0.8 Manual for writing mentors  (Page 5/11)

After reading, the student should ask these questions:

• What specific problem does this research address? Why is it important?
• What methods were used? Were they good ones?
• What are the specific findings? Am I able to summarize them in one or two sentences?
• What evidence supports the findings?
• How are the findings unique/new/unusual or supportive of other work in the field?
• What are some of the specific applications of the ideas presented here? What are some further experiments that would answer remaining questions?

Strategy 4: draw inferences

Not everything that readers learn from an article is stated explicitly. Students should rely on their prior knowledge and world experience, as well as the background provided in the article, to draw inferences from reading material. Research has shown that readers who actively draw inferences are better able to understand and recall information.

As an example, the box below contains an excerpt from the Introduction of an article in the journal Biochemistry *. The comments in italics are questions and inferences that might be drawn by a student reader.

*excerpt from Ballestar, E., Yusufzai, T.M., and Wolffe, A.P. (2000) Effects of Rett Syndrome Mutations of the Methyl-CpG Binding Domain of the Transcriptional Repressor MeCP2 on Selectivity for Association with Methylated DNA. Biochemistry 31, 7100-7106. Comments in italics added.

Strategy 5: take notes as you read

Effective readers take notes—it improves recall and comprehension. Advise students to put quotation marks around any exact wording they write down so that they can avoid accidental plagiarism when they write about the article. Read more about recognizing and avoiding plagiarism here.