Read a research paper in three passes so you spend depth only on papers that earn it, and come away able to state the claim, the evidence, and the limitation. Use when reading a paper, doing a literature review, or summarising research.
--- name: read-a-technical-paper category: learning description: >- Read a research paper in three passes so you spend depth only on papers that earn it, and come away able to state the claim, the evidence, and the limitation. Use when reading a paper, doing a literature review, or summarising research. --- # Read a Technical Paper Reading a paper linearly from abstract to conclusion is slow and you retain little. Papers are not written to be read that way — they are written to be defensible to reviewers. Read in **three passes**, and stop after any of them. Most papers deserve pass one and nothing more; that is a feature. ## Pass 1 — Is this worth my time? (5-10 minutes) Read, in this order: **title, abstract, section headings, figures and their captions, conclusion**. Skip everything else, including the entire body. Then answer: - What problem is this solving? - What is the claimed contribution? - Does it apply to anything I care about? Most papers stop here. Note the citation and move on — this is not failure, it is triage working. Figures deserve disproportionate attention. A well-made paper's central claim is usually visible in one figure, and the caption often states it more plainly than the prose.
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