A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018
Read generously to understand, then critically to engage
Engaging your sources
Research and writing
4.1 Read Generously to Understand, Then Critically to Engage
4.1.1 Look for Creative Agreement
4.1.2 Look for Creative Disagreement
4.2 Take Notes Systematically
4.2.1 Taking Notes on Paper
4.2.2 Taking Notes Electronically
4.2.3 Decide Whether to Summarize, Paraphrase, or Quote
4.2.4 Guard against Inadvertent Plagiarism
4.3 Take Useful Notes
4.3.1 Use Note-Taking to Advance Your Thinking
4.3.2 Take Notes Relevant to Your Question and Working Hypothesis
4.3.3 Get the Context Right
4.4 Review Your Progress
4.4.1 Search Your Notes for an Answer
4.4.2 Invent Your Question
4.4.3 Re-sort Your Notes
4.5 Manage Moments of Normal Anxiety
Once you have a research problem, use it to guide your search for evidence, models, and arguments to respond to. But if you don’t yet have one firmly in hand, you won’t know which data, models, or arguments will prove relevant. So read sources not randomly but deliberately to find a problem. Look for claims that seem puzzling, inaccurate, or simplistic—anything you can disagree with. You’re more likely to find a research problem when you disagree with a source, but you can also find one in sources you agree with.
Experienced researchers don’t read passively; they engage their sources actively, entering into conversation with them. Once you find a source worth a close look, don’t read it mechanically, just mining it for data to record. Note-taking is not clerical work. When you take notes on a source thoughtfully, you engage not just its words and ideas but also its implications, consequences, shortcomings, and new possibilities.
4.1 Read Generously to Understand, Then Critically to Engage
If you can, read promising sources twice. First, read generously. Pay attention to what sparks your interest. Reread passages that puzzle or confuse you. Don’t look for disagreements right away, but read in ways that help the source make sense. Disagree too soon and you will misunderstand your source or exaggerate a weakness if it presents an argument that challenges yours.
Then, if a source seems important or challenges your own position, read it a second time slowly and more critically. When you read a passage, think not only about what it says but about how you would respond. Record those responses in your notes or—if you own the source or a copy of it—in the margins of the source. Test your understanding by summarizing; if you can’t sum up a passage in your mind, you don’t understand it well enough to disagree.
You probably won’t be able to engage your sources fully until you’ve done a bit of reading and have developed your own ideas further. But from the outset, be on alert for ways to engage your sources, actively and creatively. At some point, the earlier the better, you must look for ways to go beyond your sources, too, even when you agree with them.
4.1.1 Look for Creative Agreement
It’s a happy moment when a source confirms our views. But if we just passively agree, we don’t develop our own ideas. So if you believe what a source claims, try to extend that claim: What new cases might it cover? What new insights can it provide? Is there confirming evidence the source hasn’t considered? Here are some ways to find a problem through creative agreement.
1. 1. Offer additional support. You can offer new evidence to support a source’s claim.
Smith uses anecdotal evidence to show that the Alamo story had mythic status beyond Texas, but editorials in big-city newspapers offer better evidence.
o ▪ Source supports _____ with old evidence, but maybe you can offer new evidence.
o ▪ Source supports _____ with weak evidence, but maybe you can offer stronger evidence.
2. 2. Confirm unsupported claims. You can prove something that a source has only assumed or speculated.
Smith recommends visualization to improve sports performance, but a study of the mental activities of athletes shows why that is good advice.
o ▪ Source speculates _____ might be true, but you can offer evidence to show that it is.
o ▪ Source assumes _____ is true, but maybe you can prove it.
3. 3. Apply a claim more widely. You can extend a position to new areas.
Smith argues that medical students learn physiological processes better when they are explained with many metaphors rather than with just one. The same appears to be true for engineers learning physical processes.
o ▪ Source correctly applies _____ to one situation, but maybe it can apply to new ones.
o ▪ Source claims that _____ is true in a specific situation, but maybe it’s true in general.
4.1.2 Look for Creative Disagreement
If you read actively, you’ll inevitably find yourself disagreeing with your sources. Don’t brush those disagreements aside, because they often point to new research problems. So instead of just noting that you disagree with another writer’s views, use that disagreement to encourage your own productive thinking. Look for these types (the list is not exhaustive, and some overlap).
1. 1. Contradictions of kind. A source says something is one kind of thing, but maybe it’s another kind.
Smith says that certain religious groups are considered “cults” because of their strange beliefs, but those beliefs are no different in kind from standard religions.
o ▪ Source claims that ____ is a kind of ____, but it’s not.
o ▪ Source claims that ____ always has ____ as one of its features or qualities, but it doesn’t.
o ▪ Source claims that ____ is normal/good/significant/useful/moral/interesting, but it’s not.
You can reverse those claims and the ones that follow to state the opposite:
o ▪ Though a source says ____ is not a kind of ____, you can show that it is.
2. 2. Part-whole contradictions. You can show that a source mistakes how the parts of something are related.
Smith has argued that coding is irrelevant to a liberal education, but in fact, it is essential.
o ▪ Source claims that ___ is a part of ____, but it’s not.
o ▪ Source claims that one part of ____ relates to another in a certain way, but it doesn’t.
o ▪ Source claims that every ____ has ____ as one of its parts, but it doesn’t.
3. 3. Developmental or historical contradictions. You can show that a source mistakes the origin and development of a topic.
Smith argues that the world population will rise, but it won’t.
o ▪ Source claims that ____ is changing, but it’s not.
o ▪ Source claims that ____ originated in ____, but it didn’t.
o ▪ Source claims that ____ develops in a certain way, but it doesn’t.
4. 4. External cause-effect relations. You can show that a source mistakes a causal relationship.
Smith claims that legalizing marijuana will increase its use among teenagers, but evidence shows that it doesn’t.
o ▪ Source claims that _____ causes _____, but it doesn’t.
o ▪ Source claims that _____ causes _____, but it doesn’t; they are both caused by _____.
o ▪ Source claims that ____ is sufficient to cause _____, but it’s not.
o ▪ Source claims that ____ causes only _____, but it also causes _____.
5. 5. Contradictions of perspective. Most contradictions don’t change a conceptual framework, but when you can contradict a “standard” view of things, you urge others to think in a new way.
Smith assumes that advertising has only an economic function, but it also serves as a laboratory for new art forms.
o ▪ Source discusses ____ from the point of view of _____, but a new context or point of view reveals a new truth. (The new or old context can be social, political, philosophical, historical, economic, ethical, gender specific, etc.)
o ▪ Source analyzes _____ using theory / value system _____, but you can analyze it from a new point of view and see it in a new way.
As we said, you probably won’t be able to engage sources in these ways until after you’ve read enough to form some views of your own. But if you keep these ways of thinking in mind as you begin to read, you’ll engage your sources sooner and more productively.
Of course, once you discover that you can productively agree or disagree with a source, you should ask So what? So what if you can show that while Smith claims that easterners did not embrace the story of the Alamo enthusiastically, in fact many did?