How to Read & Take Notes Like a PhD Student | Tips for Reading Fast & Efficiently for Slow Readers

the act of reading is central to the experience and research of graduate students and scholars but it is a skill that's mastered over time to read is not simply to glance over the words but to process their meaning the structure of one's argument and to develop a strategy for retention and understanding that is what we'll be covering in today's video hello everyone and welcome or welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kalyn i am a second year phd student in history and african american studies at yale university and today i have a much awaited many times requested video for you this is how to read like a phd student i've been asked to make this video since i started my channel and i have put it off time and time again because i wanted it to be perfect but now i think i've come up with my formula i have a distinct system for how it is that i read as a phd student i'm gonna be sharing all of my best tips and tricks and really focusing on the different applications of reading and note-taking so that way you can perform the best that you can as a student whether you're in high school undergrad or a current graduate student i think this video is going to be useful for everyone so grab a cup of coffee and let's go ahead and get started when considering all of my tactics for reading and how to effectively take notes there were three primary things that came to mind in today's video we're gonna be covering these three different types of reading one how to read for class two how to read for retention and three how to read for research first we'll begin with the most applicable lesson for students across fields which is how to read and take notes for class at the beginning of a new term it's important to read through your syllabi and determine which readings are the most pertinent to your long-term goals in research while it may be initially overwhelming most professors don't actually expect their students to do all of the reading as a student who studied at universities across the world i can tell you it's important to read with a strategy in mind rather than to waste your time on subjects you may never come across again at the beginning of each week go to the index of your books and readings to determine the structure and which chapters you may want to pay attention to the most for example as a student interested in the history of slavery and the law i'm likely to be called upon in seminar to answer questions related to my subject matter therefore i always go through the readings and consider which chapters in books or sections and articles will have the information i most need to retain from there i set up my class notes for my class notes i use none other than the versatile and best organization app on the market notion for this i break my notes into three primary sections major themes scholarship and questions after years of taking inefficient notes on all the quotes and nitty-gritty information in my readings i soon found that having talking points and notes which helped jog my memory during class were so much more efficient while there may be readings that you wish to read more thoroughly for retention i want you to think of your class notes as a set of talking points and examples which you can use to feel confident participating in class and preparing for exams one quick side note attend office hours for exam-based courses so you're also reading based on the key takeaways they recommend to be a successful student and now for a quick message about the sponsor of today's video notion if anybody's been watching my channel for any period of time you know how much i absolutely love notion i not only use it as a student i've been using it for three years now but i also use it as a business owner i have the business subscription for my team at accepted consulting and accepted society i use it for my research i use it for content planning for my youtube channel i just think it's the most useful application out there i've tried everything and i just think that notion is truly a perfect application for organization and for tracking your progress but even more so i think it is the perfect app for capturing all of your notes and here's why in addition to being the best team and project management resource i've tried notion is the ultimate tool for your notes and research with integrations with citation management software such as zotero templates for dissertation projects and the ability to create a database of all of your readings notion is the ideal tool for students over the past few months i've actually been using notion to keep track of the 200 plus books i have to read for comprehensive exams and its customizable format has allowed me to track which books are in progress those i've completed notes from meetings with my examiners and so much more thank you so much again to notion for sponsoring today's video to download notion go ahead and check out the description down below and let's go ahead and head on to part number two which is all about reading for retention unlike how you might read for class where key arguments and main points will get you by reading for attention is all about long-term recall the advice in this section is for students taking comprehensive exams preparing for phd admissions or who want to master the literature for their research and as future educators one of the most important takeaways in this section is about active recall reading and taking notes alone will not help you remember all of the details of a text grab a friend meet with your professors or like me grab a camera and start discussing what you've read through teaching the subject to others and integrating your readings into research papers you'll begin to establish long-term memory however like learning a language reading and the knowledge it produces must be practiced so where your brain may be faulty it's best to have a repository of notes lesson 2.1 note taking for diligent students when taking notes for retention there are several categories worth highlighting quick disclaimer some of the points made here are more history specific but can be adjusted to suit your needs and research questions begin by setting up your notes on notion with the following headers main argument supporting arguments subjects and sites sources methods scholarly debate terms and themes questions and notes while your notes may be more extensive the three most important features of retention when thinking about academic articles or books are the main argument how the argument was supported with evidence and who that argument is in conversation with the main argument or thesis is the center of the text this is what the author believes is their contribution to the field and should be indicated clearly in your notes this will come especially handy if you have to write any book reviews in the future supporting arguments are claims made by the author but which are not the central takeaway from the text subjects and sites have to do with people and location who is involved in the study and where was the study conducted sources and evidence include data historical documents pieces of art surveys conducted or anything used to corroborate the author's thesis methods or theory is all about analysis ask yourself how has the author analyze their evidence to draw this conclusion now on to questions questions are posed within the text by the author and are often used to support the thesis by indicating for the reader what the author believes are the most important takeaways scholarly debate is central to academic scholarship while reading check out who the author cites and mentions multiple times to see who they are influenced by or who they may be arguing against lastly are your notes this is where you're going to track quotes that you may want to use in the future especially for your research papers theses or dissertation section 2.2 how to read an academic article for today's example i'm going to be looking at jennifer morgan's article part of sequitur ventrum as you can see here there is the general introduction and when i'm taking notes i'm also taking notes in the margin if you want more details on how i take notes on my ipad i have a video for that that i'll link down below but what's really important is the main argument and supporting arguments