Skip to content

Reading when a paragraph starts with a topic sentence, and when it doesn’t

My undergraduate students often tell me that it’s really hard for them to discern how to read a paper, particularly dense articles written by people with PhDs who often speak in “academiquese”, but that their faculty assign them to read. This frustrates me because I know that there is nothing I can do to change how other academics’ write. I can only try to help my students learn some heuristics about how to identify the key idea within a paragraph, and read/highlight/scribble accordingly.

Reading and highlighting and scribbling

I wrote a Twitter thread explaining how some writers whose prose I enjoy generate their text and how we could find the core idea of a paragraph when it’s at the beginning (as a topic sentence) or when it’s embedded within the paragraph. The first example (by Dr. Malini Ranga and Dr. Carolina Balazs) is a perfect article to showcase how to read when a paragraph starts with a topic sentence, as the vast majority of the paper is written using this model.

Dr. Ranganathan and Dr. Balazs do an excellent job of outlining their paper using topic sentences, and it shows throughout the manuscript, as you can tell from my Twitter thread.

The second example I used came from Dr. Farhana Sultana’s piece in Water International on water justice. Here you can tell how to discern the main idea because she clearly outlines the two key factors under study, and links back-and-forth to those ideas.

The third example comes from Dr. Christiana Zenner’s Just Water book. While she mostly starts with a topic sentence, sometimes she does not, but she clearly outlines the core idea of what she is trying to transmit in the paragraph.

While I’m writing these blog posts to guide my undergraduate students, I am hoping others will benefit from using these heuristics as well. You may be interested in my other blog posts on reading strategies for undergraduates.

Posted in academia.

Tagged with , .

No comments

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – July 8, 2019

A proposed sequence to teach/learn reading techniques for undergraduate students: Teach/learn how to write arguments first, then how to read in depth, then how to skim

NOTE: This post is aimed both at undergraduate students AND educators. Obviously graduate students can also draw some insights from this post.

I’ve always thought that one doesn’t really learn “how to read” until one practices for an extended period of time with a broad range of sources. I think that the biggest challenge we face is knowing exactly how WE (faculty, professors, educators) read and then, transmit our heuristics to our students.

Mendeley and highlights and scribbles

I’ve wanted to write a blog post on how to take good notes geared towards undergraduate students, and the first thought that crossed my mind was: “I have not been an undergraduate for SO LONG, how am I going to show my students how to take good notes if it’s been so long since *I* took class notes?“. I had the same feeling about writing a blog post on how to read for undergraduate students, until just recently.

A few weeks ago, Dr. Eve Ewing (@EveEwing on Twitter) requested resources on how to do “active reading”. You can click on her tweet, shown below, to display a very long list of resources and a fantastic thread of responses by many educators.

As I mentioned on Twitter, I do not research the actual cognitive processes of reading/writing nor do I teach composition/rhetoric/writing as an individual subject. I teach my students how to read and write policy stuff. My students read literature from a broad range of disciplines: economics, history, political science, policy sciences, law, etc. They DO take a series of courses on argumentative writing.

HOWEVER, in my Public Policy Analysis class, I ensure that they know how to read and write, and I try really hard to teach them how to write well, not only policy analytical material, but generally speaking, research papers, memorandums, etc. You can access my resources on Teaching Public Policy, Public Administration and Public Management here.

I devote a substantial amount of time to teaching them the basic things I believe are important for ALL students at all levels (undergraduate and graduate), not only the things they may need in my class. I show them how to write synthetic notes, how to write memorandums, how to synthesize their research in an Excel dump and a whole lot of reading strategies, literature review writing processes and note-taking techniques. I do this because I know they’ll be confronted with writing a thesis right after my class, I want them to be prepared.

