Effective reading and note taking, Lecture notes of Data Compression

Download Effective reading and note taking and more Lecture notes Data Compression in PDF only on Docsity!

Computing Research

Project

Effective reading and note taking

Objectives

• Goals of reading
• Reading techniques
• Reading pattern
• Reasons for note-taking
• Techniques for note-taking
• Advantages and disadvantages of note taking

Goals of reading

• Kimmelman (1992, pp. 12–105) state that your goals are
  1. to review the text
  2. to use context clues and a dictionary to understand new words
  3. to identify and mark important ideas in a chapter
  4. to recognize how authors organize and develop ideas
  5. to identify new words and phrases that describe the methods or patterns of organizing and developing ideas
  6. to apply comprehension skills to vocabulary and text material

Reading techniques(2)

• Reading to understand
  • This involves detailed study of a chapter, passage or article in order to absorb all the major facts and ideas
  • You may read it more than once, and take notes to summarize what you have read
• Word-by-word reading
  • you actually need to read every word extremely carefully; for example, when reading an exam question or following a set of instructions
• Reading for pleasure
  • This is the reading you do to relax and enjoy, as with a novel.

A reading pattern

• Newman (1989, pp. 12–14) reading techniques fall into a basic pattern involving four stages - Stage 1: - Try to gain some quick impression of what the book is about - the questions tackled and the answers put forward are relevant to your needs - by glancing over the cover or jacket, the preface (if any), the list of contents, and the index

A reading pattern(3)

• Stage 3
  • You must then look for the answers or conclusions that the author has drawn
  • You will also look at arguments and evidence put forward to support the views expressed
  • However, cases where conclusions are unsupported, arguments or evidence are non-existent, or sometimes there is no conclusion at all
• Stage 4
  • Supposing that you have extracted the relevant information from the written report
  • you must now record your data in note form, so that later you can retrieve it and use it easily at the appropriate stage

Exercise

Note taking

• You should take notes only of the information that you judge relevant to your research subject
• It is generally agreed that, except for quotations, when you take notes you should use your own active vocabulary and not the author’s
• Newman (1989, p. 15) says that it is important to use your active vocabulary in note-taking, because it helps to ensure that you have a reasonably full grasp of the meaning of the information concerned
• when you come to reread and synthesize the notes, your personal active vocabulary is more easily comprehensible and recognizable.

Reasons for taking notes(1)

• Freeman and Meed (1993,p. 43) lay down a number of reasons why - To help you remember something: You can’t hope to retain a whole lecture, book or discussion permanently in your memory so instead you make notes of the most important items for revision and reference - To keep a permanent record of something - To help in your planning: Notes can be a good way of starting off a project or a piece of writing; you can note down the main things you need to do, the books you need to read, and so on

Taking notes judgements(1)

• When making notes, you will have to make judgements all the time about what information will, or might, be of use to you
• These judgements will depend on your own knowledge of your subject and the nature of your research problem
• You may find it useful to write comments about your reactions to the reference materials and state relationships, conclusions or interpretations that come to mind during the contemplative phases of your work

Taking notes judgements(2)

• You may also want to jot down items that require further checking.
• You may want to make comparisons, weave a web of logical evidence, or buttress arguments by passages from recognized authorities
• However, a haphazard collection of notes will leave you with an impoverished resource, and may cause your investigation to collapse

Note-taking techniques(2)

• Wiersma (1986, pp. 70–1) argued that notes on research reports containing the following items of information: - Bibliography entry - Problem: This is a statement of the research problem; or include statements of hypotheses. - Subjects: The individuals involved in research studies are often called ‘subjects’ of the research - Procedures: This section describes how the research was conducted - Results and conclusions: In long reports with many results and conclusions, it is best to number them