Remember Everything You Read: The Evelyn Wood 7-Day Speed Reading \& Learning Program pdfdrive com

Stage 1: Establish a Point of View
At the very outset of working on your paper, before you do any in-depth
research or writing, you should determine the point of view you’re going
to take.
As you move further into the paper, you may adjust and change this
viewpoint. But without an initial angle or orientation, you’ll be at a
severe disadvantage in producing a good piece of work. With an
inadequately-thought-out theme, efficiency and speed in researching and
writing a paper decline dramatically. In fact, you may end up with a
completely disorganized piece of writing.
Here are some guidelines that will help you establish an initial point
of view. As you employ this approach, it’s helpful to draw a slash recall
pattern containing branches with each of these major headings. Then,
using the pattern, you can begin to think on paper by jotting down
additional notes and sub-branches.
Identify your general topic.
To settle on a topic for your paper,
consider some of the possibilities from your general reading in the
course. For example, Beth knew that she wanted to write about the pre–
Civil War South, because she had enjoyed that part of the assigned
reading the most. So she began to focus her thinking and additional
preliminary reading on what she knew about this historical period.
Define your specific theme.
Obviously, Beth’s general topic had to be
defined and limited. A twenty-page paper about the entire history of the

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antebellum South would be superficial, and frustrating to write. Volumes
have been written about this subject.
So Beth began to narrow her topic down to a specific concept that was
more appropriate for a 5,000-word treatment. Her goal: to be able to
state her specific theme in one short phrase or sentence.
After referring to a couple of encyclopedias in addition to her
textbooks and class notes, she decided that she would like to focus on
the reasons the South had moved toward the conflict. Obviously, this
was still a meaty subject. But it seemed limited enough to give her
plenty of latitude for an in-depth discussion in a twenty-page paper.
Note: This process of defining a specific, limited theme may be the
most important element in the successful research and writing of a
school paper. So it’s wise to take some extra time at this point to find
just the right approach.
If your topic is too broad, you’re going to get anxious and confused in
attempting to organize and present too much material. But with a well-
thought-out, appropriately delineated theme, you’ll automatically be
able to discard irrelevant research material and focus on your topic.
Being able to focus consistently this way on one viewpoint—an
orientation that can be stated in a phrase or short sentence—is an
invaluable organizing tool as you research, outline and write your paper.