Program / Course 23: Research Methodology / Lesson 3.3
What you will learn
- Survey a scholarly book or article quickly to find its question, thesis and structure.
- Read in layers, moving from the overview to the argument to the evidence.
- Take notes that record the author’s claims separately from your own judgments.
- Write a short critical summary that is fair to the author.
The big idea
Scholarly works are not read like novels, from the first page to the last. An efficient reader surveys the title, abstract, introduction, conclusion and headings first, to find the author’s question and thesis. Then the reader reads the argument closely, checks the evidence, and notes what the author claims, what is assumed, and what is left out. Critical reading means testing, not rejecting. It begins by understanding the argument well enough to state it in terms the author would accept.
Key terms
- Abstract
- A short summary at the start of an article, giving its question, method and conclusion.
- Survey reading
- A quick first pass through the title, headings, introduction and conclusion to learn what a work is about.
- Close reading
- Slow, careful reading of important passages, checking the logic and the evidence step by step.
- Charitable reading
- Interpreting an author’s argument in its strongest reasonable form before criticizing it.
- Critical summary
- A short account of a work’s question, argument and evidence, with a fair evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses.
- Index
- An alphabetical list at the back of a book of names and subjects with page numbers, useful for finding particular discussions.
- Scope note
- A statement by the author of what the work will and will not cover. It is a guide to what you can fairly criticize.
Background
Scholarly books and articles are written to be consulted as well as read. A busy scholar rarely reads a whole book on a subject she is studying; she reads the parts that bear on her question. A student can use the same approach, with the proviso that selective reading should not become careless reading. Skimming helps you find the parts to read well. It should not replace reading them well.
A scholarly work has a typical shape. The introduction states the question, the thesis and the plan. The body develops the argument in sections. The conclusion states what has been shown and what remains open. Notes and a bibliography give the evidence. Knowing this shape lets you move around in the text. If you can state the author’s question and thesis after fifteen minutes, you are in a position to read the rest purposefully.
Critical reading has a moral side. Proverbs says that the first to state a case seems right until another comes and examines him (Proverbs 18:17), and examining another’s argument is a service when done honestly. But examination begins with understanding. It is easy to criticize a weak version of an argument. It is more useful and more honest to restate the argument as its author would, and then ask where it is strong and where it is not.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Survey the work
Read the title, subtitle, abstract if any, table of contents, introduction and conclusion. Look at the headings and at the first sentence of each section. Skim the bibliography to see which sources and scholars the author relies on.
Write down in two or three sentences what you think the work is about: its question, its thesis and its method. This is your working picture, to be corrected as you read.
Step 2: Decide what to read closely
With your research question in mind, choose the chapters or sections that bear on it. Use the index to find discussions of particular people, texts or terms. Read those parts carefully. For the rest, read the opening and closing paragraphs.
If the work is central to your project, read all of it. If it is peripheral, a survey and a few close readings may be enough. Record what you did not read, so that you do not claim more than you know.
Step 3: Read the argument
As you read closely, identify the claims and the reasons given for each. Mark where the author moves from evidence to conclusion. Note terms that the author defines in a particular way, since scholars often use words in special senses.
Pay attention to the footnotes. They show the evidence behind claims. Look up one or two key notes to see whether the sources say what the author says.
Step 4: Take notes in two columns
Keep what the author says apart from what you think. In one column write the author’s claims, evidence and definitions, with page numbers. In the other write your questions, agreements, doubts and connections to other sources.
Mark quotations as such, and paraphrases as such, as in Lesson 1.4. A note without a page number cannot be cited.
Step 5: Write a critical summary
In about one page, state the author’s question, thesis, method and main evidence. Then evaluate: What does the work do well? Where is the evidence thin, or an assumption unproved? What alternative explanations does it ignore? How does it compare with other works on the question? Read book reviews to see what other experts said.
Treat the author as you would wish to be treated. Be exact, quote fairly and state your criticism without contempt. The summary is a tool for your paper, and also a practice of honest reading.
- What question is the author asking, and what is the answer?
- What kind of evidence does the author use, and where does it come from?
- What terms does the author use in a special way?
- What does the author assume without proving?
- What would the author say to my main objection?
- How does this work relate to others on my question?
Examples
Survey reading in ten minutes
A student picks up a book on early baptism. She reads the title page and contents, the first and last pages of the introduction and conclusion, and the first sentence of each chapter. She finds that the author argues for a gradual change over three centuries, that most of the evidence is from North Africa and Rome, and that chapters 3 and 4 deal with her period. She then reads those chapters closely. (A constructed example.)
