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INRL-106 & Week 2 The Art of Close Reading Part 1

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What does it take to read well ? To develop thinking about reading and, as a result, to learn how to engage in the process of what we call close reading. Students not only need to learn how to determine whether a text is worth reading, but also how to take ownership of a texts important ideas (when it contains them). This requires the active use of intellectual skills.

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Close reading, which is reading with an emphasis on: understanding your purpose in reading understanding the authors purpose in writing seeing ideas in a text as being interconnected looking for and understanding systems of meaning

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The fundamentals of close reading 1)Reading For a Purpose 2)Developing a Map of Knowledge 3)Reading to Understand Systems of Thought 4)Reading Within Disciplines

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1) READING FOR A PURPOSE Skilled readers do not read blindly, but purposely. They have an agenda, goal, or objective. Their purpose, together with the nature of what they are reading, determines how they read. They read in different ways in different situations for different purposes. Of course, reading has a nearly universal purpose: to figure out what an author has to say on a given subject. (i.e.what the authors main point ?)

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Various purposes for reading : 1.Sheer pleasure: requires no particular skill level (not our type) 2.To figure out a simple idea: which may require skimming the text 3.To gain specific technical information: skimming skills required 4.To enter, understand, and appreciate a new world-view: close reading skills in working through a challenging series of tasks that stretch our minds. 5.To learn a new subject: close reading skills in internalizing and taking ownership of an organized system of meanings

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Skimming vs. Scanning Skimming refers to the process of reading only main ideas within a passage to get an overall impression of the content of a reading selection. Scanning is a reading technique to be used when you want to find specific information quickly. In scanning you have a question in your mind and you read a passage only to find the answer, ignoring unrelated information.

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Considering the Authors Purpose Must also be clear about the authors purpose in writing. Think about what adjustments you would make in your reading given the differing purposes of those writers. To read productively, your purpose in reading must take into account the authors purpose in writing. Ask yourself, whether the author made her/his point persuasively/accurately based on scientific knowledge and/or fact.

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2) Developing a Map of Knowledge All knowledge exists in systems of meanings, with interrelated primary ideas, secondary ideas, and peripheral ideas. Imagine a series of circles beginning with a small core circle of primary ideas, surrounded by concentric circles of secondary ideas, moving outward to an outer circle of peripheral ideas. The primary ideas, at the core, explain the secondary and peripheral ideas. Whenever we read to acquire knowledge, we should take ownership, first, of the primary ideas, for they are a key to understanding all of the other ideas. Moreover, when we gain an initial understanding of the primary ideas, we can begin to think within the system as a whole. The sooner we begin to think within a system, the sooner the system becomes meaningful to us.

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Core Idea Secondary Idea

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3) Reading Understand Systems of Thought Reading with discipline means reading to understand systems of thought. Understanding systems of thought means taking command of the structures that are the basis of all thought.

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4) Reading Within Disciplines Approach academic discipine as systems of thought. Unlike natural science, in which there is agreement on the most basic principles guiding scientific thinking, some systems within a given discipline (particularly the ones under social sciences) are in conflict with each other. For example, multiple conflicting perspectives in IR. Your task as an IR student is to master the systems by exploring how they conflict with each other. Of course, in seeing how conflicting systems exclude each other, you would also discover how they overlap. Conflict between systems of thought is rarely, if ever, total and absolute.

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Universal Consensus on study field in Natural Sciences

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No Universal Consensus on study field in Social Sciences

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What is International Relations ? How do we define it ?

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Broad Definition of IR The study of the political and social interaction of state, non-state actors, and individuals.

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States Diplomatic Strategic relations focusing on war-peace & conflict-cooperation ( Conventional Definition)

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Non-state actors, IOs, NGOs (i.e.UN, EU, MNCs, Green Peace) cross-border transactions of all kinds (political, economic, social)

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Individual: Global society, social movements, migration

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Two inferences for defining IR 1)Our definition will be just for convenience, no equivalent of rock 2)Whatever definition we will pick, it will not be a politically neutral one.

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How do we know about IR ?

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Analysing Foreign Policy

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To conclude: To read well, we must understand reading as requiring intellectual skills. As a good reader, we dont simply decipher words, we actively engage in a dialog with the writer. We actively seek the authors purpose in writing. We look for systems of meaning in a text.

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Thanks