?

Researching4. Researching

• find what you need

• remember why you started

• deep consideration

Read important texts the way you read a love letter: Inside out, front to back.

• What is your response?

• Why and how is this useful?

• Identify and account for the methodology, assumptions, and context of the text.

• Does reading this text help you see something differently? What? Why?

• Know when to stop!

Reviewing

5. Reviewing

• it’s not over yet….

• Good for identifying important sections?

• Make your notes legible and helpful for making your first draft.

• Make connections between your readings.

• Should only take a few minutes!

Read over your notes made while researching. Summarise and annotate them.

Note-making

PSST!

TAKE BRIEF NOTES while you’re finding and skimming sources.

MAKE COMPREHENSIVE NOTES while you research and review.

Bartlett, A. ‘Desire in the Desert.’ Antipodes 15.2 (2001): 119-23.

Notes

?different approach to R. Haynes (1998) Why?Timing?

** good for essay

!! I like this better than Gelder & Jacobs (1998)

Summary:Bartlett maps personal issues and relationships that are established and transformed through travel to the desert, and argues that white, Anglo-Celtic Australian women’s narratives of desert travel resist the dominant heroic, masculine ‘explorer’ theme and instead imagine “a place of potential, a place in which social relations might be remade” (2001: 121).

Desert: space of desire vs space of discovery

Desire: women, femininity, negotiating relationships. Critical desires, feminine desires, + personal.

Whiteness: white Anglo-Celtic subjects. Aboriginal subjects? The sacred? See also V. Brady

CONTENT THINKINGNotes from p 120

Here’s another methodBartlett, Alison. “Desire in the Desert: Exploring Contemporary Australian Desert Narratives.” Antipodes 15.2 (2001): 119-23.

From p119:Most Australian desert narratives by white women writersinvolve a journey to and through the desert by coastal city-dwellers. As such, the desert is already positioned as "other” and yet it is also a liminal landscape, a place of possibility, a potential filled with personal desires.

This excerpt is good for the paragraph where I argue that the desert is a constructed and imagined place, and is not outside the politics of race.

Desert: Not just a geographical place or location but ALSO about feelings, expectations, desires. “Otherness” = constructed (not ‘natural’)

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Reference

Quote

Summary

Ideas

Why bother with the thinking part?

• Know when to stop reading.

• Feel you understand the material enough to write.

• Shape paragraphs and ideas early.

• Consolidate your reading.

• Actively engage in research.

• Probably write more clearly, cogently, and thoughtfully.

By considering how, where, and why a quote or passage is useful you will:

Using STUDYSmarter Resources

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