Workshop 2: Selective and Wider Reading; Note Taking Formats; Referencing and Plagiarism

1. Workshop 2: Selective and Wider Reading; Note Taking Formats; Referencing and Plagiarism Michelle Paul Study Skills Tutor Student Support Office October 2007

2. Underlying Principles • Each of us have techniques that we know work well for us as learners; • Few approaches to study can be considered ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. • (Caveat re plagiarism– some practices can cause problems) • We can usually improve our practice with some reflection. • We learn more when we are actively involved and participating. • As a result, this is designed to be interactive and also provide important information.

3. Goals for Today: Each person will… • Become more aware of which strategies work well for him/her • Get some new ideas • Practice sharing their ideas with individuals and the group • Find out where to learn more • Understand importance of proper referencing.

4. Opening Exercise (10 min): Explain to a Partner + Choose an item to report • What are your preferred approaches to reading and note taking (3 situations) • 1. When you are reading an assigned course text to develop a basic understanding • 2. When you are reviewing a source to determine if it is useful for a research paper • 3. When you are reading a difficult text that you have decided is very useful for your research paper? • Why are these approaches useful to you? • Choose one approach to share with whole group.

5. Report out and summarise: Students’ preferred approaches to note taking • Reading assigned texts for initial understanding? • Selecting additional sources? • Reading for deeper understanding?

6. Which of these approaches were mentioned …. • Start with most basic texts– ask tutor • Underlining/highlighting –selectively! (Less active?) • Annotating the text (own copy) • Writing down brief words/phrases and page numbers of important ideas • Skimming headings, introductions, conclusions to identify most relevant sections • Reading with specific questions in mind • Stopping periodically to check recall, paraphrase, answer questions, discuss with a friend, write own responses

7. When researching for an essay, you want notes that provide… • A record of where you found each piece of information, each idea (complete bibliographic information, including page number) • A record of your developing ideas • A way of coding quotations/paraphrases AND your own thoughts and ideas in response to reading (Colours? Separate pages?)

8. What to write in your notes (for essay):Brief notes at first http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/notes.html • You need to do some thinking about what you are looking for before writing a lot of notes. • Taking too many notes RECORDING WHAT YOU READ can leave with you with a sea of material of questionable relevance. • A list of topic headings under which your information can (eventually) be grouped • Either notes from separate sources under these • Or notes from one source, labeled with these headings • One side of paper only! • Some kind of brief record (e.g., key word and page) of each of your readings will allow you to return later to most useful passages. • Perhaps also a journal of your developing ideas about the information…

9. Reading Journal • Keeping a journal of YOUR OWN THOUGHTS about what you read provides useful material IN YOUR OWN WORDS that you can develop later in your essays.

10. Reading Journals • “Notes should be a safe zone where you can explore your own uncertainties, different readings of the text, implications of the author’s position, and questions these raise in your own mind. They shouldn’t merely record the results of your understanding, but should become part of the process of understanding.’ • http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/notes.htm

11. One method of taking notes during online library research • Save database keyword searches (includes full bibliographic information) • Email to yourself, print out • Annotate with own comments • http://www.jstor.org

12. Choosing resources for wider reading • Browse books in library catalogue/shelves • Authors of assigned readings • Bibliographies in assigned readings • Bibliographies in ‘good’ books and articles • Library subject guides • Databases in your field • Some departments have links for useful web sites in your own field • NOT Wikipedia, NOT Google as a first resort http://www.googlescholar.com/ is an academic search engine) • Intute = web tutorial (many departments offer a link) • http://www.intute.ac.uk

13. Referencing and plagiarism • In brief, you must cite sources you • Direct quotations • Paraphrase of information • You must credit the author both for ideas and for ways of saying things (direct quotations) • Give page number of information cited

14. One basic note taking approach to avoid plagiarism • Note page and key words only • For more extensive notes on WHAT THE TEXT SAYS • Read a passage of at least a page or section • Set the book aside. FROM MEMORY, • Write key ideas • Add citation to author • Go back and reread to understand the bits on which you are hazy. • Amend your summary, AGAIN FROM MEMORY. • Use these notes to write your essay • Have a system of distinguishing own ideas and material from sources, in your notes (colors, parts of page, reading journal for own ideas, cross referenced to summary notes)

15. Avoiding plagiarism through good note taking • Sociology Department (Rowena Macaulay): ‘Avoiding Plagiarism’. On good note taking practices. http://www.essex.ac.uk/sociology/resource_centre/plagiarism.shtm#Avoiding%20plagiarism

16. More on referencing and plagiarism • Referencing site on mySkills http://www.essex.ac.uk/myskills/skills/referencing/referencingSkills.asp • University plagiarism web site: http://www.essex.ac.uk/plagiarism/ • Univ Essex library web sites: http://libwww.essex.ac.uk/citation.htm

17. More on referencing and avoiding plagiarism • Univ. Essex Key Skills Online http://www2.essex.ac.uk/essay-writing/

18. To recap: Avoid • Copying large chunks of text • Line-by-line paraphrasing (‘plagiarism by thesaurus’) • Starting to writing essay with text book open the night before essay is due.

19. Exercise 2: Note taking in lectures • Explain to a partner: How do you prefer to take notes in lectures? Why? How do you prepare for note taking in lectures? How do you use your notes later?

20. Summarise responses to Exercise 2: Taking notes in lectures • Also, were the following points made?

21. Taking notes in lectures:Preparing before • Write questions at top, based on previous lectures and readings, comments in syllabus for the week • Review the previous week’s lecture before new week

22. Taking notes in lectures…During the lecture • Concentrate on main points– don’t worry about getting down all details. • Use key words and short sentences. • If you miss a statement, write key words, skip a few spaces, and get the information later. (With ring binders, you can add sheets with related notes later.) • If a speaker gets sidetracked, you may be able to go back and add further information.

23. Taking lecture notes: after the lecture • Shortly after making your notes, go back and rework (not redo) your notes by adding extra points and spelling out unclear items.

24. Taking notes in lectures: Organising • Create a master set of notes • Write date and title of lecture at top • Number pages • Have a uniform system of punctuation and abbreviation that will make sense to you. • Possibly list key terms in the margin or make a summary of the contents of the page of notes. • Cross reading notes and lecture notes. • Cross reference the various lectures.

25. Taking notes: Styles of note taking • Linear notes– following the lecturer’s outline and using their headings • Mind maps or spider diagrams http://www.consumingexperience.com/2006/12/compendium-free-mindmapping-software.html • Cornell system http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/enreadtp/Cornell.html

26. Goals for all note taking:Your notes will provide… • A good master set of information. That you can review regularly to achieve lasting memory. • A record of how your understanding of the topic has developed. • A complete record of where you learned everything, so you can cite your sources accurately.