Hi Friend,
All research projects, and thus theses/dissertations, require a voluminous amount of reading from texts, journals, periodicals, newspapers, Web pages, archived documents, and so on. Successful researchers have employed the following tasks to help make their readings more productive.
The following will help make your reading more constructive and help you get familiar with different styles and format of scholarly language:
1. Take time to reflect on what it is you are hoping to find before you begin to read.
2. Survey the table of contents and note major headings.
3. If there are chapter summaries in a text, or an abstract for a paper, read them before exploring the chapter or paper.
4. As you read, try to relate the information to something you are already familiar with.
5. Take notes or highlight important ideas. If you can do this at the keyboard, you can save yourself quite a bit of time.
6. Check for patterns that the author might be applying such as:
· Cause and effect: The author explains a situation or theory and then delves into the consequences of its application.
· Compare/contrast: The author examines two or more different theories or situations and their relationship to each other.
· Process-description: A certain concept, program, or project is delineated and then examples are provided.
· Sequential: A case is built in a linear or historical manner.
7. Be an active reader. Always ask yourself questions about what you are reading: What is the author’s purpose? What conclusions does the author come to? Is this reasonable? Who else supports this view? How does this document relate to my study?
8. Where you read is important. Reading at night, in bed, doesn't work for many people because it makes them sleepy (which means that you may not comprehend the information).Everyone is different, however, so read in a place that's comfortable, free of distractions, and that has good lighting – this is important even when you are reading from a screen.
9. Imagine the author is personally speaking with you (just like this guide is speaking to you).
10. Checking out recent dissertations from your university or in online databases in areas that you wish to investigate can be extremely helpful. You will notice there is a great deal of variety with regard to quality and style between dissertations.