My suggestions for undergraduate students on reading teachniques are therefore scaffolded, as I describe below:

I therefore would encourage undergraduate students who are looking for techniques on how to actively read to do the following:

1. Acquire Graf & Birkenstein’s “They Say/I Say” book.
2. Read said book (cover to cover).
3. Do the exercises suggested in that book as you go along.
4. Once you have discerned the difference between describing and analyzing, and how to write arguments, you should be able to identify key ideas within paragraphs more easily even if they’re not a topic sentence (e.g. they’re not in the first sentence of the paragraph).
5. Read. Read a bit more. Read some more. Perhaps my Reading Strategies and Note-Taking Techniques will be useful to you.
6. Check all the resources provided by faculty in response to Dr. Eve Ewing’s tweet (you can check them by clicking on this hyperlink).
7. Rinse and repeat.

I strongly believe that the best way to improve your reading is by doing it on a regular basis. Remember, reading IS part of the job. Hopefully these suggestions and those linked in Dr. Ewing’s tweet will be helpful!

Posted in academia.

Tagged with , .

1 comment

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – July 7, 2019

How to write the conclusions chapter of a book manuscript

While I have read three of the best books in the business on how to write a book (William Germano on how to transform your dissertation into a book, and how to write an academic book that is not your doctoral thesis aka your second book, as well as Rabiner and Fortunato’s guide on how to write a trade academic-ish book), I think that writing a concluding chapter really is a skill in and of itself, and one that apparently is in demand, as my good friend Dr. Giovanni Mantilla (Cambridge University) recently requested advice on how to do that.

I try to write blog posts or Twitter threads upon request, but since this one comes from a good friend, I figured I had to make it a blog post as well.

writing

As I said in my Twitter thread, I purposefully chose 4 books on water and 4 books on waste for three reasons:

(a) I don’t have the time to do a thread on methodology or on sanitation books,
(b) every book author I chose is on Twitter (so they can respond to my tweetage if they so choose!) and,
(c) 8 books should be enough!

These are the books I used:

How can I distinguish (or write) a good concluding chapter?

These are defining characteristics of a good concluding chapter of a book, in my view:

– Tells me, in summary form, what the author learned and also, what I SHOULD HAVE learned had I read the book from beginning to end.
– Shows me the “surprises”, the “plot twists”, the “coda”, the “afterthoughts”. For example: “After doing all this research on waste/water, I am left pondering about where to go from here. I advance a few propositions here”. Or… “When I began this book, I expected X. Lo & behold, I got Y”
– Explains to me why I needed to read the book in the first place.
– Provides a pithy summary of the main lessons the book offers.

These are some examples of good conclusions drawn from waste books.

In my thread, I summarized conclusions from two anthropologists, a historian and a human geographer. For my water books, I chose two authors who are squarely political scientists, one anthropologist and a theologian/ethicist who works in interdisciplinary spaces. Now, for the water books:

I think the best advice I can give someone on how to write a solid conclusions chapter is very much along the same lines of the suggestions I made in my post on how to write a solid conclusion to a paper: summarise what you learned and don’t show that you’ve ran out of gas by the time you’re done with the paper/book manuscript.

I think linking back to the core message of the manuscript is key, as is providing clear signals that the research provided insights that would not have been possible had this book not been researched, written and this argument developed. I find that conclusions usually have fewer citations to scholarly work, and they’re more a narrative by the author, but different people write in different ways.

Hopefully this advice I’ve drawn from my reading of the concluding chapters of OTHERS’ books will be of help to new-ish authors. It will certainly be helpful to me, as I finish my own book manuscript(s).

Posted in academia.

Tagged with , , , .

1 comment

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – June 27, 2019

Evaluating progress by comparing myself to This Time Last Year’s Version of Me

Within the field of political science, I consider myself a comparativist, more than a specialist in international relations. Most of the work I have done has been within comparative politics and comparative public policy. Therefore, it’s natural that I seek to contrast across cases. The problem is that often times, I compare myself with others, which as many people have said, really does not help with self-esteem and fosters an impostor syndrome. That’s why so many people have said that “comparison is the thief of joy”. Well, not so true for my scholarly research, but it certainly is for my professional life.

Truth be told, I have found that comparing myself to This Time Last Year’s Version of Me is a much more helpful approach.

I see how much I have grown this year and I am amazed and grateful.

So that’s what I would recommend others to do. Don’t compare yourself to others, see how much you’ve grown within a year.

Posted in academia.

