Crandi

Reading Games Strategies For Scholarly Sources Eng 101

Leo Migdal
-
reading games strategies for scholarly sources eng 101

During my first year in college, I feared many things: calculus, cafeteria food, the stained, sweet smelling mattress in the basement of my dorm. But I did not fear reading. I didn’t really think about reading at all, that automatic making of meaning from symbols in books, news- papers, on cereal boxes. And, indeed, some of my coziest memories of that bewildering first year involved reading. I adopted an overstuffed red chair in the library that enveloped me like the lap of a department store Santa. I curled up many evenings during that first, brilliant autumn with my English homework: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day, Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street.

I’d read a gorgeous passage, snuggle deeper into my chair, and glance out to the sunset and fall leaves outside of the library window. This felt deeply, unmistakably collegiate. But English was a requirement—I planned to major in political science. I took an intro course my first semester and brought my readings to that same chair. I curled up, opened a book on the Chinese Revolution, started reading, and fell asleep. I woke up a little drooly, surprised at the harsh fluorescent light, the sudden pitch outside.

Not to be deterred, I bit my lip and started over. I’d hold on for a paragraph or two, and then suddenly I’d be thinking about my classmate Joel’s elbows, the casual way he’d put them on the desk when our professor lectured, sometimes resting... He was a long limbed runner and smelled scrubbed—a mixture of laundry detergent and shampoo. He had black hair and startling blue eyes. Did I find him sexy? Crap!

How many paragraphs had my eyes grazed over while I was thinking about Joel’s stupid elbows? By the end of that first semester, I abandoned ideas of majoring in political science. I vacillated between intense irritation with my assigned readings and a sneaking suspicion that perhaps the problem was me—I was too dumb to read academic texts. Whichever it was—a problem with the readings or with me—I carefully chose my classes so that I could read novels, poetry, and plays for credit. But even in my English classes, I discovered, I had to read dense scholarly articles. By my Junior year, I trained myself to spend days from dawn until dusk hunkered over a carrel in the library’s basement armed with a dictionary and a rainbow of highlighters.

Enjoying my reading seemed hopelessly naïve—an indulgence best reserved for beach blankets and bathtubs. A combination of obstinacy, butt-numbingly hard chairs, and caffeine helped me survive my scholarly reading assignments. But it wasn’t fun. Seven years later I entered graduate school. I was also working and living on my own, cooking for myself instead of eating off cafeteria trays. In short, I had a life.

My days were not the blank canvas they had been when I was an undergraduate and could sequester myself in the dungeon of the library basement. And so, I finally learned how to read smarter, not harder. Perhaps the strangest part of my reading transformation was that I came to like reading those dense scholarly articles; I came to crave the process of sucking the marrow from the texts. If you can relate to this, if you also love wrestling with academic journal articles, take joy in arguing with authors in the margins of the page, I am not writing for you. However, if your reading assignments confound you, if they send you into slumber, or you avoid them, or they seem to take you way too long, then pay attention. Based on my experience as a frustrated student and now as a teacher of reading strategies, I have some insights to share with you designed to make the reading process more productive, more interesting,...

“Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” by Karen Rosenberg can be found here. In this essay, Rosenberg shares with you her personal experiences as a student who needed to learn how to read academic material more effectively. She explains not only why professors ask you to read academic/scholarly journal articles (as opposed to simply using Google-able sources for research projects), but also how you can strategically approach reading such complex texts... Her tone is informal and conversational; she wants to connect with you in order to support your success even as you engage with source material that may be out of your comfort zone. A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing (The Interactive 2nd Edition) by Karen Rosenberg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. You may also download this chapter from Parlor Press or WAC Clearinghouse.

Writing Spaces is published in partnership with Parlor Press and WAC Clearinghouse. Engaging with academic texts can be challenging especially when the intended audience is other academics and not readers who are new to a topic or conversation. While being an outsider to an academic topic can be difficult, Karen Rosenberg describes their own experience with reading difficult texts and how we can approach the process practically. Even if we don’t fully understand everything we read in an unfamiliar topic, by employing a clear reading strategy we can come away from every difficult text with a greater understanding of the topic... “If your reading assignments confound you, if they send you into slumber, or you avoid them, or they seem to take you way too long, then pay attention. Based on my experience as a frustrated student and now as a teacher of reading strategies, I have some insights to share with you designed to make the reading process more productive, more interesting,...

Rosenberg, Karen. Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Volume 2, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, Parlor Press, 2011, pp. 210-220. “If your reading assignments confound you, if they send you into slumber, or you avoid them, or they seem to take you way too long, then pay attention. Based on my experience as a frustrated student and now as a teacher of reading strategies, I have some insights to share with you designed to make the reading process more productive, more interesting,... Rosenberg, K.

(2011). Reading games: Strategies for reading scholarly sources. In Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky (Eds.), Writing spaces: readings on writing, vol. 2 (pp. 210-220). New York: Parlor Press.

