PART A: HEADINGS & SUB-HEADINGS
They do a few important things – they give us:
- exactly how the authors organized their ideas (arguments)
- a framework for notetaking while reading
Here is an example:
Notice a few things:
- Spacing to fill in details when reading
- Get an overall “feel” for where the authors are going – I could see more clearly how they set up the paper – problem statements and solutions (click on the image for a larger version – see the green ink)
The more complex the reading, the more useful this step will be. How MUCH you then fill in depends on your purpose for reading – are you just skimming for general knowledge, or do you need to USE the information in some way? The more you need to do, the more details you’ll want to have.
The practice would be in this case, creating your own framework from the article which you would use later to add details while reading. For now, look at the image above and compare to the text of the article.
PART B: USING GRAPHICS (reference for graphics below)
Before reading, skim the article to look for details in any images or graphics (data tables, etc.) that can give you a heads-up about what’s important in the article or the findings. Understanding this before reading helps a lot, especially as the research gets more complex. Here are 2 good examples from the text:
Example 1:
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- Why do you think the author included this in the paper? What 3-4 points is the author trying to make?
- Any words you want to simplify here?
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Example 2:
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- Can you summarize the important ideas from this table?
- Any words to simplify/replace?
How have these images/graphics helped us to better understand the PROBLEMS or SOLUTIONS proposed by the authors?
PART C: THE CONCLUSION
The last step in this Macro investigation could be to read the Conclusion to see if there are any additional clues before you start reading for detail.
Now let’s move onto the Micro structures section…It’s time to read!
Big Data.Sep 2014.155-163.http://doi.org/10.1089/big.2014.0026
