Critical Reading Strategies: Overview of Research Process Week 3/4

Critical Reading & Thinking Critical reading is a technique for discovering information and ideas within a text. Critical thinking is a technique for evaluating information and ideas, for deciding what to accept and believe. Critical reading refers to a careful, active, reflective, analytic reading. Critical thinking involves reflecting on the validity of what you have read in light of the prior knowledge and understanding.

Goals of Critical Reading To recognize an author’s purpose            To understand tone and convincing elements To recognize strengths & weaknesses Avoid asking: What information can I get out of it? Rather Ask: How does this text work? How is it argued? How is the evidence used and interpreted? How does the text reach its conclusions?

Four tips for Critical Reading 1. Read the paper 3 times: First read the abstract, the introduction and the conclusion and look through the references. Next read through the entire paper starting with the abstract again. Don't skip over figures, re-read parts that you don't understand. Write down questions you have as you go along. Finally, re-read the paper critically. Did the authors do what they said they were going to do? What are the important ideas? (May be unimportant ideas) Do their results make sense? Are their methods sound? What assumptions are they making? How does their work fit in with other similar work? What improvements/extensions do they contribute?

Four tips for Critical Reading (Cont.) 2. Make an outline of the paper Create some organized information about the paper that will help to sort out the details Highlight the major points of the paper This can be as detailed as you need it to be 3. Create a list of questions About parts that you don't understand About parts where you question their solution/ proof/ methods/results 4. List comparisons of this paper to other related work with which you are familiar.

We can summarize Four Levels of Critical Reading Preliminary understanding: skimming Title Abstract Identify main theme

Critical Reading Levels (cont) Comprehensive understanding: Variables and concepts Terminology Main idea or theme Restate in own words

Critical Reading Levels (cont) Analysis understanding: Understand parts Begin to critique Summarize in own words each part Synthesis understanding: Put together Explain relationships Critique

Critiquing A process of objectively and critically evaluate content for scientific merit and application to practice, theory, and education. Uses criteria: research process Find strengths as well as weaknesses

Five Elements of a Scientific Paper (IMRAD) Introduction (I) Materials and Methods (M) Results (R) Analysis (A) Discussion or Conclusion (D)

General form of a research paper An objective of organizing a research paper is to allow people to read your work selectively. In all sections of your paper: Stay focused on the research topic of the paper Use paragraphs to separate each important point (except for the abstract) Present your points in logical order Avoid informal wording, don't address the reader directly

Abstract Normally 50 to 200 words. May be written after the rest of the research is completed. Writing an Abstract: Purpose of the study - hypothesis, overall question, objective Model organization/system and brief description of the experiment Results, including specific data - if the results are quantitative in nature. Important conclusions or questions that follow from the experiments.

Introduction The purpose of an introduction is to explain the reader with the rationale behind the work, with the intention of defending it. It places the work in a theoretical context, and enables the reader to understand and appreciate the objectives. Writing an introduction Describe the importance (significance) of the study - why was this worth doing in the first place? Provide a broad context. Defend the model - why did you use this particular organism or system? What are its advantages? Provide a rationale. State your specific hypothesis or objective, and describe the reasoning that led you to select them. Very brief describe the experimental design and how it accomplished the stated objectives.

Materials and Methods The objective is to document all specialized materials and general procedures, so that another individual may use some or all of the methods in another study or judge the scientific merit of your work. Writing a materials and methods section Include only specialized computing devices and any equipment or supplies that are not commonly found in labs. Report the methodology used in experiments. Describe the methodology completely.

Results The purpose of a results section is to present and illustrate your findings. Make this section a completely objective report of the results, and save all interpretation for the discussion. Summarize your findings in text and illustrate them, if appropriate, with figures and tables. Provide a context, such as by describing the question that was addressed by making a particular observation. ANALYZE your data, then prepare the analyzed (converted) data in the form of a figure (graph), table, or in text form.

Discussion The objective here is to provide an interpretation of your results and support for all of your conclusions, using evidence from your experiment. If your results differ from your expectations, explain why that may have happened. Decide if each hypothesis is supported, rejected, or if you cannot make a decision with confidence. You may suggest future directions, such as how the experiment might be modified to accomplish another objective. Explain all of your observations as much as possible. One experiment will not answer an overall question, so keeping the big picture in mind, where do you go next? The best studies open up new avenues of research. What questions remain?

Literature Cited/References List all literature cited in your paper, in alphabetical order, by first author. (Standards vary) In a proper research paper, only primary literature is used (original research articles authored by the original investigators). Avoid to include a web site as a reference. If you are citing an on line journal, use the journal citation (name, volume, year, page numbers). Some of papers may not require references, and if that is the case simply state that “No references were consulted."

Critiquing a research paper Is the hypothesis clearly stated? Does the introduction give relevant background information that helps you understand what was studied, and why? Is the procedure (method) clearly stated? Did they compare like (analogous) units? Are all graphs and tables labeled correctly, and do they clearly explain the results? Does the data relate to the hypothesis/question? Did they collect data on all relevant variables to answer their question? Were the results explained? Do the results support or disprove the question or hypothesis? Did the authors consider any alternative hypotheses? Do you notice a pattern in their results (graphs) that they don't address in the paper? Do you agree with the conclusions? Did they address any problems in their research, exploring how they might do things differently next time? Do they consider what future research might be done to further answer the question?

NEXT WEEK’S ACTIVITY SELECT A RESEARCH PAPER OF YOUR OWN AREA OF INTEREST FROM IEEE OR ACM JOURNAL, CRITIQUE AND PRESENT YOUR VIEWS.