Two-column notes
Left column: ‘Author, p. [number]: argues that the writer used a source now lost, because of repeated phrases.’ Right column: ‘Possible alternative: common liturgical language. Check whether the author considers this.’ The left records the claim, and the right records the reader’s question.
An uncharitable reading
A student writes that a scholar ‘claims everything in the Gospels is a later invention,’ when the scholar’s actual claim concerns one passage. Criticizing the exaggerated version is easy, and it is unfair. A charitable reading states what the scholar actually says. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catholic tradition has a long practice of reading texts closely, from the scholastic habit of stating an objection in its strongest form before replying, as in Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, to modern scholarship. The method of stating the opposing argument fairly is a model for charitable reading.
Orthodox
Orthodox tradition prizes reading with humility and within the life of the Church, and warns against the pride of the critic who stands above the text. This does not exclude scholarly critique. It asks that the reader be formed by the text as well as examining it.
Protestant
Protestants have often emphasized the personal reading of the text, and have produced many guides to reading. Fee and Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, in this program’s library, teaches attention to genre and context. The same attention applies to scholarly works about the Bible.
Secular and academic
Academic guides to reading recommend surveying, questioning, reading actively and summarizing. They stress that a critical reader should be able to state the author’s argument so that the author would recognize it, and should separate disagreement about evidence from disagreement about values.
Why it matters
Time is limited, and a good project involves dozens of works. Efficient reading lets you cover them without drowning, and critical reading lets you use them without being led by them. A habit of fair summary also carries over to disagreement of every kind: understanding first, then judging. It is a form of respect for others and a check on one’s own haste.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Reading efficiently means skimming and skipping the hard parts.
Correction: Efficiency means deciding which parts need slow reading and giving them full attention. Surveying shows you where the hard parts that matter are.
Misunderstanding: To be critical is to find fault.
Correction: Critical reading weighs strengths and weaknesses alike. It begins by understanding. Finding nothing good in a work is as suspicious as finding nothing bad.
Misunderstanding: I should read the introduction and conclusion and skip the notes.
Correction: The introduction and conclusion give the claim. The notes show whether the evidence supports it. Check at least some notes.
Misunderstanding: If a scholar is famous, I should not question the argument.
Correction: Fame is not evidence. Respect for an author is compatible with careful questions, and the best scholars welcome them.
Knowledge check
What should you read first when surveying a scholarly book?
Read the title, subtitle, table of contents, introduction and conclusion, and the first sentence of each section or chapter. Look through the bibliography and index. This should tell you the author’s question, thesis, method and structure, and show which parts bear on your own question.
What is charitable reading?
Charitable reading is stating an author’s argument in its strongest reasonable form, in terms the author would recognize, before criticizing it. It avoids attacking a weak version that the author did not hold. It is both fair and effective, since a criticism of the strongest version of an argument is more convincing.
Why keep two columns of notes?
One column records what the author says, with page numbers, and the other records your own questions and judgments. Keeping them apart prevents confusing your ideas with the author’s, helps with accurate citation, and makes it easy to write a fair summary and a separate critique.
What does a critical summary contain?
It states the author’s question, thesis, method and main evidence, and then evaluates them. It says what the work does well, where the evidence or reasoning is weak, which alternatives are ignored, and how it relates to other scholarship. It is fair to the author and uses accurate quotations and page references.
Think it through
- Do you tend to read to agree or to find fault? How might that shape what you take from a book?
- How would you feel if someone summarized your own argument the way you often summarize others’?
- What is the difference between respecting an author and deferring to one?
- How does the scholastic practice of stating the objection first help a reader today?
Independent assignment
A critical summary
In your own notebook, choose a scholarly article or a chapter of a scholarly book that bears on your question. Survey it for ten minutes and write down your first picture. Then read it closely, take two-column notes, and write a critical summary of about 400 words. Include the author’s question, thesis, evidence and your evaluation, and quote at least one passage accurately with its page number. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth Read the opening chapters on how context and genre shape reading, and apply the ideas to scholarly works.
- Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses Select a chapter and practice a critical summary.
- J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines Practice surveying a chapter and tracing its claims to the primary sources in its notes.
- Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (5 volumes) Practice summarizing one chapter fairly.
- Proverbs 18:17 Another comes and examines him, a text for fair examination.
- Romans 12:3 Think with sober judgment.