A-manual-for-writers-of-research-papers-theses-and-dissertations

4.5 Review Your Progress4.5.1 Search Your Notes for an Answer4.5.2 Invent the Question4.5.3 Re-sort Your Notes4.6 Manage Moments of Normal PanicOnce you find a source worth a close look, don't read it mechanically, just mining it for datato record. Note-taking is not clerical work. When you take notes on a source thoughtfully, youengage not just its words and ideas, but its implications, consequences, shortcomings, andnew possibilities. Engage your source as if its writer were sitting with you, eager for aconversation (it's how you should imagine your readers engaging you).4.1 Read Generously to Understand, Then Critically to Engage and EvaluateFor an advanced project, take the time to read your most promising sources twice, firstquickly and generously to understand them on their own terms. If you disagree too soon, youcan misunderstand or exaggerate a weakness.Then reread them slowly and critically, as if you were amiably but pointedly questioning afriend; imagine his or her answers, then question them. If you disagree, don't just reject asource: read it in ways that will encourage your own original thinking.You probably won't be able to engage your sources fully until after you've done somereading and developed a few ideas of your own. But from the outset, be alert for ways to readyour sources not passively, as a consumer, but actively and creatively, as an engaged partner.At some point, better earlier than later, you must look for ways to go beyond your sources,even when you agree with them.4.1.1 Look for Creative AgreementIt is a happy moment when a source confirms your views. But if you just passively agree, youwon't develop any of your own ideas. So try to extend what your source claims: What newcases might it cover? What new insights can it provide? Is there confirming evidence yoursource hasn't considered? Here are some ways to agree creatively.OFFER ADDITIONAL SUPPORT. You have new evidence to support a source's claim.Smith uses anecdotal evidence to show that the Alamo story had mythic status beyond Texas, but a study of bigcitynewspapers offers better evidence.www.itpub.net