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.

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 people tend to believe what you type. Paper and 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 about how foreign policy (or any other issue) changed from one document to another. If you have 3 documents, you need 3 columns. Notice how the columns are in time order from earliest on the left to latest on the right.

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

§ With the writing work in this course, do not go to any resources outside of the course, except the textbook.

§ 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.

§ Write down the specific page number where you can find a specific fact you place in the chart. (If facts in a section of the chart are from one page, you may place the page number after the last fact.)

§ Do not write down quotations at this stage. Instead, if you think you might want to quote a phrase, write the word QUOTE? 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:

· Do not 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. (This link takes you to the bottom of this webpage.)

· For this writing assignment, use my exact pages listed in the course.

· For your future outside of this course, remember these additional tips:
Your best buddy on the job or in a class 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 answer a question, do this:

a. Check to see the page number of the last page of the last chapter that your current work is covering.

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

c. Look up words in the index that are in the question and are also before the last page number that your current work is covering

d. Jot the page numbers down on a piece of paper and look them up and read them.

e. 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 (and that can be safe approach) or to examine specific issues or interconnections 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 (see the tip with step 1), 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 out the source.

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?

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 and years ago.)

WCJC Department:	History – Dr. Bibus
Contact Information:	281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu
Last Updated:	2019
WCJC Home:	http://www.wcjc.edu/