00:00What's up, smart student? How are you doing today? Welcome to the channel
00:01My name is Chelsea Seaburn
00:03I'm happy you're here because today's video is a topic that's been requested time and time again, so I'm excited to finally cover it, and that is how to read a research paper fast
00:16Any source you're trying to read for research purposes or for academic writing, I'm going to teach you how to do this quickly, effectively, and in the easiest way possible
00:27Sound good? Let's do this! Okay, so this is the second video in my research mini-series, and what we learned in the first one is what effective research is
00:37According to my definition, effective research is smart
00:43So I like to teach people how to do what I call smart research, and the way you do that is by being smart
00:47You become smart when it comes to research by being strategic
00:53Anything you want to do smartly, you want to do strategically, and now with research in mind, you want to do this by being selective
01:00So, smart equals strategic, which in this case means being selective, and that's exactly the mindset I want you to take into this tutorial
01:10Because remember, the way I like to explain this to college students is that you want to think about your brain power as a currency
01:16All of that power in your brain is like a bunch of dollar bills, and when you use your brain to say, "Go read a journal article," all right, you think that's going to be a good journal article or source for your research paper, you have to spend your currency in order to read that
01:32Paper, so let's say that article wasn't a good source for your paper
01:40Well, guess what? You just wasted currency on something you're not going to actually use because you want to be a smart spender when it comes to reading different sources for research
01:51The key here is to get the most with the least; in other words, you want to spend the least amount of currency while getting the most useful information possible
02:02All right, so now I'm going to jump into my computer and pull up the example where I'm going to walk you through first qualifying different sources, and then how I would personally read through that source to get the information I need
02:16All right, I'll see you back in a second, and here we are
02:19Welcome to my..
02:22Okay, so here's our research topic that we're going to work with, and it's a pretty simple one—one you might be able to relate to
02:30We're going to research the variable factors that impact procrastination tendencies in college students
02:34In other words, we're going to be investigating the different things that play a part in the likelihood of procrastination in college students
02:42So, what I've done is I've pulled up three different articles here, and I'm going to point out the different factors that are important for you to understand
02:49 Step one is we want to qualify these articles
02:52And what do I mean by qualify? Well, we want to make sure that before we read any of the material—or most of it, anyway—that the information in that..
03:02The article is going to help our research and further it along
03:07The first thing you want to do to achieve this is to pay attention to the keywords
03:11You want to focus on keywords that fit your topic, and you also want to pay close attention to keywords that don't fit your topic because if there is a keyword that immediately negates what you're actually looking for, you should move on
03:28You don't want to read anything in that article
03:30So, let's go ahead and start with the first one
03:33The first thing I'm going to examine is the title, which is very simple
03:35Here we have "Examining the differences in procrastination tendencies among university students." Okay, that sounds like a slam dunk
03:44Actually, it's perfect
03:46Pretty much, what my topic is now is the next place you can look to qualify for this article is the keywords
03:53The keywords are going to be listed on the abstract, generally five to eight—not many of them, but what these are going to do is give you the most broad understanding, a snapshot if you will, of what is in this research paper
04:06Because what these keywords are is they are the most prevalent terminology used throughout this paper
04:14So, reading these keywords, we have "academic," "self-efficacy," "gender," "performance," "procrastination." Okay, looks good, so I'm going to bookmark it
04:28Let's go look at the other two articles and qualify them as well
04:30Okay, so here we go, we find this article
04:34Let's start by looking for those
04:36Keywords starting with the title: academic procrastination in a group of high school students
04:43Well, first of all, we're missing an "a" right here, so no
04:45But this is what I mean by paying attention to keywords that negate your topic
04:50Group of high school students— we're researching procrastination in college students— so right away, I would close out of this and not waste any more of my brain currency on it
05:02I know it's not going to fit my topic, so I'm going to move on to the next one as soon as possible, which brings us to this article right here
05:11Okay, so let's go ahead and read that title: academic procrastination in college students: the role of self-reported executive function
05:20All right, that kind of sounds like it can fit academic
05:24Procrastination in college students
05:26That's perfect
05:28The role of self-reported executive function
05:30This brings me to a good point
05:32So, from reading this title, let's say I don't know what executive function is
05:39What I would do is copy that word, go to Google, and see what executive function means
05:47Right here, executive function and self-regulation skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks
05:59Okay, so executive function is very close to self-efficacy—our ability to do something
06:04So, quite frankly, this title fits our topic
06:09Now, I'm going to scroll down and look for keywords, just to further enhance this, and make sure there's no important keyword that..
