Skip to Main Content

Anatomy of a Research Paper

Reading strategies and notetaking tips

Now, you’re looking at a three-page list of sources and you’re getting scared.

"I’m going to have to read all that!."  
Well, you won’t. (I will because, well, I’m an obsessed Peaksey person.)

You sort of need to rank your articles in order to see which you may want to pay the most attention to and which you will want to barely glance at. 

Rank One: Reading the reading material.

You will probably want to read the articles, or if books, the pertinent chapters, that you think will hold the most information.  On the next tab in this box, I will go through the list of sources I have and give justification why I think these are the ones that deserve a full read through. 

Rank Two: Scanning the reading material. 

You will want to figure out things that hold a good amount of the material you need and scan through those.  On a subsequent tab in this box, I will go through the list of sources I have and give justification why I think these are the ones that require a scan.  I also will provide tips on how to scan articles. 

Rank Three: Skimming the reading material.

You will finally want to figure out the things that have the least amount of material that is relevant to your paper and give these a quick skim.  On a subsequent box, I will go through a list of sources I have and give justification why I think these are the ones that have the least relevant information. I will also provide tips on how to do a skim of an article. 

  • Parting Words: It's Not About the Bunny: Assessing Twin Peaks: The Return
    • This is a relatively short article so reading it is not a big deal. 
  • The Series that Changed Television?: Twin Peaks, 'Classic' Status, and Temporal Capital
    • It looks like it has a lot of jargon (which it did) so a close reading may allow one to cipher what is important in a bunch of slogging jargonistic terms. 
  • I'll See You Again in 25 Years: Paratextually Re-commodifying and Revisiting Anniversary Twin Peaks
    • The term "Revisiting" means that people rewatch the show.  It may lead to some stuff about it's popularity. And it seems the entire article is about this. 
  • "The Owls are Not What they Seem The World of Twin Peaks
    • This is a good history of the show, which may have good background information.
  • That Show You like Might be Coming Back into Style: How Twin Peaks Changed the Face of Contemporary Television
    • We are looking into why this remains a popular series and the fact that it was revolutionary and 'changed the face' of television means that it was popular enough to influence other television in the future.
  • Anatomy of a Cult TV Following: Twin Peaks Fandom, Then and Now
    • This has two of our watchwords, so this must be very, yerv (if you know the show, you know) important. 
  • How Twin Peaks Invented Modern Television
    • Again, another one touching on the influence. 
  • Entering the World of Twin Peaks
    • Yet another history article.
  • The Owls are Not What They Meme: Making Sense of Twin Peaks with Internet Memes
    • If a piece of media has memes, it's probably a good hint that it was popular. However, it may not have much that you think is important. A lot will be buried, so keeping a weather eye for some important material will be key.  
  • Lucy Finally Understands How Cellphones Work: Ambiguous Digital Technologies in Twin Peaks: The Return and Its Fan Communities
    • It deals with the fan community and how it interacts digitally, at least that's what the article seems like it says. So it will have something about the popularity of the show, and how the fandom has survived, but it may not have everything you want.  Looking out for those important watchwords will be key. 
  • Nightmare in Red?: Twin Peaks Parody, Homage, Intertextuality and Mashup
    • This one seems like you should be reading this, but upon reflection, you don't want too terribly much on parodies, homages and mashups. Yes, that proves that it's popular but you want more of a diverse range of evidence.  So just finding the information that will be THE best will be good enough.  Reading it may get you to record everything. 
  • Peaked out
    • This one may not have a lot, but it's another history article, so a scan for important points will suffice. 
  • Can Twin Peaks Make a Comeback
    • This one was written before the premiere of the Return of the series in 2017.  So it's going to discuss why it may be worthy of a revisit. 
  • I'll See You Again in 25 Years: Doppelganging Nostalgia and Twin Peaks: The Return
    • Again, another one around the time of The Return of the series, and it has something to do with one of our watchwords, nostalgia. However, we're not simply doing something about the nostalgia aesthetic, so like the Homage article, don't go too deeply into this. 
  • When You See Me Again, It Won't Be Me: Twin Peaks from Multichannel Era to the Digital Era
    • It may have something about viewing numbers. You may want statistics, so keep an eye out for statistical information here. 
  • Make Sense of It: Cult and Complex TV Fandoms, Post-Truth Discourse and an Excess of Meaning in Twin Peaks: Season 3
    • Another one about the fandom, but again something so jargon filled that may prove dense.  However, it seems like it has more political commentary than actually anything about the popularity of the show, so the bias may keep you from finding anything important, a scan for important information will suffice. 
  • Introduction: 'It is Happening Again": New Reflections on Twin Peaks
    • This again seems like a history sketch.  However, may not have a lot.  

