HW7

6.2 STRATEGIES FOR READING DIFFERENT KINDS OF TEXTBOOKS It’s important to know how to get the most out of your textbook, whether it’s printed or digital. Textbooks in the major disciplines—areas of academic study—are different in terms of their organization and style of writing. Because of this variation in how textbooks are organized and written, you will need to learn and use different reading strategies depending on what material you’re reading. In this section, we will look at how to approach the reading you complete in different disciplines, including math, science, social science, and the humanities. In addition, to get the most out of your textbooks, you’ll want to consider how your particular instructors use textbooks in their classes. Some instructors might use the textbook only to supplement lectures. Other instructors will expect you to read the textbook carefully. If your instructor hasn’t made it clear how the text will be used, ask for clarification. Ask your instructor what parts of the text will be covered on tests and what types of questions will be used. It is also very important to ask if the tests will be cumulative, meaning going all the way back to the beginning of the course, or cover only the material since the previous test. Finally, keep in mind that even within the same discipline, not all textbooks are put together the same way. Some are better designed and written than others. If your textbook seems disorganized or hard to understand, let your instructor know your opinion; other students in your class may feel the same way. You could be helping future students by encouraging the instructor to change books! Your instructor might also spend some class time explaining the text, its structure, and how it will be used in the course, and can meet with you during office hours to help you with the material. Math Texts Mathematics textbooks usually have lots of symbols and few words, which means that they present some special challenges. Each statement and every line in the solution of a problem needs to be considered and processed slowly. Typically, the author presents the material through definitions, theorems, and sample problems. As you read, pay special attention to definitions. Learning all the terms that relate to a new topic is the first step toward understanding. Math texts usually include derivations of formulas and proofs of theorems. You must understand and be able to apply the formulas and theorems, but unless your course has a particularly theoretical emphasis, you are less likely to be responsible for all the proofs. Therefore, if you get lost in the proof of a theorem, go on to the next item in the section. When you come to a sample problem, it’s time to get busy. Pick up pencil and paper, and work through the problem in the book. Then cover the solution and think through the problem on your own. Of course, the exercises in each section are the most important part of any math textbook. A large portion of the time you devote to the course will be spent completing assigned exercises. It is absolutely necessary to do this homework before the next class, whether or not your instructor collects it, and you may even be able to complete your work on online learning platforms that deliver quick feedback. Success in mathematics requires regular practice, and students who keep up with math homework, either alone or in groups, perform better than students who don’t, particularly when they include students in their study groups who are more advanced in math. After you complete an assignment, skim through the other exercises in the problem set. Reading the unassigned problems will help you understand more about the topic. Finally, talk the material through to yourself, and be sure your focus is on understanding the problem and its solution, not on memorization. Memorizing something might help you remember how to work through one problem, but it won’t help you learn the steps involved so that you can use them to solve other similar problems. A photo shows a top view of a young woman reading a science book. Getting the Most Out of Your Textbooks Math and science texts are filled with graphs and figures that you will need to understand in order to learn the content and follow classroom presentations. If you have trouble reading and understanding any of your textbooks, get help from your instructor or your classmates. Science Texts Your approach to your science textbook will depend somewhat on whether you are studying a math-based science, such as physics, or a text-based science, such as biology. In either case, you need to become familiar with the overall format of the book. Review the table of contents and the glossary, and check the material in the appendixes (supplemental materials at the end of the book). There you will find lists of physical constants, unit conversions, and various charts and tables. Many physics and chemistry books also include a mini review of the math you will need for these courses. Notice the organization of each chapter, and pay special attention to graphs, charts, and boxes. If the amount of technical detail seems overwhelming, remember that most textbook authors take great care in presenting material in a logical format, and they include tools to guide you. Learning objectives and summaries can be useful to study both before and after reading the chapter. You will usually find answers to selected problems in the back of the book, and some texts may even show you step-by-step solutions for working out a problem within the chapter (see Figure 6.5). Use the answer key, the student solutions manual, or the worked problems to increase your understanding of the chapters. As you begin an assigned section in a science text, skim the material quickly to gain a general idea of the topic and to begin to familiarize yourself with the new vocabulary and technical symbols. Then look over the end-of-chapter problems so that you’ll know what to look for in your detailed reading of the chapter. State a specific purpose: “I’m going to learn about recent developments in plate tectonics” or “I’m going to distinguish between mitosis and meiosis” or “Tonight I’m going to focus on the topics in this chapter that were stressed in class.” Should you underline or highlight, or should you outline the material in your science textbooks? You might decide to underline or highlight for a subject such as anatomy, which involves a lot of memorization. In most sciences, however, it is best to outline the text chapters. An illustration shows a page titled ‘Dosage calculations’ from a chemistry text book. FIGURE 6.5 > Reading Science Textbooks This page from a chemistry textbook includes abbreviations you’d need to know for practice exercises, and it also walks you step-by-step through a worked exercise. The text in the page reads, For some medicines prescribed for patients, the dosage must be adjusted according to the patient’s weight. This is especially true when administering medicine to children. For example, a dosage of open quotes 8.0 mg of tetracycline per kilogram body weight daily close quotes is a dosage based on the weight of the patient. A patient’s weight is often given in pounds, yet many drug handbooks give the dosage per kilogram body weight of the patient. Therefore, to calculate the correct amount of medicine to give the patient, you must first convert the patient’s weight from pounds into kilograms with an English-metric conversion, using Table 1-3. It is important to recognize that the dosage is itself a conversion factor between the mass or volume of the medicine and the weight of the patient (the whole sentence is in italics). Whenever you see