The Method to be Accurate and Fast

9 Steps to Successful Reading FOR Evidence and Writing WITH Evidence –These basic steps apply to any question where you have to figure things out accurately and quickly.

Personal Encouragement: Much of this webpage I started learning in 4^th grade. I thought the teacher was mean, but I learned so much from her. My joke now is “everybody needs a mean 4^th grade teacher.” It is never too late to begin developing habits to match the future you want. If you have questions, just ask.

The analogy of the math problem that is too big to work in your head

If you are just collecting information for a general paper, you can probably work as you did as a kid and be OK.

If you need to figure something out accurately and quickly, critical thinking is a lot like a math problem that is too big to work in your head. You have to use paper and pencil to work it—to try out different solutions and reject some things if necessary.

Typing is not a good idea because you believe what you type. Paper with lines (so you can make tables) and a pencil help:

· With reading FOR evidence

· With the 5Ws chart (or table) to help you understand things so you can write WITH evidence – There are other charts that can work but the 5Ws is a good one to begin with.

Background on a 5 Ws Chart

Honorable reporters are expected to cover at least these things:

§ Who?

§ What?

§ When? (for this class, not a specific date but a period of time or an order of events)

§ Where?

§ Why?

§ and sometimes How?

Be sure you:

§ Line things up in each of the time periods so you can see changes easily. When you are doing this for yourself, just write the 5 Ws Chart on a piece of notebook paper with lines, but this shows you how you might make chart for a question where things changed from one document to another.

§ If you have 3 documents, you need 3 columns. (It also helps with 1 issue to more than 3.)

§ Notice how the columns are in time order from earliest to latest. That helps your brain interpret change because change over time is hard to see. (For the cognitive scientist, see Dietrich Dörner, The Logic of Failure.)

§ This method works with anything that you are trying understand. For this example, it just says Issue

5Ws	Issue in the Earliest Document	Issue in the Middle Document	Issue in the Latest Document
Who
What
When
Where
Why
How

§ Limit yourself to a word or two for each thing. Refer to things in the book or primary; don’t copy what is in the book, especially not a quotation.

§ Always make sure you understand the question. For example, if you are answering a question is about a region, a type of worker, or any category, always check that you have the right one.
Tip: With the writing work for this term, your instructor provides the primaries and identifies the required textbook pages: make sure you use them.

§ Write down the specific page number where you can find a specific fact you place in the chart.
You have to be able to retrace your steps to figure out if you made an error in understanding—and everyone makes a mistake sooner or later. Prepare for that by developing good brain habits.

§ Do not write down quotations at this stage. Instead, if you think you might want to quote a phrase, write the word QUOTE with a question mark (?) and the page number in the 5 Ws Chart as a reminder.

9 Steps to Successful Reading FOR Evidence and Writing WITH Evidence

Read with care and for accuracy and then log what you have read into a 5 Ws Chart. Be sure to record the page numbers as you read.

Tips:

· Don’t take notes from your textbook or your primary source in a separate notebook. If you have this habit, click here for why you want to replace this habit

· For this writing assignment, use my exact pages.

· For your future, remember this gift:

A Gift: Your best buddy if your boss or prof did not list exact pages for you is the index to the document you are required to use. The index is at the back of the book. It is in alphabetical order and often has subcategories that help you.

When you don’t know what pages in the textbook might help you understand about a question about a fact in a specific time period (like a Unit), do this:

· Check to see the page number of the last page of the last chapter covered in the Unit.

· Then go to the index at the back of the book.

· Look up words in the index that are in the question and are also before the last page number covered in the Unit. That way you avoid collecting information without realizing it is about a later time. Tip: something cannot cause something if it happens after.

· Jot the page numbers down on a piece of paper and look them up and read what is on the page. If the page numbers do not apply, cross them off.

· When the pages apply to the question, read carefully and record in the 5Ws chart using the method explained above.

Tentatively identify about 3 or so things you plan to discuss in your answer (whether you are planning to do summaries of issues or to analyze specific issues one by one. You can mark them on your 5Ws chart with a big checkmark (or an arrow or a number of the paragraph you plan or something that works for you).
Keep working from the 5Ws chart. You can use the same 5Ws chart for steps 3 through 9.

Using your 5 Ws chart, practice aloud as though you were teaching someone who is smart and wants to learn but knows nothing about this subject.
When you cannot speak without stammering around, that means you do not understand.
What do you do? Go read that section again—and you can find the page quickly because the page number is on the 5 Ws chart.
Do this until it you can explain aloud in a common sense way—it often takes five practices. By using the 5Ws chart and practicing aloud, you will catch your own errors in understanding and notice when you need to add or remove a fact.
Caution: Do not write your paper yet. Students who write before they have practiced several times believe their own errors.

Now, you say your summaries or your analysis aloud one last time, typing as you speak. (Think of it as dictating to yourself.)

§ If you want to quote a phrase that you identified, open the book and quote it exactly. To avoid errors in quoting, use the brain trick in this link.

§ Keep your book closed as you write. If you must check on something, open it briefly but close it again before you write a word.

Why? If you have your book open when you write or you took extensive notes in a separate notebook (please do not), in almost all cases you will make both these errors:
- Plagiarize or do a “half-copy” version of plagiarism (to use the term in The Bedford Handbook)
- Be factually inaccurate

When you have finished typing your paper, upload your work to Turnitin in Blackboard so that it can check your paper for both language errors and possible plagiarism. Ask if you need help.
Double check your work and carefully make any corrections:

§ Read your paper syllable by syllable—ideally in a funny accent that will force you to pay attention.

§ Check your paper against each of the instructions for the assignment. Did you do everything?

§ Run spellcheck and grammar check with your paper, but do not make corrections automatically.

§ Check your citations: some people benefit by using this tactile method to make sure their citations are correct.

Here are additional tips on how to prevent different types of errors:

· How to verify content before you write

· How to check evidence in your written work

· How to proof quotations - Plus the Basics about Quotations)

· How to proofread for clarity

If you can wait 24 hours, check your paper again.

Look at This Part ONLY If You Think You Ought to Take Notes in a Notebook When You Read

Taking notes in a separate notebook or on paper can be useful if you are collecting information that you do not have easy access to. The typical example of when it is OK to take notes is when you are collecting information for a term paper when you can’t check a source out of a library...

If you take notes in a notebook when you read a textbook or when you read anything you have to do something with, it is dangerous to your success. The simplest way to put it is:

Taking notes is your first—and therefore your worst—understanding.
Why would you keep studying your worst understanding?
What may be worse is that taking notes from a textbook is very time consuming and so students tend to use their notes, not the source, because it cost them so much time to do. If you use only your notes, how will you know when you are wrong?

IF you are absolutely sure that taking notes from your textbook is something you ought to do, then click here for a PowerPoint video on the danger of taking notes separately from your source. (It is one I did years ago.)

WCJC Department:	History – Dr. Bibus
Contact Information:	281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu
Last Updated:	2018
WCJC Home:	http://www.wcjc.edu/