{"id":296,"date":"2021-03-17T07:58:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T07:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uat.edisense.com\/read-enago\/?p=296"},"modified":"2024-05-07T11:26:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T11:26:07","slug":"critical-reading-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Reading 101:"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Get ready to read research papers effectively<\/h3>\n<p>If you\u2019re going to be reviewing and analysing lots of research papers, you need a plan. To know what to read and when to stop, to collect the evidence and ensure you understand.<\/p>\n<p>Critical reading is the skill used by researchers to better comprehend and evaluate literature. It requires structure and the right tools to help you to stay focussed on interpreting, questioning and critiquing what you read.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-298\" src=\"https:\/\/uat.edisense.com\/read-enago\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-13-at-15.52.53.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"852\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-13-at-15.52.53.png 852w, https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-13-at-15.52.53-300x171.png 300w, https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-13-at-15.52.53-768x437.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 852px) 100vw, 852px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>How to critically read a research paper<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the fundamentals and what you need to master critical reading:<\/p>\n<p>Plan your investigation, before you begin reading<\/p>\n<p>Start by defining your investigation questions and create a template to record evidence, what you understand and the pros and cons of the sections that are important.<\/p>\n<p>3 things to include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What do you need to know about the paper to understand the goals and context of their research?<\/li>\n<li>What evidence are you looking for from the research paper, based on what you want to do with the information or the purpose of your review?<\/li>\n<li>What questions will you ask to assess the claims and document the strengths and weaknesses?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is also a good idea to organise your questions and apply cut off points, so you know when to stop reading. For example if you are not seeing anything new or if you identify a fallacy early on you need to decide whether it is worth spending any more time on the paper. However far you get, record what you find as everything you read provides insight.<\/p>\n<p><em>What you will need: A template to record evidence and your critique consistently<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Decide where to begin &#8211; problem, goal, methodology<\/h3>\n<p>If you know what you want to examine, you need to figure out where to look, so you don\u2019t have to read every word to extract what\u2019s important. Use the structure of the paper and skim read sections or use AI to help you to find information of interest.<\/p>\n<p><em>What you will need: A strategy to find and collate specific information to review<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Systematically find, read and question the information<\/h3>\n<p>So now you know what you are looking for and where to look, it\u2019s time to start reading. It\u2019s likely you will read important sections of a paper more than once. Firstly to ensure you understand and comprehend what the information is telling you, before you go on to analyse and question what is being said. Each time, actively think about what you want to know and the questions that you are trying to answer.<\/p>\n<p>For example if you are reading to comprehend, question whether you understand the concepts, theory or terminology that is being used. Lookup things you don\u2019t know, to avoid misinterpreting what you read.<\/p>\n<p><em>What you will need: Highlight and note taking tools to help recall important information<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Interpret and critique what you found<\/h3>\n<p>Test your comprehension and use the template you created to write up your findings straight after reading or analysing sections of the paper. Begin with your understanding of the research, followed by your analysis of the findings. Remember, you are evaluating this from the perspective of what the author wants to achieve before evaluating the pros and cons in relation to what you already know.<\/p>\n<p>Reading, questioning and writing up your findings can be intense, but it will help you to stay focussed, help you to remember the insights and enable you to compare findings as you read more and more papers.<br \/>\nWhat you will need: Your critique template and the ability to link information as you find connections<\/p>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>This is what you will need to help you to critically read:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A template to record evidence and your critique consistently<\/li>\n<li>A way to find and collate specific information to review<\/li>\n<li>Highlight and note taking tools to help recall important information<\/li>\n<li>The ability to link information as you find connections<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>RAx provides the tools to help researchers to critically read<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-297\" src=\"https:\/\/uat.edisense.com\/read-enago\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ad-banners1-10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ad-banners1-10.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ad-banners1-10-300x66.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ad-banners1-10-1024x224.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ad-banners1-10-768x168.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ad-banners1-10-1536x336.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re going to be reviewing and analysing lots of research papers, you need a plan. Get prepared, to focus on critical reading.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Critical reading: Get ready to read research papers effectively<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you&#039;re going to be reviewing and analysing lots of research papers, you need a plan. Get prepared, to focus on critical reading.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Critical reading: Get ready to read research papers effectively\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you&#039;re going to be reviewing and analysing lots of research papers, you need a plan. Get prepared, to focus on critical reading.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Enago Read - Literature Review and Analysis tool for Researchers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-17T07:58:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-07T11:26:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/header-image-critical-reading-article-bigger3-11.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1125\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Enago Read\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Enago Read\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Critical reading: Get ready to read research papers effectively","description":"If you're going to be reviewing and analysing lots of research papers, you need a plan. Get prepared, to focus on critical reading.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Critical reading: Get ready to read research papers effectively","og_description":"If you're going to be reviewing and analysing lots of research papers, you need a plan. Get prepared, to focus on critical reading.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/","og_site_name":"Enago Read - Literature Review and Analysis tool for Researchers","article_published_time":"2021-03-17T07:58:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-07T11:26:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2000,"height":1125,"url":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/header-image-critical-reading-article-bigger3-11.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Enago Read","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Enago Read","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/"},"author":{"name":"Enago Read","@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4e4aa9f8c96986baad48a718b847ee21"},"headline":"Critical Reading 101:","datePublished":"2021-03-17T07:58:37+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-07T11:26:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/"},"wordCount":664,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/","url":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/","name":"Critical reading: Get ready to read research papers effectively","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-03-17T07:58:37+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-07T11:26:07+00:00","description":"If you're going to be reviewing and analysing lots of research papers, you need a plan. Get prepared, to focus on critical reading.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/critical-reading-101\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Critical Reading 101:"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/","name":"Enago Read - Literature Review and Analysis tool for Researchers","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Enago Read - Literature Review and Analysis tool for Researchers","url":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/ea-read.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/ea-read.png","width":295,"height":42,"caption":"Enago Read - Literature Review and Analysis tool for Researchers"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4e4aa9f8c96986baad48a718b847ee21","name":"Enago Read","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7803a0c0ac0b9988bdab4366ae6b474?s=96&r=g&d=https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/userswp\/assets\/images\/no_profile.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7803a0c0ac0b9988bdab4366ae6b474?s=96&r=g&d=https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/userswp\/assets\/images\/no_profile.png","caption":"Enago Read"},"url":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/profile\/seo_team\/"}]}},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/header-image-critical-reading-article-bigger3-11.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":515,"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.read.enago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}