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beginningtheliteraturereview:theartofscanreading
PostedonFebruary26,2012

Itsimportantatthestartofapieceofresearchtotrytogetasenseofthefieldtoestablishthekindsofarticles
andbooksthataregoingtobeuseful.Thisisoftenaparticularlyhardtaskfordoctoralresearchers.Whereto
start?Whattoeliminate?Howtodecidewhatisimportant?Thereisjustsomuch!!!

Thereareacoupleofthingsthatdoctoralresearchersneedtodowhenstartingaliteraturereview.Thefirstisof
coursetogetasteerfromthesupervisororcommitteeaboutthekeytextsandkeydebates.Thesecondistoskim
readacrossasetoftextsthatappeartohavesomethingtodowiththetopic,inordertogetthelayoftheland.

Scanningalargenumberofarticlesallowsyoutogetasenseofwhatsoutthereandwhatmightreallyberelevant
totheproposedstudy.AFTERthisyoucangobackandreadthearticlesthatseemmostpertinent.

Scanningmightseemcounterintuitive.Ihaveseenmanydoctoralresearchersbegintheirliteratureworkby
engagingindepthwithatinyhandfuloftexts.Theyspendadayortwooneachjournalarticle,carefullynotinga
considerableamount.Intheendtheyproduceasmuchashalfthewordcountoftheactualarticletheyare
reading.Inotherwords,theyarerewriting,notsummarisingandsynthesising.

MyadviceistodothereverseofthisintensivereadingforeverythingOTHERthanthosetextsyour
supervisor/committeehassaidaremustreads.

Spendaslittleashalfanhouronamuchlargernumberoftexts.Youcanfindtheseviathemostobviousword
searchthatyoucanimagineofamajorjournalsitesuchasTaylorandFrancis.Supervisors/committeeswill
adviseonwhatthemostobvioussearchtermsmightbe.

Onceyouhaveaquantityoftextsthatseemrelatedtoyourareaofstudy,youaresetforscanreading.Butwhatis
scanreading?WhenIaskdoctoralresearcherstoscanreadinmyacademicwritingclassesIsuggestthatthey:

1readthetitle
2readtheabstract
3readtheintroduction,theheadings,thefirstandlastsentenceofeveryparagraphandtheconclusion
andthen
4telltheirneighbourwhattheythoughtthearticlewasabout.

Participantsareoftensurprisedthattheyhavegraspedquitealotfromthislessdetailed/arduoustextual
engagement.

Thisisbecausearticlesthatarewellwrittenwillhavethekindsofabstractsandheadingsthatallowthereaderto
gettogripswiththeargumentquitequickly.However,thetendencyforwriterstousegenericheadingssuchas

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3/20/2017 beginningtheliteraturereview:theartofscanreading|patter

discussionorfindingsmeansthatitisbestforreaderstogototheparagraphlevelinordertomakesurethat
theycanseethelineofargument.Awellwrittenparagraphwillhaveatopicsentenceeitheratitsbeginningor
end(moreusuallythebeginning),andsoreadingthefirstandlastsentenceshouldallowthereadertogettogrips
withthewriterstrainofthought.

Ialsoaskdoctoralresearchersnottohaveahighlighterorpenintheirhandsbuttosimplyread.Iftheyhave
troublefocusingonthelinesoftexttheycanusearulerbutnopen.(Somepeoplehaverealdifficultyreading
withoutapenintheirhandandIconfessthatontheoddoccasionIhavebeenknowntosuggestthattheysiton
theirhandsinordertobreakthehabit.)Idothisbecausemanyofushavebeentaughtthatreadinganarticle
alwaysrequireswriting,notingandunderlining.Iwanttosuggesttodoctoralresearchersthatnotingcancome
AFTERafirstreading,andthathighlightingandwritingontheactualtextarebestleftforaseconddetailedread,
IFitisrequired.

Theotherreasonforreadingthearticleskeletonisofcourserelatedtoacademicwriting.Ifitispossibletoread
andunderstandanargumentfromjustthesetextualfeatures,thenitisalsoimportanttopayattentiontothem
whenwriting.Titles,abstracts,headingsandtopicsentencesaretheredthreadthatcreatescoherenceinany
pieceofscholarlywriting.

Thenextpostwillbeaboutnotinghownottorewritethearticle.Seealsothepostonwhydoctoralresearchers
getaskedtoreadsomuch.

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Aboutpatthomson
PatThomsonisProfessorofEducationintheSchoolofEducation,TheUniversityofNottingham,UK
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10Responsestobeginningtheliteraturereview:theartofscanreading

PaulNightingalesays:
February26,2012at2:38pm

https://patthomson.net/2012/02/26/beginningtheliteraturereviewtheartofscanreading/ 2/4
3/20/2017 beginningtheliteraturereview:theartofscanreading|patter

ThisisprettymuchwhatIaskmyALevelstudentstodotheyhateit,ofcourse.Isaytheymustspendtimetraining
themselvestoreadthiswaytheyignoreme.Interestingthatmanypostgraduatestudentsarestilllearning.

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patthomsonsays:
February26,2012at4:15pm

Doctoralresearchersmayhavemoremotivationtodothisgiventhesheerquantitytheygavetoread???

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PaulNightingalesays:
February26,2012at4:37pm

Onewouldhopeso.

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Anonymoussays:
March6,2012at11:37am

Ifonlymysupervisorshadtoldmeanyofthat!TheyjusttoldmetoreadeverythinginXfield.Ifeltlost,stupidandhada
nervousbreakdown.

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Y.Aksoyalpsays:
March2,2017at6:25pm

RebloggedthisonApersonalblog.

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