Doing the research

When you have understood the question and know what you are expected to write, you will need to do some reading to find out what has been published in your field of study. It is most unlikely that you will find the information you need about your topic in just one specific section of the library. You need to think and look as widely as you can about possible subject areas that may be relevant to your topic.

Many sources are available in several formats - as hard copy, on CD-ROM, and on-line via the Internet. In the last few years there has been a great increase in the amount of information that can be found on-line. Using the Internet, it is possible to search for the details of books, journal articles and conference proceedings, as well as for data such as statistics, maps, diagrams and so on. The number of periodical titles that you are able to access on-line is growing rapidly. Internet gateways and subject databases can  also be good starting points for your research.

You will probably start by looking at secondary sources, for example dictionaries, encyclopaedias, bibliographies, indexes and abstracts that you can use to help you to find the primary sources - the full text of articles, books, government and company reports, etc. that you need to read for your essay.

Use the library computer catalogue to find useful material for your topic. Choose the: Search the Catalogue option on the main menu.

Start with the Keyword option and identify the names and call numbers (see Dewey for more information) of the sections of the library that might hold useful material for your topic.

Use the Author or Title search option on the Search the Catalogue menu of the terminal for the details and class numbers of some relevant books and journals.

If you need more information from the library, look for Information Databases and Catalogues for your subject.

Sources

Many of the ideas and much of the information you use for your writing will come from books. Using your library catalogue, you can enter your subject keywords to find out if there are any books in your research area and whether they are in stock or out on loan. If you find any useful entries, you can note down the class numbers, then go to the shelves, and perhaps find other relevant books as you browse. You will probably find the publication details of other relevant material worth noting in the references of these books.

To search further than the library you are using, and to find the titles of books that have been published, or that are in print, there are some bibliographies you can use. If you note down or print out relevant references, you can check them through the library catalogue to see whether your library has them in stock. If they are not, or are out on loan, you can either put in an interlibrary loan or a recall request, or perhaps see if they are held by another library you are able to use. Remember to record the bibliographical details of books.

Efficient reading skills

Reading involves the use of the eyes and the brain. In order to read fast, you need to use more of your brain. Reading fast means reading efficiently. This means not wasting time and using your eyes and brain together well. To do this, you need to read purposefully and interactively.

Purposeful

Reading is purposeful. The way you read something will depend on your purpose. You read different texts in different ways. In everyday life, you usually know why you are reading, you have a question and you read to find the answer. You usually know your way around your favourite newspaper, so if you want to know the sports results, you go straight to the correct page, or if you want to know what is on television tonight, you go straight to the television page. You do not start on the first page. When you read a novel, it is different. You start at the beginning and slowly move towards the end. In academic reading, you need to be flexible when you read - you may need to read quickly to find relevant sections, then read carefully when you have found what you want. General efficient reading strategies such as scanning to find the book or chapter, skimming to get the gist and careful reading of important passages are necessary as well as learning about how texts are structured in your subject.

Interactive

Reading is an interactive process - it is a two-way process. As a reader you are not passive but active. This means you have to work at constructing the meaning from the marks on the paper, which you use as necessary. You construct the meaning using your knowledge of the language, your subject and the world, continually predicting and assessing. MacLachlan & Reid (1994, pp. 3-4) talk about interpretive framing, which is essential in order to understand what you are reading. They discuss four types of framing:

• Extratextual framing - using information outside the text, your background knowledge and experience, to understand texts.
• Intratextual framing - making use of cues from the text, such as headings and sub-headings and referential words such as "this" and "that" to understand texts.
• Intertextual framing - making connections with other texts you are reading to help to understand your text.
• Circumtextual framing - using information from the cover of the book, title, abstract, references etc. to understand the text.

You need to be active all the time when you are reading and use all the information that is available. It is useful, therefore, before you start reading to try to actively remember what you know, and do not know, about the subject and as you are reading to formulate questions based on the information you have. All the information given above can be used to help you formulate question to keep you interacting.

Useful skills are:

• Scanning to locate specifically required information.
• Surveying a text.
• Using the title. Sometimes you have to make quick decisions based on the title.
• Skimming a text to get an overall impression. Skimming is useful when you want to survey a text to get a general idea of what it is about.

Evaluating sources

As you find more and more different kinds of information in the library, on CDs or on-line, you will find that you will need to make judgements about their value. You will need to evaluate how useful and trustworthy these sources are. Here are some useful questions to ask:

• What are the author's credentials? Where do they work? What have they published in the past? Is the author an expert in the area? Has the author's name been referred to by others?
• When was the source published? Is it up-to date? Has it been updated? Does it update the work of others?
• Where was it published? Is it in an academic journal? Who is the intended audience?
• Who is the publisher? Is it reputable?

Are important points referenced so you can check them? Are the references up to date with current developments in your field?
This is especially important if you are using sources from the Internet. Paper resources will have been edited many times before they are actually printed. However, anyone can produce a web-site. Here useful questions might include (based on Jarvis, 2001, pp. 209-210):

• Is the site an on-line refereed journal?
• Is it a recognised newspaper or magazine?
• Is it hosted by an education institution? (A URL address which includes either ...ac... or ...edu...)

If the answers to the questions above are “no” then further questions to ask are:

• What information is provided about the author?
• Has (s)he published elsewhere? Is there a contact email address?
• Are there links to other sites where the answers to the above questions are yes?
• Is the web site well organised?
• When was it written? What is the date?
• Does it have a clear title? What is the title?

Answers to these questions cannot guarantee that the sources are credible, but will help you to ensure that you are using relevant and acceptable sources.

Selecting sources

When you have understood the task and done some reading to find out what has been published in your field of study, you will need to decide which sources are useful for your work.

You do not have time to read everything, so you need to decide whether a particular source may be useful.

The first thing to do is to try to find books that are exactly the same as your topic. Use your library on-line catalogue for this. Encyclopaedias, indexes, bibliographies and other databases can help you. See Sources.

When you have some book titles, look carefully at the titles of the books.

Summarising & note-taking

Taking notes

Taking notes is an important part of the life of every student. There are two main reasons why note-taking is important:

1. When you are reading or listening, taking notes helps you concentrate. In order to take notes - to write something sensible - you must understand the text. As listening and reading are interactive tasks, taking notes help you make sense of the text. Taking notes does not mean writing down every word you hear; you need to actively decide what is important and how is related to what you have already written.
2. Notes help you to maintain a permanent record of what you have read or listened to. This is useful when revising in the future for examinations or other reasons.

Good notes should be accurate, clear and concise. They should show the organisation of the text, and this should show the relationship between the ideas.

How to take notes.

When you're reading, first survey the text to find the main points and how they are related. Then read for the subsidiary points; see how they are related to the main points and to each other. Then, reduce the points to notes. Make sure links and relationships between the ideas are shown. Good notes need to be organised appropriately.

Taken from HERE.