and all the different pieces that i discussed in the note-taking section you're going to indicate the primary argument of the paper this is often indicated by lines such as this essay will argue or i claim that usually leading language that will help you indicate where the primary argument is then if we zoom in here we can say that she actually has a further argument so you can either include this in the main argument section or if we believe that this is a supporting argument then we would put it in that section of our notes as we move down we can see that her general subjects are enslaved women for the sources we can indicate that from either the reading of the text and you can also find it in the footnotes this is a largely secondary literature-focused article where she's in a discussion with a lot of these scholars so this would go in the discourse section in terms of methods i think this is a more theoretical text whereas other texts may be more focused on oral testimony or maybe focused on quantitative methods so for jennifer morgan's method i would put that she is using the theory of the race reproductive bind coined by alice weinbaum and then for notes i would go and look at all the different side notes that i had in the margin here and also write down all of the quotes as i discussed in the notes section with articles what you're looking for is the main argument which is going to be coming from the introduction of the paper and then you're going to be looking for different sources or evidence which is often going to come from the center of the paper for methods that is often discussed in the introduction however you'll also find it throughout the entirety of the paper and the discourse as i said in the earlier section is usually in the introduction as you see here my notes begin to become more sparse throughout the article i find that majority of the information of articles is centered at the beginning and at the end however this is largely history specific and some articles will have an abstract however for history papers they typically do not key takeaways 1. articles should be read thoroughly but pay attention to the introduction two the main argument or thesis is usually near the beginning and three pay attention to which discussions they are engaging in articles tend to be more direct and calling on other scholars and their work lesson 2.3 how to effectively read a book the academic monograph has four distinct sections the introduction chapters conclusion and bibliography let's begin with the introduction this is the section along with the conclusion which you should pay the most attention to in contemporary academic monographs this is where the main argument and scholarly discourse lies therefore this is not the section to skip read thoroughly and take your time take notes based on the categories we discussed and consider which chapters or sections pique your interest for this example i'll be returning to jennifer morgan's work this time with her recent publication reckoning with slavery first things first let's go straight to the table of contents in this section of the book you'll find a general overview of the book which will help you indicate which sections may be the most intriguing the table of contents will also help you see the overall flow of the book allowing you to ask questions about chronology that may be useful to you later on now we move to the introduction this is perhaps the most important section of the text as it often contains rich details about the thesis the discourse the author is engaging in what evidence will be presented and so much more as you'll see in the margins of my book i've left myself clear notes which help me indicate which categories they should fall under on my notion page for long-term retention and for research i recommend taking your time with the introduction take notes in the margin and don't forget to check the footnotes and citations by the end of the introduction you should have a clear sense of the direction of the book and whether or not it should be useful to your research or lesson plans now let's move on to the chapter sections as a slow reader i've often struggled with maintaining focus while reading lengthy chapters but after a few years and countless academic books i think i've mastered a formula step number one read the first four to five pages of the chapter this is often where the topic and argument of the chapter will be presented and should be read thoroughly step number two read the first three sentences of each paragraph and skim the rest the middle sections of chapters focus primarily on evidence analysis and theory so unlike the introduction which had clear takeaways chapter sections will require that you indicate a few examples or anecdotes which are supportive of the author's thesis quick side note indicate between one and four examples of how the author uses evidence to support their thesis for scientific or quantitative based texts focus on their statistical methods of analysis step number three the conclusion read the last four to five pages of each chapter to see how the author claims their examples have supported their argument this will allow you to see clearly what they believe are the most important takeaways final section the book's conclusion like the introduction the conclusion is often rich with the author's argument read thoroughly and take notes we're useful now on to our final section reading for research unlike reading for class or for retention reading for research is all about finding the information most pertinent to your project in a timely manner whether you're writing a research paper for a class or a 200 page doctoral dissertation reading for research requires a whole different type of strategy when reading for research i want you to focus on the key takeaways of your project you're going to be looking at different search terms to find the text that are going to be the most applicable to your study but in addition to that you're going to want to use a specific set of tactics when going into the text to find what it is that you're looking for when reading for your research take the tips that i gave you in section 2.3 but focus only on the chapters which are directly applicable to your project and now comes one of my most important tips do not skip on the index the index of a book or the find feature on a pdf is your best friend establish a set of key terms find it in the index and see which pages and sections directly reference your subject matter side note establish a long list of applicable terms as the text may not directly use the same language as you do in your writing at the end of the day reading is all about purpose and strategy whether you are a slow reader or at the stage where you are seeking to focus on a specific subject and begin writing or publishing your research i hope that these tips will be useful comment below anything that you learned and any tips you might like to share on how to read and take notes effectively with application in mind thank you all so much for watching today's video i hope that it was helpful for you and that you got some useful tips out of it and thank you so much again to notion for sponsoring today's video you guys know how much i love notion i talked about it earlier in the video i am just so thrilled that i got to work with them on this particular collaboration if this video was helpful for you all then go ahead and hit that subscribe button as well as the bell notification so you're notified next time i post i have a lot of graduate admissions content coming for you in the coming months as well as fun vlogs we're heading to london this summer for research so go ahead and stick around and i will see you all in the next video bye everyone [Music]

Channel: Kaelyn Grace Apple | Historian in Training

Views: 1,498,448

Keywords: how to read, how to read journal articles efficiently, how to read a book, note taking system, note taking on ipad, how to read academic articles effectively, how to read academic books effectively, how to read academic papers, how to read academic texts quickly, how to read academic books, how to read academic texts, how to read academic articles fast, how to read academic journals, how to take reading, how to take reading notes in college, how to take reading notes

Id: EOX6PAFMy3Y

Length: 15min 6sec (906 seconds)

Published: Tue May 03 2022