No comments

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – June 11, 2019

Put your oxygen mask on first, and 23 other life lessons I recently learned

I recently wrote a 24-tweet-long thread that summarized some of the life lessons I learned the hard way in the past few months, and thanks to the work of ThreaderApp I am able to summarize them here.

Panoramic view

(1) PUT YOUR OXYGEN MASK FIRST. – I am a naturally generous person, so much so that I often forget to protect myself before helping others. This has worked much to my detriment in academia, as I often say YES to much service that perhaps I should have said no to. This is important.

(2) I OWE NOTHING TO NOBODY.– This lesson was a hard one to learn. In trying to be helpful, I often put too much pressure on myself to do things for my institution, my discipline(s), academia in general. I expend much time, energy, resources (often FINANCIAL one$$$).

(3) MANY PEOPLE ARE SELF-CENTERED AND NOT ALTRUISTIC, IDENTIFY THEM EARLY AND OFTEN.- Another one that you would think I, as a scholar of self-organization and cooperative behaviour, and a student of rational choice, would know, but I have way too much faith in people, still.

(4) LEARN TO ASK FOR HELP,– This one was also hard to learn. I always promise myself “I will not try to save the world today all by myself” and yet, off I often go and try to do this. These past few months, I’ve asked for help, and SURPRISE I have gotten so much! This was amazing.

(5) FIND YOUR CORE PEOPLE, AND LEAN ON THEM.– While you would think I have many thousand friends, anybody who knows me will know I’m actually really selective about who I call a good friend. My core people has sustained me through really dark periods of my life, I’m grateful.

(6) YOU NEED TIME AND SPACE FOR REFLECTION. Being able to really be away from my home institution, in a different country, surrounded by an entirely different environment, language, culture and society, forced me to step away and back from what I always have “on the go”.

(7) LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS. I expected so many things to be different in the past few years, and yet (hey, I’m a neoinstitutional theorist, I look for historical lock-in behavioural patterns), in so many ways society is still the same. Expectations lead to disappointment.

(8) MAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF (which relates to 1, PUT YOUR OXYGEN MASK FIRST). The fact that I’m often too generous doesn’t mean that I don’t value myself (I’ve got a pretty healthy self-esteem, TYVM) – it means that the time I have for myself, I often trade off and give to others.

(9) MODEL THE BEHAVIOUR YOU WANT TO SEE. Giving, sharing and collaborating is innate to me, because that’s what I had modeled in my childhood: my grandpa, my auntie, my Mom, were all amazingly generous people, and I obviously behave much like the people who I see as role models.

(10) LISTEN. REALLY LISTEN.- As an ethnographer of marginalized populations, I try to give voice to, & lift those who often don’t have one. But these past few months have taught me to really listen to people. I’ve gotten interviews I never thought I would just by shutting my mouth.

(11) LEARN TO BE FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTIVE.- I used to be the kind of person who would say “it’s my way or the high way” (I’m a Type A, Upholder, Virgo). In the past few months, I’ve learned to relax and adapt. I’ve become what I preach to my students: more of a bamboo than an oak.

(12) LET GO OF THINGS, OF PEOPLE, OF IDEAS, OF ROUTINES.- In the past few months, I’ve listened to my old rule “the sandal I drop, I never ever pick up again” (la chancla que yo tiro, no la vuelvo a recoger). I’ve let go of toxic people, of stuff I’ve accumulated, of ideas/routine.

(13) VALUE WHAT YOU HAVE, NOT WHAT YOU DON’T. Living in Mexico, I was able to access a lot of things that living in France I am not. This frustrated me to no end. I am re-learning a lesson I always give my students and my friends: value what you DO have, not what you’re missing.

(14). TRUST YOURSELF AND WORK TO YOUR ADVANTAGES AND STRENGTHS. I know for a fact I make terrible decisions at night. I’ve forced myself to stop and just wait until next morning when I’m thinking more clearly. I don’t work beyond what my body is physically able of doing.

(15). AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, PREPARE FOR THE UNEXPECTED. I never expected to spend 6 weeks at the beginning of the year sick, with chronic and unbearable pain, and yet having to Do All The Things (I was teaching in the spring). I never expected that I’d develop an allergy here either.

