On reading....for research!

I had a chance to talk to my friend's research scholar yesterday. (My friend is a professor at an University in India, she is guiding few research scholars on their doctoral thesis).

This particular student had difficulty reading for research. You know how it is. When you are a research scholar in Language and Literature - you do not have the opportunity to follow logical deduction and scientific research methodology. It is all logical reasoning based on personal understanding. You select some books. Read them, analyze them and present your perception of those books/author or style as your research hypothesis.

And then begins your research. And this person had issues understanding the underlying concepts and formulating ideas on a given time. So, I called to talk to my friend. My friend was in class and her scholar picked up. And I asked her how is your research coming along. And that question unwrapped another one of my impromptu lectures....poor girl, liked it or not, she had to be polite to her prof's friend and listen to my 25 mnts of long distance lecture :)

So this is how I think every research scholar in the literary discipline should approach their reading. Every book needs to be read at least four times *before* beginning to write the draft 1 of you thesis. (exclusively based on my personal experience)

So here you go -

• Familiarize
• Understand
• Analyze
• Criticize

Familiarize: When you have selected a few books for your research, your first step into your research reading should be to get familiar with the book itself. So read the book from front to back, once. Don't stop to think on the subtleties. Don't analyze anything. Just read the book as you would a casual fiction. Then take a note book and write down your first impression. Forget the book and go on to the next one. read all books once, capturing your first impressions as a simple summary in the notebook.

Understand: Now get back to your first book. Start reading, pay more attention to character names and situations. Read completely. Take the same notebook. Now write your second experience with the book. Write down all the character names, if possible sort them into main/sub characters. Theme. Plot. Turning Point and the climax. Make it look like a book report. Do the same to all the books.

Analyze: Now go start reading the book again with meticulous attention to details, with a pencil or highlighter in hand. Read the chapters with your research hypothesis in mind. Whenever you come across any point that would be helpful for your argument, mark it. Go through the whole book, all books. Now take the same notebook and write down only the parts that apply to your research, Write down your supportive quotes from the book with page numbers.

Criticize: Now take the book again, read only the parts that apply to your research. If you are unsure, go over the whole book again. See how in that particular part the author says what you think he says. Collect supporting materials to substantiate your argument and read them too.

And now - you can start writing your draft 1!

Right approach to reading will help you to understand the book much better, much earlier.