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Reading Research ReportsReading Research Reports

Robert Blake

Student Learning Development Centre

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Reading Research ReportsReading Research Reports

This session covers

• research report structure in

Communication Systems

• efficient reading techniques

• avoiding plagiarism

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Reading Research Reports: How we read?Reading Research Reports: How we read?

First a question about reading skills in general.

How do you read

• a novel?

• a newspaper?

• assessment feedback on a mini-project?

• the blurb on a DVD or video film?

• a letter from your partner?

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Reading Research Reports: Reading Reading Research Reports: Reading strategiesstrategies

We change speeds & depths of reading according to our purpose:

• skimming and scanning

• light reading

• ‘normal’ reading

• intensive reading i.e. reading with great attention

• critical reading to evaluate texts & then answer specific research questions

•e.g. design, operation, etc

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Reading Research Reports:Reading Research Reports:

You have a pile of research papers to read

just like the one handed to you.

Are you going to read them all in depth?

How are you going to make efficient use

of your time?

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Reading Research Reports: Reading Research Reports:

Look at either the article by

a) Coulton and Honary or

b) Coulton, Rashid and Ahmed.

or find an article in your own scientific field

What strategies are you going to use to read it?

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Strategies for Strategies for SurveyingSurveying Research Reports Research Reports

• use the abstract to get an overview of content

• skimming & scanning• read the intros & conclusions first• scan headings & sub-headings• scan graphical information: tables, figures• read topic sentences & concluding

sentences of paragraphs• glide over each paragraph to pick up key

words

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Reading Research Reports: SurveyingReading Research Reports: Surveying

Now have a go at surveying the report as

a whole using the strategies just

suggested.

Spend about 7-8 minutes

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Reading Research Reports: SurveyingReading Research Reports: Surveying

• What did you learn?

• What is the overall structure of this

article?

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Reading Research Reports: Surveying-Reading Research Reports: Surveying-IMRaDIMRaD

Many scientific & engineering reports are based on an IMRaD structure:

IntroductionMethodResults

And Discussion

In some reports there is also a conclusion.Can you trace an IMRaD structure in this article? If the terms are different, what are they?

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Reading Research Reports: Surveying- Reading Research Reports: Surveying- IMRaDIMRaD

Whilst many scientific & engineering reports are based on an IMRaD structure. At the same time there may also be a:

SituationProblem patternSolutionEvaluation

In some reports this may be recursive- repeated until an appropriate solution is reached.

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Reading Research Reports: Surveying- Reading Research Reports: Surveying- IMRaDIMRaD

What other strategies &

information did you use to

help you work out the

main idea of the article?

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Reading Research Reports: SQ3RReading Research Reports: SQ3R

We’ve been using the 1st stage of SQ3R

The 5 stages are: • SURVEY

• QUESTION

• READ

• RECALL

• REVIEW

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Reading Research Reports: SQ3R- Reading Research Reports: SQ3R- SurveyingSurveying

Once you have an idea of the overall

structure by surveying the text

• you can reduce your processing load

when you come to read the article closely.

• you can then work out the structure &

meaning of smaller chunks

•You can also identify which bits to glide

over and which bits to concentrate on

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Reading Research Reports: SQ3R- Reading Research Reports: SQ3R- QuestioningQuestioning

The 2nd stage of SQ3R is

to question

This involves

• making questions about what you want to

learn from the article

• adopting a critical i.e. evaluative frame of

mind

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Reading Research Reports : QuestioningReading Research Reports : Questioning

Why formulate questions?

Reading to answer specific questions allows you to

• read more purposefully & ‘time-efficiently’

• give you points to look out for

• allows you to glide over unimportant sections

• means that you’re reading critically- interacting with the content and evaluating, thereby reading at postgrad level

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Reading Research Reports : QuestionReading Research Reports : Question

Now use your knowledge of the article from the surveying stage to make 3-4 questions about the topic of the article [maximum 5 minutes]

What sort of questions did you formulate?

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Reading Research Reports : ReadingReading Research Reports : Reading

Spend 10 minutes reading the

article

with the purpose of finding answers

to your questions

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Reading Research Reports : ReadReading Research Reports : Read

What questions did you ask?

Did you succeed in finding answers to your questions?

How well has surveying & questioning worked so far?

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Reading Research Reports : Recall & Reading Research Reports : Recall & ReviewReview

The final two stages are:

Recall

Review

Recall- unless you have a remarkable

memory you’ll probably forget 50% of what

you read, shortly after reading. So you’ll

need make a deliberate attempt to recall

the key ideas &/or take notes

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Reading Research Reports : RecallReading Research Reports : Recall

You can record your notes in a number of ways including:

• Linear notes

• Flow diagrams

• Mind maps

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Reading Research Reports : RecallReading Research Reports : Recall

An example of Mind maps from Tony Buzanhttp://www.mind-map.com/EN/mindmaps/how_to.html

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Reading Research Reports : RecallReading Research Reports : Recall

Use subordination to identify the importance

of information:

• key information on the left hand side

• detailed points in the middle

• comments & questions on the right hand

side

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Reading Research Reports : RecallReading Research Reports : Recall

• Symbols and abbreviations can save

valuable time, enabling you to write less

and identify the main points more

efficiently

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Reading Research Reports : RecallReading Research Reports : Recall

When taking notes:

• remember on each page of your notes to record author[s], year, title of book or journal, article name,+ pages if journal.

• paraphrase the key ideas

• put quotations i.e. any identical chunks of the original article in speech marks “”

These techniques will help you to avoid plagiarism, the serious offence of using other people’s ideas as if they were your own

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Reading Research Reports : ReviewReading Research Reports : Review

Review

How well can you recall the key ideas? Look at your questions. Can you still remember the answers?

If not, reread to refresh your knowledge and fill the gaps in your knowledge

NB This is very useful for test and exam revision!

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Avoiding Avoiding PlagiarismPlagiarism

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Which Of These Is Plagiarism?Which Of These Is Plagiarism?1. Copying a paragraph verbatim from a source without any acknowledgement.2. Copying a paragraph and making small changes - e.g. replacing a few verbs, replacing an adjective with a synonym; acknowledgement in the bibliography. 3. Cutting and pasting a paragraph by using sentences of the original but omitting one or two and putting one or two in a different order, no quotation marks; with an in-text acknowledgement plus bibliography.4. Composing a paragraph by taking short phrases from a number of sources and putting them together using words of your own to make a coherent whole with an in-text acknowledgement + bibliography.5. Paraphrasing a paragraph by rewriting with substantial changes in language and organisation; the new version will also have changes in the amount of detail used and the examples cited; citing in bibliography.6. Quoting a paragraph by placing it in block format with the source cited in text & bibliography.[Carroll J. 2000 Teaching News November, 2000. Based on an exercise in Academic Writing for Graduate Students by Swales and Feale, University of Michigan, 1993] on http://www.ilt.ac.uk/resources/Jcarroll.htm Accessed 12/05/2003 ]

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Avoiding PlagiarismAvoiding Plagiarism

From Purdue University, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html accessed 14 May 2003

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Avoiding PlagiarismAvoiding Plagiarism

• Practise paraphrasing from the beginning of your course look at:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_paraphr.html

http://www.uefap.com/writing/report/rep_para.htm• Remember to reference all original ideas that

are not common knowledge http://www.uefap.com/writing/citation/citefram.htm

• Remember that software programs are used to detect plagiarism from the internet & plagiarism between students on the same course

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Reading Research Reports :SQ3RReading Research Reports :SQ3R

If you want to read more about SQ3R,see Rowntree’s excellent book

Derek Rowntree (1998) Learn How to Study,Warner Books