Do I want to read this article?

1. Do I want to read this article? The first things to look at are the title and the abstract. What is an abstract? It is a very short overview of a complete article or conference paper. In a traditional journal, it usually comes right at the beginning, after the article title and author(s); when you are searching online, you can usually read the abstract before you access the article. What is an abstract for? The purpose of the abstract is to provide enough information so that people can quickly decide whether the article is relevant to their research and they therefore want to read it. • What should I look for? • What kind of article is it? • You can identify the main purpose from the abstract , for example: • To report a piece of original research or development work • To analyse or put forward a theoretical perspective / argument / interpretation • To give an overview of research, work or practice in a particular field • To present a case study • To describe or advocate a practical approach to something • Other things you may be able to tell from the abstract: • Method • Results • Implications • Author’s argument • Context • Focus • Purpose • Theoretical perspective Soulliere, D. (2010) ‘Much ado about Harry: Harry Potter and the creation of a moral panic.’ Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 22(1) [Online] Available at: http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art22(1)-PotterPanic.html (Accessed : 13 April 2012)

2. Looking at an abstract • What is the purpose of this article? • What other information can you get from it?

3. Looking at an abstract • What is the purpose of this article? • What other information can you get from it? • It reports a piece of original research. You can also find: • Purpose • Method • Results • Argument

4. Which parts of the article will be useful? Skimming is reading something quickly to get the general idea If the abstract suggests that an article may be useful, you can use a ‘topping, tailing and skimming’ approach to the whole article to see which parts, if any, will be helpful for your assignment. Read smart! It is not always necessary to read the whole of something – when you are writing an essay, what you are looking for is material that is relevant to your assignment. In other words, analyse your title and then identify texts, or parts of texts, that will help you to understand the issue and develop your own answer. The following approach can help you to: identify relevant material form an outline of the author’s argument distinguish the main points from examples, evidence, discussion and so on • Read quickly through the introduction and the conclusion • Look at the section headings (if it’s a long article, it may help to make a list) • For useful sections, read the first one or two sentences of each paragraph and highlight the main point: • the main point is often near the beginning of a paragraph so • this should give you an outline of the content and • it should help you to see the author’s line of argument • After you have done this, read the relevant parts in detail to see how each point is developed Try this technique with the full article, ‘Much ado about Harry:..’ You can find it at: http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art22(1)-PotterPanic.html Suppose you were researching to answer the following questions: 1. On what grounds did the Christian Right object to the Harry Potter series of books? To what extent do you believe these objections are justified? 2. How did the Christian Right try to stir up popular opinion against the Harry Potter series of books in the USA? To what extent did they succeed? Which section/s of the text would be most useful for each question? Can you identify the relevant main points of those sections?

5. Information relevant to question 1 Although the focus of the article is not on the reasons why the Christian Right objected, the section headed ‘Claims-Making’ (paragraphs 19 – 32) talks about the grounds on which they objected. Paragraph [19] summarises the general areas and the rest of the section goes into more detail. If you skim through the openings of the rest of the paragraphs in this section, you can get a somewhat fuller outline of these reasons – see below. (After that you can read more thoroughly to get a detailed understanding of what the author is saying.) When you see a clear connective phrase like this, look at the next sentence too.

6. Information relevant to question 1 continued The connecting text (blue) indicates that an opposing point of view is coming next (yellow) • Collating your reading • As you do more reading, you can compare the points and arguments put forward by various writers and use them to help you decide your answer to the question. • It can be helpful to collate this information on a grid so you can see at a glance who said what. • Make sure you record all the information you will need for your reference list .

7. Information relevant to question 2 (1st part) The section ‘Dissemination and Tactics’ (paragraphs 33-39) gives information about how the Christian Right attempted to stir up popular opinion against the books; the following section discusses why they were not entirely successful. The answers here are from the first section. The first paragraph of the section [33] is worth skimming right through: [end of paragraph cut] Having identified the media from the first paragraph, you can get a list of tactics used by skimming the openings of the rest of the paragraphs in this section. (After that you can read more thoroughly to get a detailed understanding of what the author is saying.) [cut to end of paragraph 39]