06:16Negates my topic
06:17We have academic procrastination, executive functioning, which we know what that means now, and conscientious
06:23Conscientious — this word right here I’ve never been able to pronounce that word, but that fits my topic
06:26Keywords look good
06:30We’ve qualified these two articles
06:33Now, what I’m going to do is go back to this first one and walk you through the sections in the paper, starting with the abstract
06:43So, you know how the keywords give you the broad sense of the research paper and what is contained in it
06:56The abstract is going to be the next broad source of the research paper, but it’s going to be more inclusive than the keywords
07:01So, what I’m going to do is read through the abstract, and I want to point out a few
07:07Things okay, work with me here
07:09The study explored the differences in procrastination behaviors among students in terms of gender, academic courses, level of performance, and level of academic self-efficacy
07:16Okay, great
07:23So right away, I can see the different factors that this research paper is going to discuss
07:29I like them; I'm going to keep going
07:31Next, we have responses gathered from the 200 college students of Bulacan State University, Philippines
07:38The hypothesized differences in procrastination scores were analyzed using an independent samples t-test
07:44I do want to point out something here: we have this right here—Bulacan State University, Philippines
07:52This is a key detail that this research is based on a study
07:57Done in the Philippines, and so this keyword does not qualify this research paper from being a potential source in our research
08:04However, you would need to decide if a study done in the Philippines is going to fit your paper
08:11Okay, moving on down, we have right here
08:16So, results revealed gender differences in procrastination, where male students procrastinate more than female students
08:24Students with low perceived academic self-efficacy showed significantly higher procrastination scores than those with high self-efficacy
08:35No significant differences in procrastination scores were found when students were grouped according to the type of academic course and level of performance
08:43Great, this is a..
08:47Snapshot of the paper, and the reason being is I don't know if you noticed or were paying attention to the content, but everything in here gives you a small sample of the important parts of the different sections in the research paper
09:01For example, this first sentence here is an introduction to the factors that are being researched in this paper
09:12Next, the responses were gathered from the 200 students; the hypothesized differences, those are going to correlate with the methods that were used to research that topic
09:24Finally, the last portion in that abstract is note result revealed
09:33We have all the results section here, and so what that is going to tie into is, well, the results section, the findings in the study, as well as… The discussion, as you can see, is that abstract is a very powerful piece of information to read right away because now I know what the purpose of the research was, what research was actually done, what methods were used, and what the results are, and a little bit about the discussion
10:03So, with that in mind, the way I'm going to structure the next part of this tutorial is I want to explain the significance of the various parts of the research paper so you understand them, and then I'm going to give you what I would personally look for if I were researching this article
10:20So, let's start with the introduction
10:22The significance of reading the introduction is that if you want to get more detail about the background of the topic you're going to be Studying now, when it comes to reading the introduction, there's a trick on how to read this fast as well, because as you probably know, introductions can be quite lengthy themselves
10:40The trick is to read the first paragraph and the last paragraph
10:44The reason you want to do this is because the first paragraph is going to be where the writer introduces their topic and starts to bring in any important background information or context that you need to know to understand the rest of the paper
10:59Then, going down to the last paragraph, this is generally where the writer is going to move on to expressing their intentions for their research, so what is the goal that they're trying to achieve by researching this topic? So, as you can see here
11:15I'm actually going to zoom in a little bit, as you can see here
11:18This research attempts to explore procrastination levels
11:20The phrase right here, "this research attempts," is their intention, that's their goal
11:28So that's why it's important to read the first and the last paragraph, because just like we get a snapshot of the entire paper through the keywords in the abstract, you get a snapshot of the introduction by reading the first and last paragraphs
11:41Now, let's go ahead and move on down to the next section of the research paper, which is going to be the methods, and that's exactly what it sounds like
11:49These are the methods—the studies that the researcher performed in order to conduct this research
11:54And so, I'll say right now, methods
11:56are probably the least important part in a research paper for you, the student who's reading this research to use in your paper
12:03The only reason it would really be important is if you were trying to replicate this study yourself, which is uncommon
12:09So instead, what you want to pay attention to are the findings of the study, or the results
12:15Results are important because, now that you understand the topic that's being researched, you want to know what was found out about that topic
12:25And so, that's what I mean by methods aren't necessarily that important, because what the research found out is generally what you're going to want to use in your paper
12:33And here's the thing: when it comes to results, I find that there's an even more..
