A couple of reading skills
Hello, my dear friends. What are you up to? Today I am here to show several experiences and suggestions on how to read science papers more efficiently.
Firstly, if you tell me that you cannot focus or concentrate on reading articles, in my opinion, the reason is that you didn't make a lot of effort for what you are working on.
I underwent that problem, too. I couldn't understand what the authors intended in their papers. That was a horrible feeling, of course. I then did research on how to focus on reading. They gave some methods, apps to practice. To be honest, they didn't work for my instance, in fact, I didn't apply them. I am not the type of person who follows strict techniques. (Instead, I am more interested in TED talks about focus such as The art of focus - a crucial ability, How to get your brain to focus, What makes some brains more focused than others? How the power of attention changes everything, Don't manage your time, manage focus , etc.)
I must solve my own barrier. And then, I wrote down why I didn't understand, what made me so confused. My problems were basically that I wasn't willing to read. I was not willing to look up new words in the dictionary, to find unclear concepts, definition or to make connections between sentences in the papers. So, there is room for my brain to work for something else. Thereby, I cannot understand well. From my personal view of point, it is not the power of concentration or not concentration. It is a willingness or unwillingness.
To accomplish efficiency in reading, I have to try to gain results. I looked up new words, tried to figure out what I don't understand. A plain draft and a pen are ready for note-taking.
P.S: To become unstuck in anything, writing down problems is the best way. These are original barriers inside you. Let's start with that problem and go to crack it.
Secondly, an important skill while reading scientific papers is that you should not have a high expectation for yourself at the starting point. This is the experience from my situation as well. I feel entirely overwhelmed when I read papers. Just a beginner, I used to carefully read every single sentence and tried to be clear about everything. I further want to reach the author's level by asking why they are so remarkable, why they know that, and how they can have deep and wide knowledge. It is justification that patience is a key factor to become a researcher. Patience is gradual accumulation.
Thirdly, I don't know whether anyone faces an identical situation with me or not. I stopped a problem which I didn't understand for a long time. And I try to make it clear at first look. My professor pointed out that I was doing oppositely. I cannot understand only once of reading. He said, “read, don't understand, keep reading”. It turns out that on the next page they solve that problem or they mention that problem to make it understandable. What I am trying to say here is when you read, don't understand something, keep reading, don’t stop too long. You can solve problems later in this way or another. It can be indicated in this paper or other books or papers
Next, you have to know you are reading for what? But at first, you have to know what research is. As I told you in the old post named What is research?. You must bear in mind that each paper has its own purposes, methodology, gain insight into something by exploring new things, etc. Probably, you are reading to look for recent development, simply find information or their methods or ideas. In doing so, you are clearly what are you looking for. It brings you a clear picture or a clear roadmap to go.
This is also vitally important to make sure you're not studying instead of doing research. Research is the thing you have to find connection points rather than simply reading to accumulate knowledge.
Finally, Read fast, don't be afraid of missing something. Why don't you try to read quickly leading to your brain working at the same speed.
P.S Flow is a state of working where you are totally absorbed by and deeply focused on something beyond the point of distraction. This is a very exact definition from a book named flow and I just wanna be flowed all the time
Nghe An, October 10, 2021
Comments
Post a Comment