Discussion Forum: “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading…” (DUE 10/26)

The text, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholar Sources” by Karen Rosenberg, shares different techniques that will assist us for a better reader.  While I was reading the text, I felt like she was writing about the situation; I’m facing with the reading of academic articles. One idea that interests me about the text is: when I read the text, I don’t pay any attention to the title. Although it can relay a lot of details that can help us find out how more effectively we can read the rest of the paragraph. The author discussed the rhetorical strategy that helps us to think about the connection between the author, audience, and the text. This strategy develops our skills to think more deeply. After reading this text, I will apply these strategies to read my scholarly sources for my research. After reading this article, I would use these strategies to read my academic sources for my research. I hope this would help me reduce my stress when I read these scholarly sources. 

In the article, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholar Sources” by Karen Rosenberg, Rosenberg gives us advice on how we can approach a scholarly article for our sources when it comes to analyzing and gathering information, which embodies the statement that Rosenberg makes, which is to read smarter, not harder. The idea that interests me is to first consider the intended audience of the article. I usually try to find the purpose of the article first. If I were to approach the article by first determining the audience, then it could help me determine the purpose. After reading this text, I would utilize all the strategies mentioned in this article because it would help me gather my information more efficiently, especially since some of my scholarly sources are about 30-60 pages long.

In the article, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholar Sources” by Karen Rosenberg, she points out the strategies to read a scholarly source, and some of the important concepts to catch the main points from it, such as by reading its abstract, introduction, headings, conclusion, etc. These could help the readers and us to figure out the purpose and the message the writer gives us, but also to reduce our time when reading and interpreting it. This idea forms a part in one of the pieces of advice to me when I work on my essay because it could help me to catch the main idea and get important details when reading this type of source (scholarly). Hence, some of the strategies I will use are to read what the author recommends to us and try to figure out the purpose and audience. When reading long and complicated articles, this text really helped me reduce my time and improve my reading skills.

In the article, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholar Sources” by Karen Rosenberg, the author points out various reading strategies for scholarly sources and how to break them down into sections like headings, introductions, conclusions, and etc. I really enjoyed reading her breakdown. Personally, I am a big history nerd, so I think for me I got used to reading scholarly sources and books, and I have always enjoyed them. Her strategies make a lot of sense though. Sometimes if I was assigned to read a textbook for homework for chemistry or some such, I wouldn’t fall asleep but sometimes gloss over things or take long breaks when reading. So, I can apply the strategies she presented in more specified cases when I can’t seem to stay focused on the text. In terms of my research paper, I think that it could partially help me for looking for some more credible sources. But I don’t really poses any issues on reading through large articles to get all the information for the paper because I care about the issue it is about and want to learn more about it for myself as well. So, this article didn’t necessarily help me a lot as of this moment. But I will be keeping the suggested strategies in mind and they may help me when I need them. So, all in all informative essay that I enjoyed reading.

Karen Rosenberg’s article “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” describes rhetorical reading practices encouraging the reader to deliberately think about the writer’s main argument. One idea that interested me was when she advised “to hold off on looking too many things up” and instead to “Just be prepared to face a wall of references that don’t mean a whole lot to you.” I don’t do this because I was taught that in order to really understand a text, I should know every part of what I’m reading. Rosenberg’s advice would put holes in my understanding, but I do understand how this would make research more efficient. A strategy I’d use from this text is first going over the abstract, introduction, section headings, and conclusion before reading the body. That way, I’d have a general feel for what I’m reading before investing too much time figuring out a certain article.

Through the article  “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources”, the author Karen Rosenberg provides us with various analytical strategies when reading scholarly sources from the title to the conclusion of these sources. An idea that I was interested in reading from this article was about the importance of the introduction to the rest of the essay. The introduction is not only meant to summarize the written piece but it must also showcase the ideas that will be brought up through the essay. As Rosenberg stated, doing so will help us connect the introduction to the structure of the article. From this reading, I can use this as a strategy in my own essay to ensure I can connect my introduction to the body of the essay. Another strategy that I will use is to write my conclusion in a way that can help the reader understand the arguments brought up throughout my essay.

In the article “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources”, the author Karen Rosenburg mentioned an very interesting result that transpired after she struggled with the readings for her political science classes. She mentioned how her opinion of reading difficult pieces of literature changed after the time she spent tackling them. This is not a skill she provides for better understanding difficult pieces of literature but is one that I feel is extremely important. Many times when I was younger I found myself in no mood to read something that I nevertheless had to do. It is pretty impossible to do something well when one is so beholden to do literally anything else but I feel that learning to overcome that sense of attachment to whatever we wanted at that place in time towards finding joy in doing difficult things. I think that in itself is a solution to many various things not just learning better control of one’s focus.

