Effective Reading of English Manuscript

Summary

This webinar, hosted by IES Research, focuses on effective reading strategies for English manuscripts. Yuma Sukumaran, a research curation consultant, discusses structured reading approaches to improve comprehension, particularly for non-native English speakers. She highlights the three-pass reading method, which involves skimming, analyzing key points, and critically interpreting findings. Yuma also introduces Scholarcy, an AI tool that assists in summarizing and extracting key information from research papers, making the reading process more efficient. She emphasizes that AI aids the process but doesn't replace manual reading.

Takeaways

• 📢 This webinar, hosted by IES Research, focuses on improving the reading and understanding of English research manuscripts.
• 📝 Yuva Sukumaran, a research curation consultant, shares her experience transforming complex research into plain language summaries.
• 📖 Reading research papers can be challenging, especially for non-native speakers, so a structured and strategic approach is essential.
• 🔍 There are three types of reading: for pleasure, fluency, and knowledge. Research reading falls under knowledge-based reading, which requires a structured method.
• 📊 The recommended approach for reading research papers involves three passes: skimming for the general idea, focusing on tables, figures, and methodology, and then critically interpreting the details.
• 🧠 Creating storyboards for research helps condense information and makes revisiting key points more efficient and less time-consuming.
• 🤖 AI tools like ScholarC can aid the reading process by summarizing key research points, reducing the need for multiple reads, and improving comprehension.
• 💡 ScholarC highlights key points and condenses each section into brief summaries, helping reduce time spent reading complex papers.
• 🔗 AI-assisted tools like ScholarC also offer links to definitions of complex terms and jargon, making the process easier for non-native speakers.
• 🛠️ The combination of structured reading and AI tools enhances efficiency, allowing readers to grasp the essential findings of research papers more quickly and effectively.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the webinar organized by IES Research?

The webinar is designed to provide insights on how to effectively read and comprehend English manuscripts, particularly scientific research papers. It emphasizes strategies for reading complex research content and introduces AI tools to assist in the reading process.

Who is the speaker and what is her background?

The speaker is Yuma Sukumaran, a research curation consultant at IES Research. She has a background in biochemistry and has worked in drug discovery and clinical observations. She now specializes in summarizing scientific discoveries into plain language summaries.

What are the three main reasons people read according to Yuma?

According to Yuma, people read for pleasure (e.g., novels), for fluency (to improve language proficiency), and for knowledge (to understand academic content or trending discoveries).

What are some common challenges researchers face when reading scientific manuscripts?

Researchers often struggle with comprehending complex research papers, especially if they use a freestyle or unstructured reading approach. This can lead to confusion, misinterpretation, and a need to reread the entire paper multiple times.

What reading framework does Yuma recommend for approaching scientific manuscripts?

Yuma recommends using a structured approach based on a 2002 framework from the RAND Reading Study Group, which focuses on three dimensions: the text, the context, and the reader. She further elaborates on organizing the reading process into three passes.

What are the three passes in the structured reading approach?

The first pass involves skimming the article to get a general idea, the second pass focuses on examining key sections like tables, figures, methodology, and conclusions, and the third pass involves critical interpretation of the details to fully understand the research.

How does Yuma suggest using a storyboard in the reading process?

Yuma suggests restructuring the extracted key points into a storyboard format. This method helps readers revisit important details quickly and improves comprehension without having to re-read the entire paper.

What is Scholarcy, and how does it assist in reading research papers?

Scholarcy is an AI-assisted online summarizing tool that helps readers minimize the time spent on reading research papers by highlighting key points, summarizing sections, and providing references. It streamlines the reading process and reduces the number of times a paper needs to be skimmed.

How does Scholarcy enhance the three-pass reading approach?

Scholarcy reduces the effort required in the first and second passes by automatically highlighting key points and summarizing important sections of the paper. This allows the reader to comprehend the paper in fewer skims, while still following the structured approach.

What benefits does AI-assisted reading offer to non-native English speakers and beginners?

AI-assisted tools like Scholarcy help non-native English speakers and beginners by providing instant definitions for technical terms or jargon through a simple click. This reduces the time spent searching for definitions and improves overall comprehension of the research paper.