How to read research paper, textbook, long text content?

Thread Starter

terabaaphoonmein

Joined Jul 19, 2020
111
I can read less text content easily. my way of reading it is to make slides of all those texts and learn from the slides.

But I have issue with reading huge huge texts as you know in this case it will require too much time when I do this. Is there way to simplify this reading style?

eg-: of sth that I want to read is this.


https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//archive/gfs-sosp2003.pdf

It takes me 45 minutes to read 3 paragraph and comprehend it at least.

If I go that way, you can imagine, how long it takes me to read a research paper. Probably a week to read a research paper lol. Even reading articles in internet is a hassle for me if they are longer. If I just read what I need to learn it is easy as it will be few paragraphs but if I have to learn sth else long it is pain to me as I can't do it timely manner.

Are there any udemy courses that teach how to read textbooks for university students that you are aware of?
 

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,764
Making slides should be part of the understanding process of your system.

I rarely take other than organized notes (that I will come back to refresh details when needed.

Given the option of hard print vis-a-vis pdf, give me the first.

Suggestion: do not "create" a sophisticated process. You and only you would be the slave later.

In the times that "posting" in a forum it was possible only by sending a letter, good understanding I achieved by reading, rereading an reading again.

CMOS Cookbook (Lancaster) and about opamps (W. Jung) I did with good results.
 

Thread Starter

terabaaphoonmein

Joined Jul 19, 2020
111
Making slides should be part of the understanding process of your system.

I rarely take other than organized notes (that I will come back to refresh details when needed.

Given the option of hard print vis-a-vis pdf, give me the first.

Suggestion: do not "create" a sophisticated process. You and only you would be the slave later.

In the times that "posting" in a forum it was possible only by sending a letter, good understanding I achieved by reading, rereading an reading again.

CMOS Cookbook (Lancaster) and about opamps (W. Jung) I did with good results.
Thanks good advice I get here.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,845
But I have issue with reading huge huge texts as you know in this case it will require too much time when I do this. Is there way to simplify this reading style?
Are these documents written in your native language? What causes you the most difficulty? Not comprehending the words being used or your attention span?
 

Thread Starter

terabaaphoonmein

Joined Jul 19, 2020
111
Are these documents written in your native language? What causes you the most difficulty? Not comprehending the words being used or your attention span?
language isn't issue neither is attention span. I simply can't get the gist when I study lots of text. It is huge problem in my life.
 

Irving

Joined Jan 30, 2016
3,843
Sadly if you want to understand what's gone before there's no easy substitute for reading in depth. Scientific papers by their nature can be dry and hard to read. For my PhD (ongoing) I looked at over 150 related texts which were whittled down to 48 specific papers from which I extracted the current state of the art and the key questions/issues/themes. To do this I used a mind-map or spider diagram:

From Wikipedia:
" A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is hierarchical and shows relationships among pieces of the whole.[1] It is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated representations of ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those major ideas. "

The other thing I do is highlight the key relavent phrases in the document - this helps when re-reading it for clarity to focus on the important sentences. Typically I find I need to read something 3 to 4 times to fully absorb it.

But don't try to do too much in one go. An hour or so at one sitting then go do something else for a bit...
 

Thread Starter

terabaaphoonmein

Joined Jul 19, 2020
111
Do you what most of the words in the text mean? Have you ever taken a reading comprehension test to determine your reading level?
No I haven't taken reading comprehension test. I know meaning of text, I don't get the gist of what paragraphs are trying to say...
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,845
No I haven't taken reading comprehension test. I know meaning of text, I don't get the gist of what paragraphs are trying to say...
You should find some facility where your word recognition and comprehension skills can be evaluated.

If your word recognition skills are low, it will take too much effort to understand what you're reading.
 

Irving

Joined Jan 30, 2016
3,843
I don't get the gist of what paragraphs are trying to say...
Can you give an example?

In a well written text a paragraph should introduce a single idea or concept and provide some explanation or expansion on that, building on what's gone before. If you're not getting the gist of it either its a very badly written document (it happens) or you're not following the line of thought of the author...
 

Thread Starter

terabaaphoonmein

Joined Jul 19, 2020
111
Can you give an example?

In a well written text a paragraph should introduce a single idea or concept and provide some explanation or expansion on that, building on what's gone before. If you're not getting the gist of it either its a very badly written document (it happens) or you're not following the line of thought of the author...
ok I will share what I am reading currently.
1641664579328.png
this is paragraph taken from https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//archive/gfs-sosp2003.pdf
but I don't understand what it is trying to say. Specially the last line. Why hotspots aren't issue in reading large multi chunk files sequentially.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,845
Specially the last line. Why hotspots aren't issue in reading large multi chunk files sequentially.
They state that a limitation in their algorithm is that small files will be broken into a small number of chunks. If multiple applications were reading the same file, it could create a bottleneck. But they found that their applications were typically reading large files sequentially, so using a large chunk size hasn't proven to be a bottleneck.
 

Irving

Joined Jan 30, 2016
3,843
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