Information Literacy Toolkit

Reading in an academic setting is different from reading for pleasure. The materials will be different (think of how dissimilar your favourite novel is from an academic article) and your motivation for reading will be different, due to assignment and time constraints.

Scanning academic articles is not only not cheating - it’s actually encouraged so that you can get an overview of what the article is about before jumping in. Reading strategically is a great way to determine whether or not the resources you have found will be worth reading and will be useful for your assignment.

Activity

The instructor will hand out physical copies of a scholarly article. Students should work in pairs to find as many of the articles sections as possible, using the reading strategically worksheet for reference. Take this worksheet up as a class and identify the different sections.

Activity

The instructor will hand the students that reading strategically handout and have them read it over. Then, the instructor will have the students form groups. Each group will be given a different scholarly article, and all students have two minutes to identify what the article is about. After the two minutes are up, the groups must describe the article and decide whether or not they would use it for their assignment.

Questions

What is this article about? Would it be useful for your assignment - why? What is the author's argument and main points? Are there any major weaknesses?