When reading the assigned essay, I was taken with how relatable Karen Rosenberg made her attitude toward reviewing scholarly articles. In “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources,” I felt she easily connected with her target audience of those who struggle with the task of processing information heavy research articles. I was quite interested in her concept of investigating the title, introduction, sub sections, and conclusion to determine what the main argument or idea the author(s) are presenting to their audience and then absorbing the reading in its entirety to seek substantiation of that point. I think this will be very helpful to me going forward with my source based essay, instead of searching to identify the main purpose while navigating the dense text I will have a clearer idea before diving fully in. I also appreciate that she points out scholarly pieces are written for a very specific audience of academics where the author presumes the reader has prior knowledge of the topic and that it is okay to not completely follow. I was encouraged by its objective to help readers feel less disheartened and more well equipped when approaching readings that they may find initially overwhelming.

While reading this essay, one idea that interests me is how the author organized her thoughts. Her introduction sounded like the beginning of a story and she knew exactly what she wanted to talk about. While reading her intro I thought that this essay would explain her college experience and help other people get by with their first encounters, but she went onto explain the different components that an essay should have and some of the best ways that one can get by in their English classes.  and what are some good ways to tackle an essay prompt. In my essay I’m going to take into consideration with what Rosenberg said on page 216 where she said “the introduction will not only summarize the whole piece…but it will also often offer a road map for the rest of the article”, I plan to use that strategy in my essay.  

“Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” points out some important strategies about reading/focusing on the scholarly text. She starts with a brief discussion of how she felt when she was asked to read the scholarly text at college, then she explains to the reader the importance of reading and understanding the text. One thing that stood out to me was when she said that it is important to ”locate the writer and yourself in this larger conversation”. She also pointed out that talking with professors and peers about reading helps us understand better, however, it is hard to do so nowadays since we are all working digitally. However, the comments and suggestions we make to our mates are helpful. One strategy I will use is: paying attention to the title. The author suggests that the title can convey detailed information about the whole text, even though sometimes it is hideous or hard to understand. I feel like the title is really important because it sets the tone for the whole text since it catches your attention to read it in the first place. 

In the article, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholar Sources” by Karen Rosenberg addresses ways to make reading more interesting and more enjoyable. One idea in the text that interests me was how she mentioned that instead of passively reading you can break the reading into its individual parts such as the introduction, section headings, and conclusion. This makes it easier to understand the main argument and get a better understanding of the reading. She also mentions reading smarter and not harder which I feel like I can relate to since reading harder might not be an ideal choice for some individuals while reading smarter can help you get the main points of the text. Some strategies I’ll employ are to not passively read my article, instead have a similar approach to what Rosenberg has and get the main points and arguments associated with the source which would help me with my essay.

In the article, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholar Sources” by Karen Rosenberg, she mentions how she would often breeze through the introduction to basically find kind of a summary of the entire text which I often do as well. But the introduction is actually a lot more than that. It also includes a “roadmap” of the entire article such as so you can read your way through and easily find those ideas, sometimes it is easy and sometimes it will be harder depending on how it is written. The part where she talks about the conclusion also intrigues me because she mentions how often times the conclusion is where the authors indicate the limits of their work and include unanswered questions. I never thought about a conclusion like this before and would love to try implementing these strategies and ideas into my own source-based essay.

In the article, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholar Sources” by Karen Rosenberg, she gives analysis and strategies for reading scholarly material. One of the ideas I am most interested in is how to make a boring and difficult academic paper more interesting and skillful for the reader to understand the information in the article. The introduction and conclusion can help us to digest an academic paper better. Because the introduction and conclusion analyzes the focus and central idea of the essay. Therefore, I can read the purpose and main idea of the essay more easily and I will not give up reading of an academic paper. I will use some of the author’s recommended essay strategies for my subsequent essays because it will help me express the main idea more clearly and identify the target audience. In addition, I will read the introduction, conclusion, and other academic papers with skill. This will take less time to understand the ideas expressed in the essay.

After reading, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” by Karen Rosenberg, she begins her article by relating to the idea that she also couldn’t focus when it came to reading large dense articles, which made me feel understood. She then discusses  the importance of being able to ask questions, something I lack. I think it’s interesting how much of an impact the audience has. Originally, I thought finding the audience was merely just a part of a rhetorical analysis, something that had to be done. However, the audience is one of the most important parts, it highlights specifically what an article is about and why they would want to address that specific audience. I will apply this new information in my Source-Based Essay when I read the four scholarly sources needed for my essay. The main part of my essay that I wasn’t looking forward to was reading those large articles, but to keep certain factors like the audience, title, abstract, etc, I may be able to get a clear idea of the message without just blindly skimming.

When reading the article, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources”, I automatically was drawn to the fact that Kaen Rosenberg was able to so easily relate to her audience. I felt connected to her words when she stated how she struggles with keeping focused and trying to understand bigger works of writing. I feel as though when reading different articles it becomes very different for me to focus especially if it is a topic I have no interest in. I really appreciated her tips on how to breakdown each scholarly article into various sections. She explained how each section could be classified into introduction, headings, and conclusion. I think this makes the articles much easier to comprehend. As we continue writing and completely different assignments, I know this and her other pieces of advice will be very useful within my writing process.

