Grad School Essentials: A Crash Course in Scholarly Skills

by Zachary Shore

Your most useful tactic in this process: restate what you have read in your own words and write it down. Always remember: restate and write down.

There are only two ways we prove points in scholarship: through empirics and through logic. Empirics are the tangible bits of evidence we can assemble: the severed head of a king, the burned-out building from the fire, the diary of the midwife who tells us how she lived. Logic is the reasoning that rests above the facts.

As you read, write down the assumptions that the author is making. Later, you will go through your list and ask whether the author supported each claim with adequate evidence and sound logic.

Always link an argument to something larger. Especially when critiquing an article or book chapter, you need to figure out what the bigger issue is.