Once you have identified the sources that you think you want to read, go through them briefly to make sure that they are indeed relevant to your studies. There is no point in reading a source comprehensively until you are sure the material fulfils your requirements.
Scanning is the technique used, for example, when trying to find a name in a phone book. It usually involves running your finger across and down the page to try and identify salient words. By scanning the papers you have accessed you should soon be able to see whether or not they are relevant to your studies. Don't discard those that aren't relevant at this stage. They may be useful later.
Skimming is the next stage of the process in deciding whether or not a particular piece is worth reading more thoroughly, as it requires you to engage with the text a little more. There are two levels of skimming.
This approach helps you to analyse how useful a book will be and to select material for a specific purpose. You need to
This is a fairly ruthless approach, but one which helps you to be selective.
Once you have selected something to read comprehensively it is important that you engage effectively with the text. Before you start, make sure you have thought about why you are reading it and what you want to find out.
Always be ready to make notes as you are reading - in the margins of your study materials, on a separate sheet, or as comments and footnotes to a word-processed document on screen. Limit your use of a highlighter pen to key words only, as if you highlight too much you won't be able to pick out key points. Use sticky tabs to highlight key pages.
The theories you study are not static: they can be agreed with, disagreed with, analysed and engaged with. If you do this while you read you will show the person marking the work you produce that you have a good understanding of the subject as a whole.
Critical reading can be seen as a three-stage process.
- Understanding
- Questioning
- Evaluating
Understanding
Throughout your study you will be exposed to a wide body of academic literature: collections of theories, concepts, models and frameworks. The theses they advance need to be understood in their own right and in terms of their relationship with the associated literature.
Start your critical reading by considering who devised a particular thesis, and when, to get an insight into the academic approach taken by the author. For example, some authors approach their subject area from theoretical perspective, others seek practical applications for their work, or their contribution is to the wider academic debate. Recognising who produced the thesis gives you an insight into the position from which they are writing.
Knowing when the work was produced gives you a feel for the time relevance of the thesis. That is not necessarily to dismiss the relevance of older theses to contemporary studies, rather to review their relevance and recognise the platform they may provide for contemporary theses.
The next step is to identify the central claim or claims of the thesis. Finding the central claim reveals what the thesis is saying, trying to prove, or argue. Use the points listed below to help probe the thesis for this information.
- What is the thesis trying to say? How successfully does it say it?
- Is the thesis graphically represented, if so how does this look?
- What are the key points or the component parts of the thesis?
- What are the relationships between these points or parts?
- What is the relevance of the thesis?
A further useful step in establishing your understanding of a thesis is to discover the reasons for producing it. Often you can see how a particular thesis has been shaped by looking at why it has been produced. For example, where the motivation is to produce a thesis which has practical relevance you might expect an emphasis on quantitative methods. The author might use measurement as a means of demonstrating the validity of their thesis. Alternatively, where a thesis is devised to contribute specifically to academic debate then the emphasis may be on discursive accounts rather than verifiable statistics.
Once you have established your understanding of these points you are much better positioned to start asking more probing questions.
Questioning
The core of a thesis is formed by the central claims made by the author, as identified above, and the ways in which these assertions are presented. You should question these claims to examine whether they are based on a strong argument - one that demonstrates their development from a clear grounding in the academic literature.
- Are the claims argued using reasoning and debate?
- Are they substantiated with evidence from primary or secondary sources?
You may discover that the claims are based on a weak argument, offering no more than a list of assertions with no rational explanation or justification, and insufficient grounding in academic literature. In these cases the narrative tends to be unilateral and value-laden, and the resultant thesis is skewed towards presenting a specific view.
You should note that these characteristics of strong and weak presentation of a thesis apply equally to the work that you submit.
Evaluating
By this stage you have an understanding of the thesis, what it entails and why it was written. You have considered the strengths and weaknesses of how the central claims are argued, and their grounding in academic rigour. You will be aware of the sense of balance in the supporting debate and the relevance or accuracy of the evidence presented.