12:38The important section is the discussion of the results, which is going to come next
12:46In other words, now that this researcher, with all the information after the methods, has completed the research, obtained their results, and studied their topic, this is their discussion of the entire research paper
12:57This is going to be the center, the heart, of this research paper, if you will
13:06Finally, there is one more section in the research paper, generally called the conclusions or recommendations, and this is a really important part if you're trying to read through a research paper quickly because if you want to get the main insights or spoilers of the entire research paper, the conclusions are key
13:24What better place to go than the conclusion? What did this researcher conclude after doing their research? Their discussion and their results, that's going to be right here
13:33And so, a lot of times, this information here might actually be the most valuable to you in terms of writing your research paper
13:40Okay, so now the last thing I want to do is go back up to the top and pretend this research paper is brand new, and I'm going to qualify it and go through the different sections of how I would personally grab the material I need to write my research paper
13:58Okay, so first things first, I'm going to read the title, which we did in the beginning
14:02I see that it fits my topic
14:04I want to make sure that there's nothing in this paper
14:09That's going to negate my topic, so next I go to my keywords and I read through these, and I see that, okay, all of these fit my topic
14:15This research paper is qualified
14:20I want to investigate more
14:24The next place I would go to is the abstract because the abstract is going to give me the condensed snapshot of the entire research paper
14:29It's going to give me the key highlights of the different sections in that paper
14:34I read through here, and I make a note that this is a study in the Philippines because that's important if I'm going to use this in my research paper
14:40I like everything that's being said here, so now I'm going to move on to the next part, which, personally, the next thing I'm going to go read is the conclusion of this research paper
14:52I have the I want to know what the conclusion was, what the final impressions were after this person wrote this research paper and did all of this, because the information in the conclusion is going to let me know if I want to read more of this research paper
15:19The conclusions that were drawn are either interesting to me, I feel like they're going to fit my research, and I want to learn more about this, therefore, I'm going to read more on this paper
15:25Or I read the conclusion and I realize, no, this doesn't really fit my research or I have everything I need
15:27So, I read through all of this, and based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn
15:33I read through these four points, and if I like those four
15:38Points, and I do want to read more
15:39The next thing I'm personally going to focus on is the discussion
15:43So, I liked what was said in the conclusion; now I want to read the discussion
15:46This discussion is generally going to be the expanded version of the conclusion, where it will include the results and what the researcher deduced from those results
15:58So, then, this is what I would read through
16:00At that point, there's a good chance that I have the information I need because now I have the snapshot of the research paper, I know what conclusions were drawn, and what those conclusions were based on from the discussion of the results
16:17So, that's personally what I would focus on
16:21Now, one more thing I do want to say is, let's say I read all this information
16:25It's great
16:29I really want to use more of this research in my paper, or perhaps there's just a little more information I feel like I need to know
16:34Then I'm going to go back up to the introduction because the introduction is going to give me the background information of the study, the context I need to understand what I just read
16:44It sounds a little backwards, but I find the introduction's information comes into play later on
16:49So, like I said with that trick, I would read the first paragraph and the last paragraph
16:56If I need more information, I can read the rest of the introduction
16:59But with that, I am finished with this source
17:02Now I do have this other article; we're not going to go through it the way I just did
17:07There is something I wanted
17:13To point out in here that was not included in this first one, so I read the title, I like it, I read the abstract, it fits
17:19I'm going down to the conclusion section, so I'm scrolling all the way down and I see this right here: limitations
17:27Limitations is another section that research papers might contain, and if you see it, it's something you probably want to pay attention to
17:36The reason being is because this is generally a roadblock, a limitation—something that hindered the research as the researcher intended for it to go
17:46And so, as we can see here, the present findings are therefore preliminary and would be strengthened if future research were to use behavioral measures of task, blah blah blah
17:54So, in other words, they're telling..
18:02That their findings are non-conclusive and that more research needs to be done, so their research question, they probably weren't able to effectively answer it
18:10So, this is just important to keep in mind if you see it, so that way when you go down to the conclusion or the discussion on future directions, which is discussion in this case, you understand the context based around what their discussion is or what they concluded
18:29And that is, again, that it's non-conclusive in this particular study
18:33We're back
18:35Alright, I hope you found that helpful
18:37Truthfully, I love jumping into my computer and showing you guys tutorials like that because I actually think watching me do things is the videos that you..
18:44Guys, get the most help from this, so please let me know if you have any questions about that down below
18:48And then, keep in mind that this is a mini-series, so I have more videos that are going to come out based around research
18:55If there's any topic you want to see or any questions you have when it comes to researching for academic writing, feel free to leave those down in the comment section as well
19:05Finally, the last thing I want to mention is that now, as all of you are back in full swing for your new semesters, the Smart Writers Masterclass is back
19:13If you haven't attended one of those before, I have plenty of available times, and I'll link that up here and down below so you can click on the page, read about it, and see if you'd like to join
19:24Find a time that works for your schedule and join me
19:27It's where I help students with the process of academic writing
19:29Tons of students are finding a lot of value in it, and I hope that could be one of you too
19:35If that sounds good to you, but that is going to be it for today
19:37Yeah, I have nothing else to share, so go enjoy the rest of your week
19:42I'll see you guys in the next video.