help3 research skills...research and quickly locate the information you need. the study skills...

RESEARCH SKILLS: HELP GUIDE # 3 – Helping students be Effective Learners Program

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From: www.studyskillshandbook.com.au – only for use by schools who are CURRENT subscribers. This Blackline Masters page may be

photocopied for non-commercial classroom use as per copyright notice at the start of this resource or at www.enhanced-learning.net

Copyright © Enhanced Learning Educational Services 2014 www.enhanced-learning.net 1

RESEARCH

SKILLS

Many tasks and assignments in high school will require you to research a topic

then report back on what you learn. Save time by learning to streamline your

research and quickly locate the information you need.

The study skills handbook site (www.studyskillshandbook.com.au) has lots of

extra information and activities for you to complete to help you build your skills

for school. You will see references throughout this handout to recommended

units to complete on the site. Your teachers will give you login details.

You should read each point and highlight the key phrases in that point.

Discuss with a friend or parent as you read through the handout.

You may like to work through this over a number of sessions.


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Additional activities for teachers and parents to consider:

NOTE: For the discussion sections you may like to have your students write or type their answers into their

book or computer as well as (or instead of) discussing.

NOTE: On www.studyskillshandbook.com.au students can complete the RESEARCH SKILLS unit as well as

the other units referred to throughout this guide.

Have a teacher/librarian run a session for the students on research and resources available in the

library. Parents may like to see if the local library offers a similar service.

Have students create a poster showing the difference between the research approaches in Step 2.

Have students work in groups and create a power point on the key ideas in a particular step, for

example on Finding Resources, Assessing Resources and Plagiarism.

Have students explore the bibliography and referencing requirements for their school. This may be

found in the school diary or the library may have a handout or a page of information on their website.


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1. TAKE THE TIME TO ANALYSE THE TASK

BEFORE YOU START YOUR RESEARCH

Take the time to analyse the task and ensure you are clear on all aspects of the requirements.

Do I understand the key words and language of the task?

Am I clear on the objectives of the task?

Do I know the marking or assessment criteria?

Can I express the requirements of the task in my own words?

What are my initial thoughts or ideas about the task?

What do I already know about the subject matter?

What ways could I approach this task?

Who could I discuss my ideas with?

Do I need to clarify any aspect of the task?

What sources could I use to investigate further?

a. How long do you usually spend ensuring you are clear about what you have todo for the task? Do you ask for help early on if you need to?

2. CHOOSE YOUR RESEARCH APPROACH

OUTLINE APPROACH BIG PICTURE APPROACH

The outline approach is where you already have abit of an idea about what you will write about: soyou first decide an outline of what you will coverin your task, then research each aspect of youroutline, so you can write each section.

The big picture approach is where you aren't surewhat to include or what to write about in yourassignment or essay: so you start researching andas you research you then start to develop a plan ofwhat you will write about.

“write an outline and write to the outline” “write and research lots and then cut back”

READING: Do some background reading to clarifythe content you will include.

READ WIDELY: Read widely and take notes as youread, detailing the sources. Cast a wide net.

OUTLINE: Create an outline of the structure yourresearch will follow. This gives you a clear path tofollow in your writing

DEVELOP PLAN: Let your plan and structuredevelop from brainstorming, mind maps, and byreviewing the information you have collected.

REVIEW: Review the resources in a methodicalway, making notes carefully as per your outlineand clearly detailing the sources.

INVESTIGATE: Let one reading lead to another.Make notes on what you are reading so you cancome back to it again if you need to.

ANALYSE: Analyse the information as you goand write the draft of your essay or assignment asyou research that section.

STRUCTURE: Once you have completed all yourresearch, then develop a cohesive structure andoutline from which to write.


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b. Which approach do you prefer and why? Outline approach or big pictureapproach? Does it vary with different tasks?

3. FINDING RESOURCES

Try to use as many different types of sources as you can, including books, magazine articles,

journals and Internet articles. Don't rely on just one source (like the Internet) for all your

information.

Keep a list of all the sources that you use. Include the title of the source, the author, page

numbers, the publisher, and place and date of publication. This is your preliminary, or draft,

bibliography.

USING LIBRARIES

NOTE: Unfortunately many students now go

straight to the Internet and by-pass libraries

altogether. Don’t neglect your school library.

If you give it a chance you’ll be pleasantly

surprised by what you will find there. Plus it

is usually quicker than wading through the

masses of unrelated information on the Net.

ASK THE LIBRARIAN: Explore the resources available in your school or local public library. If you

don’t understand them or know how it works, get a few of you together and ask your school

librarian to give you a 5-10 minute rundown about the catalogue and the Dewey decimal

system.

USE CATALOGUES: Use the electronic catalogue or browse the shelves to look for books on

your topic. The more you can use relevant search terms and define your subject the more

focused your list of resources will be.