Evaluating the thesis is the point at which you draw your own conclusions about the value of the work presented. Your evaluation should be based on an assimilation of contradictory and supportive evidence from within the thesis itself, from the surrounding literature and from your own considerations.
In formulating your conclusions it is worth thinking about the following points.
- The robustness of the arguments for the thesis
- The robustness of the arguments against the thesis
- The circumstances in which the thesis could be useful
- The circumstances in which the thesis would be less useful
- Any amendments to the thesis that would be useful in the context where you would apply it
It can take time and effort to develop skills in critical reading, but the more you do the more you'll find the stages described above become an automatic approach. Critical reading skills are essential if you are to be able to gather and process evidence to support your own views, which is what we move onto next.
Gathering and processing evidence
In postgraduate study there is usually an emphasis on gathering evidence to examine or support a point of view. This may be as part of a research project where you are asked, for example, to review recent academic literature, or you may need to gather your own data by using a questionnaire or running an experiment.
Once you have your evidence you are expected to make some analysis of it and then write up your findings, perhaps as a project report for an assignment or as a dissertation.
Academic ethics
Ethical considerations play an important part in many research projects, particularly if you are gathering material from people by means of interviews, observations or questionnaires. Taking ethics into account when designing a research project helps to ensure that participants are aware of the aims of the research and what will happen to the information gathered.
It is important that you check whether or not you need ethical clearance to carry out your research. If you think you do, you will need to complete an ethics application and submit it to the OU. Your tutor and study notes will tell you more about how this might relate to your area of study.
One of the most important ethical principles is that of informed consent. You should supply participants with an information sheet describing the purpose of the research, how confidentiality is managed, what the results will be used for and how it will be published, and then obtain their consent.
Thinking about the ethical implications of your research also helps to ensure the well-being of you and the participants.
- The safety of you and your interviewee: Are other people aware the interview is taking place and when you are due to finish? Do they have contact numbers? Do you have a clear exit from the building in which it is taking place? Does your interviewee?
- The emotional context of an interview: Will the issue raise emotional issues? If so, what is your strategy for dealing with them?
- Data protection: What will you do with your questionnaire data? Do you have a safe place to store it? Do you know how long you can store it for?
Academic ethics also include a responsibility for accuracy in reporting your findings and in reporting and quoting from the research of others, particularly in regards to plagiarism.
Problem solving
Thinking creatively is a great way to solve a problem, such as working out how to design a project, or examine a question you need to answer. If you 'think around' the subject you can generate the answer or more easily understand the topic. Here are some ways of thinking creatively that may help you make decisions on what evidence you might need to collect.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a way of generating ideas. It is a good method to try if you are attacking a specific problem, whether alone or as part of a group.
- You need to think freely about the subject at hand. If you were brainstorming the pros and cons of 'green thinking' for example, you would jot down ideas as you or the group thought of them. There would be no judgement of the ideas at this stage
- You then work with the ideas: can any be improved? Do they lead you to another idea? If working in a group, a moderator would lead this discussion
- Once several ideas have been generated, you sift through them to see which work and which don't.
This short YouTube video shows you exactly what NOT to do when brainstorming in a group.
Idea-generating questions
Here you would ask questions about the subject at hand. Namely
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- Why?
- How?
These questions would then lead on to other questions, or a wider examination of the subject.
Shifting perspective
Here you try and look at things from another point of view.
- If you are female, what might a male perspective be? Would it be different? Why?
- If you are looking at a conservative argument, what might a liberal view be?
- If you were examining something scientifically, how would a social scientist approach the situation? What methodology would they use? What theory would they engage with?
- If you are looking at something in detail, try to step back and see it from a broader perspective, and vice versa.
This is a good method to use where you want to see both sides of a theory or find out more about something. It also helps you to move away from your own opinion, which could be biased or lacking in information.
