Whether your instructor requires you to read material in addition to the textbook, your understanding will be enriched if you go to some of the primary and supplementary sources that are referenced in each chapter of your text. These sources can take the form of journal articles, research papers, dissertations (the major research papers that students write to earn a doctoral degree), or original essays, and they can be found online or in your library. Reading source material will give you a depth of detail that few textbooks accomplish. In addition, it is a strategy discussed in Chapter 8 to help you understand and remember.

Many sources were originally written for other instructors or researchers. They often use language and refer to concepts that are familiar to other scholars but not necessarily to first-year college students. If you are reading a journal article that describes a theory or research study, one technique for easier understanding is to read from the end to the beginning. Read the article’s conclusion and discussion sections. Then go back to see how the author performed the experiment or formulated the ideas. If you aren’t concerned about the specific method used to collect the data, you can skip over the “methodology” section. In almost all scholarly journals, articles are introduced by an abstract, a paragraph-length summary of the methods and major findings. Reading the abstract is a quick way to get the gist of a research article before you dive in. As you’re reading research articles, always ask yourself: So what? In your opinion, was the research important to what we know about the topic, or was it unnecessary?