That is, you must learn to quickly determine the important parts of the scholarly material you read. The most important thing to understand about a piece of scholarly writing is its argument. Arguments have three components: the problem, the solution, and the evidence.
We can't read scholarly article like any other reading we do. Predatory reading is a must to be able to understand arguments.
You must examine it (or sections of it) several times.
This just shows how closely we need to pay attention to scholarly articles. Reading each section carefully and probably more than once to grasp what the author is meaning to tell us.
Often authors seem to be backtracking, or giving ground, only to try to strengthen their cases.
Strategic concessions are a part of good storytelling and can help in strengthening the author case.
Hierarchy of major points is very important, and the most difficult to determine.
We need to be able to determine the internal structures to then know exactly what the author means.
Is the reading divided into chapters or sections? Are there subheads within the reading? Subheads under subheads? Are the titles clearly descriptive of the contents, or do they need to be figured out (as in titles formulated from quotations)? Are there words or concepts in the titles (of the piece, and of subheads) that need to be figured out (such as novel words, or metaphors)?
These questions help show us a different way of how to approach scholarly articles which is much different than a novel or pleasure reading.
When reading, try to determine why the author has spent time writing each paragraph.
The author has a purpose in writing these scholarly readings so we must think pragmatically.
Topic sentences (usually the first sentences of each paragraph) are miniature arguments. Important topic sentences function as subpoints in the larger argument.
At each begining sentence on a paragraph is a topic sentence weather it be the main argument or an argument leading to the main argument.
The most important thing to understand about a piece of scholarly writing is its argument. Arguments have three components: the problem, the solution, and the evidence.
You cannot just read it and explain that it is important but rather how it is important and what can possibly happen should you do it this way.