(16). HOLD ON TO YOUR CORE VALUES. In being adaptive, I’ve also learned to compromise, but I’ve also made much clearer my personal values. If something doesn’t jive with the values I hold dear, I simply say “no”.

(17). NOT EVERY FIGHT IS YOURS TO FIGHT.– I often feel like I’m responsible for championing the causes of those at the margins. But not every war is mine to engage. There’s a metric ton of people who are fighting the good fight, and it’s not my responsibility to Fight All Fights.

(18). DO WHAT YOU LOVE, WITH WHAT YOU CAN, WHEREVER YOU ARE. I love what I do, both professionally and personally. I wouldn’t trade my history (with the challenges, successes, losses and defeats I’ve had) for anybody else’s. What I’ve achieved is the result of what I’ve done.

(19). SLEEP. REST. RECOVER. NURTURE YOUR BODY AND YOUR SOUL. I felt so pressured to finish so many scholarly commitments that I sometimes forgot that if I wasn’t healthy, I would not be able to engage mentally with anything. Now, if I need a nap, or days off, I take them.

(20). PREPARE FOR THE WORST, EVEN IF YOU HOPE FOR THE BEST. I am now ready to fight challenges I didn’t feel ready for last month. This is because I know now that my capacity to adapt is much higher than I ever expected. But I’m always on guard, and prepare for what’s coming.

(21). YOU’RE IN THE DRIVING SEAT. I am the best person to make decisions about what’s best for me. I do confer with trusted advisors (and I did so earlier this year when I made two of the toughest decisions of my entire career) but in the end, only I can know what works for me.

(22) WRITE FOR YOURSELF. I’ve learned to be selfish about my research. I work on what I study because *I* believe it is important. So I write to help ME understand the world, and then share that understanding with others. I feel renewed in my approach to writing #AcWri.

(23) KONMARI YOUR LIFE. Get rid of overflowing stuff in your closets, excess emotional baggage, toxic and negative people (energy vampires). Give away well preserved clothes and other stuff to charities and people in need.

(24) COMPARE YOURSELF TO YOUR PAST SELF, NOT OTHERS. I am MUCH stronger now than I was 5 months ago. I know Paris and France and Europe much better, my spoken French has vastly improved, and I’ve been able to conduct interviews in French. I bettered MYSELF, not compared.

Posted in academia.

Tagged with .

No comments

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – May 15, 2019

Writing in Political Science: A Brief Guide (Short Guides to Writing in the Disciplines) (my reading notes)

I remember I came across this book, “Writing in Political Science: A Brief Guide (Short Guides to Writing in the Disciplines)” by Mika LaVaque-Manty and Danielle LaVaque-Manty (you guessed right, they’re married to each other) while at a conference, but never purchased the book. I finally got a copy last year, and got a chance to read it and I liked it. My Twitter stream summarizes my thoughts on the book.

As I said on Twitter, this would be a good book for a course on writing in political science paired with others.

If you liked this blog post, perhaps you’d want to check my reading notes of other books on various topics, including scholarly writing, or my page on reading notes of books geared towards doctoral candidates undertaking their dissertation research. Disclaimer: I purchase all my books with my own hard earned money, and I receive absolutely no cash from promoting, reading or reviewing these books. My intention is simply to help others in academia, particularly graduate students and scholars at the margins.

Posted in academia, writing.

Tagged with , , , .

No comments

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – May 1, 2019

The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (my reading notes)

As a qualitative researcher who mentors students in conducting research using these methods in a primarily quantitative institution, it’s hard to do both mentoring theses and teaching them skills if you don’t teach the methods courses (which I couldn’t do even if I wanted to).

AcWri at the Comfort Inn Santa Fe Bosques

Therefore, with all the pain in my heart I have to send my students to do independent reading on methods if they choose a technique that is qualitative and in which they were not trained (remember I mentor students from other campuses and universities too). Obviously, I share with them my knowledge base for specific readings and books they ought to check out, and I guide them throughout the process.