So that's what you will want to do. 

  • Don't read anything in the article EXCEPT find the watchwords or synonyms of such and take note around those. 
  • Pay attention when those come up. Then turn off your "brain" when you think you're past the most important material. 
  • Let your eyes act as a searchlight of sorts.  Finding those important phrases and terms. 

Scanning helps in the following: 

  • It helps you hone in on the most important information and only record that so as not to include too much extraneous information in your paper. 
  • It lets your eyes glaze over things that may be too jargon-y especially if your audience isn't going to be interested in jargon anyway. 
  • Textural Poaching Twin Peaks: The Audrey Horne Sweater Girl GIFs
    • This may not have too much available dealing with the popularity of the show overall, so a mere "Looksie" will be okay
  • When You Get There, You Will Already Be There': Stranger Things, Twin Peaks and the Nostalgia Industry
    • Since this also deals with Stranger Things, there may only be a little bit here and there about Twin Peaks, so don't go too deeply into it.
  • Neo-Cult and the Altered Audience: Reviving Cult TV for the Post-TV Age
    • Since it doesn't mention Twin Peaks directly in the article title, it may not have anything, but let's give it a glance for the heck of it.
  • Is it About the Bunny? No, It's Not About the Bunny!: David Lynch's Fandom and Trolling of Peak TV Audiences
    • This seems to be more about David Lynch's writing and directing but it talks about how this interacts with audiences, so there may be something there, worthy of a glance
  • Fan Reactions to 'The Leftovers" and 'Twin Peaks: The Return"
    • Again deals with another show as well as Twin Peaks so perhaps not too much.
  • No Lynch, No Peaks!; Auteurism, Fan/Actor Campaigns and the Challenges of Twin Peaks; Return(s)
    • I'm not sure completely what this is about at initial glance from just looking at the results list, but looks germane enough.  Let's skim it to see if it's really important...HINT: It is! 
  • Ontological Security, Authorship and Resurrection: Exploring Twin Peaks' Social Media Afterlife
    • Again, not sure what that's about either, let's just take a glance....It's important 
  • The bottom two "No Lynch, No Peaks!" and Ontological Security...gets bumped up.
    • No Lynch No Peaks gets bumped to scanning level 
    • Ontological gets bumped to reading in full

 

In other words;

Skimming is just what it sounds like.  Skim milk. 
  • You're barely going beyond the most surface level look through. 
  • Don't pay attention to anything until it seems important.  

Notetaking Methods

Now throughout the course of my reading, scanning and skimming of those sections, I'll want to take notes throughout if there is a sentence or a few that will support what my thesis statement/topic is.  Remember my topic is the popularity of Twin Peaks.

There are two separate schools of thought that come to play when you’re in the note taking process.  But first let’s address a little elephant in the room, paraphrasing!

There are two methods I found which work.  

Method One: Almost always record your notes as direct quotes

This is the one I espouse most often. The reason being is that if you attempt to paraphrase a note during your notetaking phase, you may not know exactly how the paraphrased research will flow into your writing.  In order to make it fit, you may need to rework it.  And without the original quote at hand, you may misconstrue the paraphrase and inadvertently have a terrible, inaccurate, or plagiaristic paraphrase.  Or you will have to wedge your paper into a paraphrase that will not work. 

The detraction is that you have a lot of long quotes to either handwrite or copy into your notes page, which may feel a little like a slog.  So perhaps something to keep you from taking too many extraneous notes?

Method two: predetermine and prewrite your paraphrases   

The other school of thought during the note-taking process is to already have your paraphrases and your quotes separate. The benefit of this is that you will know which pieces of your research are deserving of directly quoting and which necessitates paraphrasing.  With the above way, it is tempting to direct quote everything in your paper if you’re a novice writer of research papers, because you’ll feel that EVERYTHING is classic and better worded than you will ever be able to string a sentence together.  So, this method forces you to write paraphrases before you even begin drafting your paper. 

It is up to you which method you wish to use. 

But let’s go into the process of how to get this paper going. Remember, I'm using MLA citation as the topic of this hypothetical paper is about something in the humanities field.  

Now let's take notes on these.  Remember how I said that having a bibliography ready would come in handy during the notes taking phase? Notice how each source has as it's "Heading" the full bibliographic entry. That way you never forget where the quote comes from.