As a writing instructor, you want to help students reflect on and refine reading practices that are so crucial to writing and academic success. An examination of the elements of a rhetorical reading strategy—conceptualizing reading as part of an academic conversation, reading actively (and what this looks like), figuring out primary and secondary audiences, recognizing road maps embedded... This chapter can also help your students learn to recognize and avoid employing reading strategies that don’t work: reading without grasping content, skimming or skipping text, or latching onto one minor argument without understanding... You may also download this chapter from Parlor Press or WAC Clearinghouse. Writing Spaces is published in partnership with Parlor Press and WAC Clearinghouse. Reading scholarly sources can be difficult.

This handout provides strategies to help you read dense, lengthy academic articles efficiently and effectively. Examine the article and its publisher for clues. Peer-reviewed academic journals are intended for scholars in that field, whereas popular titles (like Time or Newsweek) are intended for a more general audience. You may not be the primary audience for the text, and that’s OK. If this is the case, the author may reference other scholarly works assuming that you’ve read them, or they may cite facts or events that you haven’t learned about. If you encounter these elements, notice them, but try to keep moving through the article – sometimes you can keep moving without looking everything up.

Also remember that if you are not the primary audience, you may not enjoy the writing style – so a little perseverance may be necessary! 2: Think about why your professor assigned this reading You may not be the author’s intended audience, but understanding the reason you’ve been asked to read the article can help you stay engaged and read with purpose. What subject will this article prepare you discuss? How does this article fit into the main questions or topics of the course? What will the instructor ask you to do with the knowledge you gain from the article?

3: Skim strategically to identify the main argument or idea in the text \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \) \( \newcommand{\dsum}{\displaystyle\sum\limits} \) \( \newcommand{\dint}{\displaystyle\int\limits} \) \( \newcommand{\dlim}{\displaystyle\lim\limits} \)

During my first year in college, I feared many things: calculus, cafeteria food, the stained, sweet smelling mattress in the basement of my dorm.* But I did not fear reading. I didn’t really think about reading at all, that automatic making of meaning from symbols in books, newspapers, on cereal boxes. And, indeed, some of my coziest memories of that bewildering first year involved reading. I adopted an overstuffed red chair in the library that enveloped me like the lap of a department store Santa. I curled up many evenings during that first, brilliant autumn with my English homework: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day, Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street. I’d read a gorgeous passage, snuggle deeper into my chair, and glance out to the sunset and fall leaves outside of the library window.

This felt deeply, unmistakably collegiate. But English was a requirement—I planned to major in political science. I took an intro course my first semester and brought my readings to that same chair. I curled up, opened a book on the Chinese Revolution, started reading, and fell asleep. I woke up a little drooly, surprised at the harsh fluorescent light, the sudden pitch outside. Not to be deterred, I bit my lip and started over.

I’d hold on for a paragraph or two, and then suddenly I’d be thinking about my classmate Joel’s elbows, the casual way he’d put them on the desk when our professor lectured, sometimes resting... He was a long limbed runner and smelled scrubbed—a mixture of laundry detergent and shampoo. He had black hair and startling blue eyes. Did I find him sexy? Crap! How many paragraphs had my eyes grazed over while I was thinking about Joel’s stupid elbows?

People Also Search

During My First Year In College, I Feared Many Things:

During my first year in college, I feared many things: calculus, cafeteria food, the stained, sweet smelling mattress in the basement of my dorm. But I did not fear reading. I didn’t really think about reading at all, that automatic making of meaning from symbols in books, news- papers, on cereal boxes. And, indeed, some of my coziest memories of that bewildering first year involved reading. I ado...

I’d Read A Gorgeous Passage, Snuggle Deeper Into My Chair,

I’d read a gorgeous passage, snuggle deeper into my chair, and glance out to the sunset and fall leaves outside of the library window. This felt deeply, unmistakably collegiate. But English was a requirement—I planned to major in political science. I took an intro course my first semester and brought my readings to that same chair. I curled up, opened a book on the Chinese Revolution, started read...

Not To Be Deterred, I Bit My Lip And Started

Not to be deterred, I bit my lip and started over. I’d hold on for a paragraph or two, and then suddenly I’d be thinking about my classmate Joel’s elbows, the casual way he’d put them on the desk when our professor lectured, sometimes resting... He was a long limbed runner and smelled scrubbed—a mixture of laundry detergent and shampoo. He had black hair and startling blue eyes. Did I find him sex...

How Many Paragraphs Had My Eyes Grazed Over While I

How many paragraphs had my eyes grazed over while I was thinking about Joel’s stupid elbows? By the end of that first semester, I abandoned ideas of majoring in political science. I vacillated between intense irritation with my assigned readings and a sneaking suspicion that perhaps the problem was me—I was too dumb to read academic texts. Whichever it was—a problem with the readings or with me—I ...

Enjoying My Reading Seemed Hopelessly Naïve—an Indulgence Best Reserved For

Enjoying my reading seemed hopelessly naïve—an indulgence best reserved for beach blankets and bathtubs. A combination of obstinacy, butt-numbingly hard chairs, and caffeine helped me survive my scholarly reading assignments. But it wasn’t fun. Seven years later I entered graduate school. I was also working and living on my own, cooking for myself instead of eating off cafeteria trays. In short, I...