One of the books I’ve liked the most throughout my career, (and I learned qualitative methods in graduate school!) is Johnny Saldaña’s “The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers“. This book is, in my opinion, canonical for anyone trying to learn how to code written material and undertake qualitative analysis.

Overall, I believe reading Saldaña’s book coupled with the Ryan and Barnard 2000 classic article should be a good introduction to how to undertake coding for qualitative researchers.

If you liked this blog post, perhaps you’d want to check my reading notes of other books on various topics, including scholarly writing, or my page on reading notes of books geared towards doctoral candidates undertaking their dissertation research. Disclaimer: I purchase all my books with my own hard earned money, and I receive absolutely no cash from promoting, reading or reviewing these books. My intention is simply to help others in academia, particularly graduate students and scholars at the margins.

Posted in academia, research, research methods, writing.

Tagged with , , , , , , .

3 comments

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – May 1, 2019

Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English (my reading notes)

Since I teach in Mexico and mentor doctoral students in Spanish, but the requirements for a global academia are increasingly international, I am always on the lookout for stuff that I think will help my graduate students. I found Hilary Glassman-Deal’s book “Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English“ during my search, and wanted to check it out.

My full process for writing a paper

I think that overall, this book might help those who are non-native English speakers improve their scientific writing. Though strongly geared towards STEM, I believe it can help those in the humanities and social sciences.

Overall, a nice book that should be useful as well for STEM folks. At some points, I wasn’t completely on board with her methods, but again, I think and read and write in English, so I am not the best at assessing fit for non-native English speakers.

If you liked this blog post, perhaps you’d want to check my reading notes of other books on various topics, including scholarly writing, or my page on reading notes of books geared towards doctoral candidates undertaking their dissertation research. Disclaimer: I purchase all my books with my own hard earned money, and I receive absolutely no cash from promoting, reading or reviewing these books. My intention is simply to help others in academia, particularly graduate students and scholars at the margins.

Posted in academia.

Tagged with , , .

No comments

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – May 1, 2019

Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words (my reading notes)

This is another book that helps those of us who are in STEM fields or publish within the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) areas write more clearly.

Editing a paper

This book by David Lindsay, “Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words” is one of the best I’ve read as far as providing detail-oriented guidelines on how to write well in the STEM disciplines, and its advice applies broadly.

In short, very much worth reading if you’re looking to improve your writing as an academic.

If you liked this blog post, perhaps you’d want to check my reading notes of other books on various topics, including scholarly writing, or my page on reading notes of books geared towards doctoral candidates undertaking their dissertation research. Disclaimer: I purchase all my books with my own hard earned money, and I receive absolutely no cash from promoting, reading or reviewing these books. My intention is simply to help others in academia, particularly graduate students and scholars at the margins.

Posted in academia, writing.

Tagged with , , .

No comments

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – May 1, 2019

The Scientist’s Guide to Writing How to Write More Easily and Effectively throughout Your Scientific Career (my reading notes)

I had corresponded with Dr. Stephen B. Heard about his writing book “The Scientist’s Guide to Writing How to Write More Easily and Effectively throughout Your Scientific Career” a few years ago and he was kind enough to email me a PDF copy. I hadn’t made the time to read it until recently when I began compiling reading notes of books on how to do academic writing, and more specifically, what doctoral students can expect during the gruelling process of developing their doctoral dissertation. As a former chemical engineer and leather scientist, Stephen’s book resonated with me, as his book is oriented towards STEM disciplines.

Coloured pens, scribbling highlighting and writing

My Twitter thread on Stephen’s book is self-explanatory and offers a summary of my overall thoughts on the book.

Overall, a great book for STEM folks.

If you liked this blog post, perhaps you’d want to check my reading notes of other books on various topics, including scholarly writing, or my page on reading notes of books geared towards doctoral candidates undertaking their dissertation research. Disclaimer: I purchase all my books with my own hard earned money, and I receive absolutely no cash from promoting, reading or reviewing these books. My intention is simply to help others in academia, particularly graduate students and scholars at the margins.

Posted in academia, writing.

Tagged with , , .

1 comment

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – May 1, 2019