January 16, 2014
Reading for research or information is different from any other types of reading. The goal of reading for research is to pull together information from a wide variety of resources and then synthesize, evaluate, and analyze them to create an original production from them. It is not unusual for student researchers to use techniques such as skimming and scanning to look for and locate specific information related to their research questions without having to read the entire book. In fact this is one of the basic skills in research: managing the resources available within a given time frame train students to be selective in their readings.
In ” MLA Made Easy: Citation Basics for Beginners “, a book by Marlyn Heath which I am reading this week, Marlyn provides a very interesting explanation of the student research process. He particularly talked about the different stages of a research process and provides a simplified model of the critical thinking processes students use when they create a research project. I have captured these processes in the visual below. Check it out and share with your students.