the word per, it means in every and can be expressed as a ratio or fraction where per represents a division operation (divided by). For example, 60 miles per hour can be written as the ratio 60 mi by 1 hr. Similarly, a dosage of 8.0 mg per kg body weight can be expressed as the fraction 8.0 m g by 1 k g. Hence, dosage is a conversion factor: 8 m g divided by 1 k g or 1 k g divided by 8 m g. The words ‘per,’ ‘in every,’ and ‘is’ are italicized. Dimensional analysis is used to solve dosage calculations by multiplying the patient’s weight by the appropriate English-metric conversion factor and then multiplying by the dosage conversion factor, as shown in the following worked exercise. A worked exercise for dosage calculations shows the following: 1-19 Tetracycline elixir, an antibiotic, is ordered at a dosage of 8.0 m g per kilogram of body weight q. d. for a child weighing 52 l b. How many milligrams of tetracycline elixir should be given to this child daily? Solution Step 1: Identify the conversions. Since the dosage is given based on a patient’s weight in kilograms, an English-to-metric conversion must be performed. From Table 1-3 this is 1.000 k g equals 2.205 l b. The dosage itself is already a conversion factor. Step 2: Express each conversion as two possible conversion factors. The English-to-metric conversion factors for the patient’s weight are 1 k g divided by 2.205 l b or 2.205 l b divided by 1 k g. A pinned note on the right reads, Some common abbreviations indicating the frequency with which a medication should be administered include q.d. and b.i.d., derived from the Latin meaning administered open quotes daily close quotes and open quotes twice daily, close quotes respectively. If the medicine is prescribed for two times daily or four times daily, divide your final answer by two or four to determine how much to give the patient at each administration. YOUR TURN > MAKE GOOD CHOICES Textbooks are expensive, and it may be tempting to think that you can borrow one from another student, find the text in the library, or even do well in the course without having access to the textbook. No one will force you to purchase your textbooks—it’s really up to you. To succeed in college, however, it’s critically important that you choose to buy them and do all the assigned reading. Read the Tech Tip in this chapter for information on the benefits of e-books and for help in evaluating whether they are a good option for you. Social Science and Humanities Texts Many of the suggestions that apply to science textbooks also apply to reading in the social sciences (academic disciplines that examine human aspects of the world, such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, political science, and history). Social science textbooks are filled with terms specific to the particular field of study (see Figure 6.6). These texts also describe research and theory building and contain references to many primary sources. Your social science texts might also describe differences in opinions or perspectives. Social scientists do not all agree on any one issue, and you might be introduced to a number of ongoing debates about particular issues. In fact, your reading will become more interesting if you seek out different opinions about the same issue. You might have to go beyond your course textbook, but your library will be a good source for finding various viewpoints about ongoing controversies. Consider creating charts to identify each author’s perspective and to differentiate among them. Textbooks in the humanities (branches of knowledge that investigate human beings, their culture, and their self-expression, such as philosophy, religion, literature, music, and art) provide facts, examples, opinions, and original material, such as stories or essays. You will often be asked to react to your reading by identifying central themes or characters. An illustration shows a page titled ‘The Price System’ from an economics book. FIGURE 6.6 > Social Science Textbook Page When reading a social science textbook, such as the economics book shown here, pay attention to key terms, like those defined in the marginal glossary. This text also has clear headings, which help guide you through the content, and a feature called “Checkpoint,” which summarizes important ideas and includes questions to test your understanding. The text reads, When buyers and sellers exchange money for goods and services, accepting some offers and rejecting others, they are also doing something else: They are communicating their individual desires. Much of this communication is accomplished through the prices of items. If buyers value a particular item sufficiently, they will quickly pay its asking price. If they do not buy it, they are indicating they do not believe the item to be worth its asking price. Prices also give buyers an easy means of comparing goods that can substitute for each other. If the price of margarine falls to half the price of butter, this will suggest to many consumers that margarine is a better deal. Similarly, sellers can determine what goods to sell by comparing their prices. When prices rise for tennis rackets, this tells sporting goods store operators that the public wants more tennis rackets, leading the store operators to order more. Prices, therefore, contain a considerable amount of useful information for both consumers and sellers. For this reason, economists often call out market economy the price system. A list below titled ‘Checkpoint’ reads, Markets: Bullet Markets are institutions that enable buyers and sellers to interact and transact business. Bullet Markets differ in geographical location, products offered, and size. Bullet Prices contain a wealth of information for both buyers and sellers. Bullet Through their purchases, consumers signal their willingness to exchange money for particular products at particular prices. These signals help businesses decide what to produce, and how much of it to produce. Bullet The market economy is also called the price system. Question: What are the important differences between the markets for financial securities such as the New York Stock Exchange and your local farmer’s market? Answers to the Checkpoint questions can be found at the end of this chapter. A text on the right reads, price system A name given to the market economy because prices provide considerable information to both buyers and sellers. Supplementary Material Textbooks have to cover a lot of material in a limited space, and they do not necessarily provide all the things you want to know about a topic. If you find yourself interested in a particular topic or your instructor requires you to complete additional reading, go to primary sources—original research or documents on a topic—or supplementary sources that are often referenced in textbooks, either at the end of the chapters or in the back of the book. These sources can be journal articles, research papers, or essays, and they can be found online or in your library. Reading the original source material will provide you with more details than most textbooks will. Many of these sources were originally written for other instructors or researchers. Therefore, they often 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. That is, first read the article’s conclusion and discussion sections. Then go back to see how the author performed the experiment or formed the ideas. 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 main points of a research article before you start reading it. When reading research articles, always ask yourself, “So what?” Was the research important to what we know about the topic or, in your opinion, was it unnecessary?