Reading and Working with Academic Texts

5 sessions · free of charge

✅ Checklist: the key points of this course

Five sessions, one resolution per lesson, to check off. This is the ideal approach; you will find the reasons and evidence in each session.

Session 1 · Reading on Paper or on Screen

☐ I decide deliberately whether to read a text on paper or on screen.
☐ I read informational texts that I have to understand under time pressure on paper.
☐ On screen, I write down keywords that summarize the text, and I set my own reading time.

Session 2 · Reading Academic Literature

☐ I read a paper in this order: abstract, figures, discussion, methods, introduction. For a new topic, I read the introduction early.
☐ After each section, I ask what is being claimed and why it is supposed to follow, instead of highlighting.
☐ I ask five questions of every study: Who, and how many? Was there a comparison group? Was assignment random? How large is the difference? Has it been replicated?
☐ Before citing any paper, I check it on the journal’s website, and I base a claim on several independent papers.
☐ For each text, I keep a reading log with six lines: short citation, claim, evidence, limitation, my use, verbatim quotes with page numbers.

Session 3 · Managing Literature, Linking Notes

☐ I keep working with my notes and put them in my own words.
☐ I keep two separate collections, a reference manager and an idea archive, and link them with short citations.
☐ I record every reference the first time I come across it and check each entry once against the source.
☐ I write one idea per note, in my own words, with a link and a short citation.
☐ I schedule fixed times: two minutes per reference, ten per text, thirty per week for my own notes, twenty per month for reviewing.

Session 4 · Giving and Receiving Feedback

☐ My feedback answers three questions: Where am I going, how am I going, where to next?
☐ I aim my feedback at the task, the process, and self-regulation, not at the person.
☐ I give feedback in three parts: observation, effect, suggestion.
☐ I organize peer review with three criteria, a three-step pattern per criterion, and no grades.
☐ I leave a day between hearing feedback and making my decision.

Session 5 · Planning Your Thesis

☐ I turn the topic into a question that is smaller than feels right, and I sketch the figure with empty boxes.
☐ Before estimating the time, I explicitly draw on my own past experience.
☐ I break the work down by results, not by time periods, and I really check every deadline.
☐ I write if-then plans with a time, a place, and a small action that I can start.
☐ If things stall, I first identify what kind of stall it is and get in touch with my supervisor early.

Reading on paper or on screen, evaluating studies, managing literature and notes, giving and receiving feedback on texts, planning your thesis.

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