Research Reading
Again, whether we work in direct-practice, community organizing, or an academic context, we will need to be able to read, understand, and evaluate research papers and reports from government agencies. We will need to understand how the researchers designed, conducted, and analyzed their studies, in order to evaluate our own activities.
Key Skills: Reading effectively means being able to use and interpret APA citation style, understand how the parts of a research paper work (e.g. the abstract, literature review, methods, conclusions, and discussion sections). It also means being prepared to think critically, evaluating the authors’ claims and deciding whether they match up to the available data.