After reading, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” by Karen Rosenberg, I found how I struggle in the same places she does and I found it really relatable, especially when she was talking about how she struggles to maintain her concentration, which I struggle extremely in. However, when she talked about her strategy in reading scholarly articles by breaking them down into separate sections and analyzing them separately I feel like I am able to utilize this to one, get the information I need, and two, to help my concentration by understanding the different parts that are in scholarly articles. As I continue to do my research and analyze scholarly sources I will keep in mind this strategy since I believe it will help me tremendously in understanding and organizing scholarly articles that will enhance my understanding.

In the article “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” author Karen Rosenberg mentioned the obstacle she faced reading for one of her classes. She shared different techniques that she figured out which will help us to approach scholarly article. She mentions the importance of introduction, section heading, conclusion, figuring out the main argument or idea is for us to read a text efficiently. An idea that I found really interesting is how important the introduction is. I learned about introduction has to thoroughly bring the idea of the essay and give much more understanding of the topic than I knew. I will be using some of the strategies she mentioned to strengthen my understanding.

In “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholar Sources”, Karen Rosenberg discusses the different techniques we can use to approach and read scholarly sources. It may be difficult for college students to really grasp a scholarly article sometimes, but Rosenberg addresses that with effective tools which can be employed to gather information and analyze it. She mentions how you can group the work into pieces, instead of reading it whole, to achieve a more active reading it. By splitting it up, you can avoid just passively reading works from beginning to end. I related to Rosenberg in that I also have trouble focusing on longer writings, ESPECIALLY when it is on a topic that I have minimal interest in. Her tips on breaking down scholarly articles into intro, heading, and conclusion sections were of immense help to me and I plan to use them in the future.

An idea from the text, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” by Karen Rosenberg, that stood out to me was when the author described reading scholarly work as ‘participating in a conversation’. She goes on to describe some strategies to use when reading scholarly work like paying attention to who the audience is, and what the title, abstract, intro, section headings and conclusion might tell you. Only when you’ve understood the different parts of the text can you look at how and where to enter into a conversation with the author. When the author pointed out the importance of finding the audience of a piece, I realized that I tend to aim for a general audience when writing because I want to include everyone. This might be what’s been making it so hard for me to write. I will use some of the strategies the author mentioned when reading my scholarly sources to gather information for my essay.

When the author mentions how discussing what is read from a scholarly article with your professor and peers can expand one’s thinking and solidify one’s stance, I thought of how we post on the forum and comment on each other’s responses. Although we work virtually because of COVID, we still find a way to discuss with one another. When the author encourages us to question why our teachers assign us the readings that they assign, I think of how intentional school environments are from the time we are in preschool to college. Teacher’s have to be mindful of what they expose to their students. I found the author’s strategies very helpful. They present how imperative it is for us to be aware of the intended audience as a way to sufficiently understand a scholarly article. This text encourages me to pay a lot of attention to the introduction and conclusion when reading a scholarly article, as those are blueprints for the “meat of the text”. The introduction and conclusion go hand in hand. When I write an essay, it is sometimes helpful to first create the introduction and conclusion before working on the paragraphs. I do find it helpful when skimming or trying to read something fast to first look at the introduction and then the conclusion. However, I will not be skimming when looking into my sources. Also, explicitly explaining what an abstract is and what one can expect to find in this section of a scholarly article was helpful. I am familiar with abstracts but have never read a clear definition of one before.

In the article, ” Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholar sources”, Karen Rosenberg explains the different techniques that can be used to read and understand scholarly sources. The author discusses the importance of organizing essays and the role conclusions, introduction, and sections headings are. The author also mentions that writers should pay close attentions to the title, idea, and message the sources incorporate into the sources. One thing that Rosenberg mentions is her trouble in focusing and staying on track, In which I can heavily relate to. When writing I tend to get easily distracted and turn my focus on unnecessary things. Furthermore, One idea that interests me from the text is when reading something you should break the txt into pieces to get a better sense of the idea of the writings. I feel that this strategy can help me with my writing and evaluating sources because I can focus on smaller pieces of the text instead of trying to cram in a whole bunch of words at once, this can help with my confusion as well.

In the essay chapter Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources, the author reflects on their college experiences and the challenges she had to experience. The author intends to reflect with future generations of writers, empathizing with them with the exact difficulties she experienced. By doing, she creates a bond of connection between the audience and the author. An idea that interests me is when she talks about how you can participate in a conversation with the author when you read a scholarly source. While reading the sources, I focused more on how the author is trying to deliver the information instead of creating a personal connection with me. This information helps me understand better how to interpret scholarly sources from now on. In contrast, an idea that confuses me is when the author explains how the title contains information that can help us understand a source; in some cases, that is the case, but in other cases, not. Sometimes, the title of a source is too basic or general, and it is hard to figure out relevant information in the title.