I have a source. What now? This is the question that I have long struggled with. One of the main reasons my papers tend to be low on sources is because who has time to read so much? Badke addresses this issue in chapter 8 of Research Strategies. He begins by saying to deal with all resources as quickly as possible. This seemed rather counter intuitive at first. Should I not contemplate and search for deep meanings in my sources? Yet, I believe Badke is suggesting that you do not take time to contemplate the information that is not relevant to your topic. “Be efficient and discerning” he urges.
Badke then continues to baffle me completely. He suggests I read the “title page, preface, forward, and introduction.” In other words, he recommends reading all the parts of the book that I normally view as extraneous. I have always been told the introduction is the most important part of the book, but my argument has been that the introduction is also the most boring part of the book. However, what I believe Badke is doing here is trying to give me tips on how to research well, not to be entertained. The introductions, I am told, contain a basic overview of what the book is about. This is helpful when you are trying to gain only what you want from the book and you are trying to do so in a timely manner. That is very useful when you have only a week to write numerous research papers and you are not very good at writing in to the early hours of the morning.
Skimming is the way to go! I would go crazy if i read all the material I took out of the library! I usually only look at the chapter headings for the book and based on that I decide whether or not I should even take the book out for research once I found it.
ReplyDeleteTo be "efficient" and "discerning" is a tool that I think you can take with you everywhere in life. You can begin to learn how to do this while writing a paper at TWU but, the cool thing is... once you gain a skill, it doesn't just stick in one area of your life. I like to think that tools gained and learned are like a waterfall. It spills and jumps from pool to pool, it doesn't just stop and stay in one place.
ReplyDeleteI have the problem to be low on sources too. Too lazy to find more sources or impatient to skim other articles, a lot of time I just quote from the same sources over and over on my paper. After reading the chapter, I think what I need to do is to know exactly what I am looking for and hit the target. Being efficient doesn't seem to be an easy thing for me.
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