Cleveland State University ESC 720 Research Communications Lecture 4 – How to Read Dan Simon.

Cleveland State UniversityESC 720

Research Communications

Lecture 4 – How to ReadDan Simon

How to Read

1. Reading Basics Video (Blackboard)2. Video Review3. Find Sources4. Summarize Sources

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How to Read: Video Review

• Your short-term memory can handle between 3 and 7 chunks of information at a time

• The average attention span is about 90 minutes; after 90 minutes, we need a 15-minute break

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• Read with your hands: preview the article by flipping through pages, turn section headings into chunks

• Don’t read for more than 90 minutes at a time• Take a refreshing break every 90 minutes• Draw pictures to help you remember what

you’ve read (Moonwalking with Einstein)• Define your goal: are you reading for a quiz, a

test, or to write a paper?4


• Do not carefully read through every paper– This is one of the differences between reading for

research, and reading for pleasure

• Carefully read only your core sources• Make yourself comfortable

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How to Read


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How to Read: Find Sources

• Virtual Reference Desk: Encyclopedias, books, theses, articleswww.ulib.csuohio.edu/research/vrd

• Academic Search Premier: IEEE Xplore, Compendex, etc.www.ulib.csuohio.edu/research/databases

• Databases in your subject area www.ulib.csuohio.edu/research/databases/subject.html

• Google Scholar – http://scholar.google.com

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http://www.ulib.csuohio.edu/research/vrd


• LexisNexis: Newspaper articles for general background information – not source materialhttp://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe

• CSU library cataloghttp://scholar.csuohio.edu

• OhioLink: Books and book chapters (~ 1 week) http://olc1.ohiolink.edu/search

• Interlibrary Loan (~ 2 weeks) www.ulib.csuohio.edu/services/ill

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• Find and read a few non-academic titles for your own general background information– Web sites, Wikipedia, newspaper articles,

magazine articles

• Find 40 titles in the databases – academic books, journals, and conference papers– No magazine articles– No web sites

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• Out of 40 titles, only about 25 will be available (some will be missing, others don’t arrive in time from interlibrary loan, others don’t relate to your subject well)

• Skim your 25 sources and make a quick decision: yes or no?

• Save only those that relate well to your research question

• Select the 10 best sources for careful reading10


• Evaluate your source list• Do you have too many or too few sources?– Do you need to expand or limit the publication

dates?– Is the relevance of the sources to your subject too

broad or too narrow?– Do you need to expand or narrow your topic?

• Do a few of your sources seem especially relevant? Check their reference lists.

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• The Engineering Librarian can help you find more sources, or narrow down your list. Make an appointment at:www.ulib.csuohio.edu/services/ask

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How to Read


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How to Read: Summarize Sources

Summarize the article•In a few seconds, glance through the article. What do you expect it to be about? Section headings, tables, and pictures can give you clues.•Next, carefully read the abstract and conclusion. Now what do you expect the article to be about?•Next, read the article somewhat carefully. What’s different from what you expected? •What are your personal reactions to the article – excited, challenged, confused, bored?•Write the main point (focus, thesis) of the article in one sentence•What are the broader implications (social, technological, ethical, etc.) of the main point?

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Summary structure1.Bibliographic details2.Your reactions3.Your questions

What’s the point of writing a summary?•It helps you systematically study your source material•It helps you organize your source material

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Summary structure: (1) Bibliographic details•Full reference (author, title, date, etc.)•Qualifications of the author•Number of references (a good source for other material for your report)•Focus or thesis (one sentence)•Significance of the thesis to the author (the “so what”)

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Summary structure: (2) Your reaction•Intellectual: reasoning, evidence, conclusion stimulates or bothers you •Ethical •Intuitive: something about the paper stimulates or bothers you, but you don’t know why•Cultural•Timing: something about the paper reminds you of something else – another article, a person, an event, etc. •Concentration: the article concentrates on only a few things, and forgets something important

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Summary structure: (3) Your questions•What questions about your topic does the paper raise in your mind?•How does the paper’s thesis relate to your report?•The answers to your questions may require more research

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Example: (1) Bibliographic details•Full reference: A. Kapti and M. Yucenur, “Design and control of an active artificial knee joint,” Mechanism and Machine Theory, vol. 41, pp. 1477-1485, 2006•Qualifications: University faculty•Number of references: 12•Thesis: A newly proposed active leg prosthesis with a rule-based controller gives better performance than passive prostheses.•Significance: The new prosthesis helps amputees with daily living activities.

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Example: (2) My reaction•Intellectual: Active prostheses should always outperform passive ones. What is the contribution here? •Intuitive: There are not enough details (PID control parameters, rule parameters, and so on). Position control is used in stance phase.•Timing: Other active prostheses are proposed in the literature, but discussed only briefly in this article. •Concentration: The article is very skimpy on details. It mentions various activities (sitting, standing, etc.) but does not give experimental results. It does not mention any drawbacks of the proposed design (for example, power consumption).

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Example: (3) My questions•How many different modes are needed in prosthesis control?•How accurately do we need to control knee angle?•Are there other aspects of gait we need to control?•What are the advantages and disadvantages of active control?

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Example: (3) My questions (continued)•Author’s thesis: A newly proposed active leg prosthesis with a rule-based controller gives better performance than passive prostheses.•My thesis: An active prosthesis with impedance control can improve prosthesis performance.•Relationship: The two theses are similar, except: (1) the author’s thesis involves rule-based trajectory control while mine involves rule-based impedance control; and (2) the author’s thesis uses only one performance criterion while mine uses several.

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Conclusion

1. Lots of short study sessions2. Skim lots of material3. Carefully read a limited amount of material4. Use the library to find source material5. Use informal sources for background info6. Distill 40 25 10 formal sources7. Spend 2 minutes each on 25 sources to narrow

them down to 10 sources8. Three-part detailed summary of 10 sources

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Acknowledgments

• CSU Writing Centerwww.csuohio.edu/academic/writingcenter

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Cleveland State University ESC 720 Research Communications Lecture 4 – How to Read Dan Simon.

Documents

best sources

video reviewdo

video reviewread

newspaper articles

week http

material http

scholar http

careful reading