Perhaps I’m over-complicating the issue, but I’m finding it really hard to sit down and read papers. I feel like I want to be able to read, take notes, make a mind-map, evaluate and summerise the source all at once. Clearly, not going to happen.
The process of iteration in programming has always come naturally and seemed logical to me. The process of iteration in real life and project managment has not. Design (of a coding project) as an iterative step never really made sense to me until my third-year project ended up being a pile of poo halfway through. Iterative design and coding really made my summer project much smoother and enjoyable. Iterative house cleaning (a la flylady-style ) keeps our home from being a sty with not too much concentrated hard-graft.
I need to translate those iterative skills I developed to the process of reading academic papers.
This resouce sums it up nicely:
“…the contents of an academic article cannot be grasped by a single reading. You have to engage with it several times – but in different ways.” (from http://www.lenmholmes.org.uk/students/how2read/how2read_b.htm <- Good resouce, a bit too indepth but I’dĀ recommend for ESL students)
Engaging with it several times == iteration.
So, right now I am going to hop in the bath with my eReader (I’ll be careful š ) and do a first pass over a few papers. I’m not going to do any reviews or make any/many notes. I’ll do that on another pass.
Do you have a method or a process that you follow for reading academic stuff? Or are you as lost and resistant as me? Fill up the comments and share where you’re at! š
I’m glad someone else has the sit down and read a paper problem. I took a 4 year break between an undergraduate masters and my PhD (started about the same time as you) so I’m a little rusty. It’s tough. I think you’re right on the iteration idea though.
How do you find the e-reader for reading articles? I find it pretty clumsy and haven’t really explored into it too far.
http://test.com