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CHECK BIBLIOGRAPHIES: If you find a book that is useful, check the bibliography (list of

sources) in the back of that book for other books or articles on that topic. By using this

technique of routinely following up on sources cited in bibliographies, you can generate a

surprisingly large number of books and articles on your topic in a relatively short time.

CHECK INDEXES: Also check indexes of periodicals and newspapers and journals (journals are

used by academics to write papers about their research and ideas and therefore contain up-to-

date information about topics).

DATABASES: Ask your librarian to point you towards government databases and sources of

statistical information, e.g. census information.

c. When you do research, do you use other sources apart from the Internet. Ifyes, what sources, if no, why not?

INTERNET SEARCH TIPS

If you learn to search more effectively, you will find more targeted results.

EXACT PHRASES: Enclose "exact phrases" in quotation marks.

SIMPLE: Try to keep your

search statements simple.

COMMON WORDS: Leave

out common words, such as

“the”, “in” and “at”.

SPECIFIC: If you need to

search on a single term,

make the term as specific

and precise as possible.

ALTERNATE TERMS: Carefully choose your keywords, and remember to think about alternate

terms that could be used e.g. "greenhouse effect" or "global warming".

HELP PAGES: You can find specific help on how to search effectively from the individual search

engine homepages. Look for help files, information pages, FAQs and guides to searching.

SEARCH IN TITLE FIELD: A single term limited to the TITLE of a page, rather than ANYWHERE

ON A PAGE, is more likely to result in relevant material. Click on ‘Advanced Search’ to select

this option. For Google you access ‘Advanced Search’ from the ‘Settings’ link at the bottom of

the Google search page.


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DOMAINS: Use domains to limit your search to material on a specific country's website, e.g.

.uk or .au. You can also select this option in the ‘Advanced Settings’.

VARIATIONS: Many search tools look for word variations, including single and plural terms e.g.

Australia will match to Australian, Australia's, Australians etc.

MULTIPLE SEARCH ENGINES: Always try more than one search engine. (You may like to try:

www.studysearch.com )

BOOLEAN OPERATORS: Use Advanced Search features to limit your search using special words

such as AND, OR, NOT.

WARNING: These days anyone can create a website! You have to be particularly careful about

using information you have found on the Internet. The next section examines this issue.

You may like to visit the RESEARCH SKILLS unit and print a summary sheet on Effective Internet

Searching with even more ideas to improve your searching skills.

d. Have you ever tried to learn more about how to search effectively on theInternet? Which of these tips did you know or have you tried?

How reliable is Wikipedia?

It is as reliable as the people who have contributed to the content!

In the Schools FAQs section on Wikipedia, Wikipedia states that students should NOT use

Wikipedia for school tasks without checking external sources that contributors have cited and

by verifying it somewhere else (that does not rely on Wikipedia).

Wikipedia also admits that it is open to vandalism and at any time

it certainly contains some inaccurate information.

Just remember, anyone can contribute and some people will add

incorrect or misleading information.

However, Wikipedia is great to get an overview or the big picture

about whatever you are researching. It is a good way to help

yourself understand what you are researching. It helps you work

out where to start and what to look for. Wikipedia is great to give you ideas of what related

areas to research, or useful key words for internet searches.

Many schools do not let you list Wikipedia as a reference in your bibliography. This means that

even if the information was correct in Wikipedia, you still have to locate that same information

somewhere else so that you can include it in your assignment and bibliography.

e. What has been your experience with Wikipedia? What do you use it for? Haveyou ever encountered any problems?


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4. ASSESSING RESOURCES

How do you know that information you find is reliable and accurate? It is always important to consider

the quality of the information you use. It is especially important to critically evaluate web resources, as

there is no quality control on the Internet.

PRINT MATERIALS INTERNET INFORMATION

AUTHOR Who is the author and does the author give their affiliations, credentials,qualifications, background or reason for publishing the information?

Is there biographical information about the author or organisation details?

TYPE OFINFO

What type of publication is it,and where was it published?

Who is the publisher and do theypublish specific types ofpublications?

How credible are they?

Is the information scholarly,governmental, from a privatebusiness or association, or anadvertisement?

Look at the URL or address. Wheredid the document originate?

Is the information scholarly,governmental, from a privatebusiness or association, or anadvertisement?

How credible is the site?

Do other reputable Internet sitespoint to this one?

PURPOSE Is the author making an argument for personal gain, offering an opinion, giving afactual report or relaying a personal observation?

For whom is the site intended? Who is the target audience and what does thisimply?

What is the agenda? Does the website present a balanced and consistentargument without bias?

SOURCES Is the information from original research, experiments, observation, interviews,books or documents?

Are references provided? Can the information be supported?

Does the author offer qualified and supported views?

TIMELINES What was the original date ofpublication?

Have there been update editionsor simply reprints (impressions)?

When was the material published?

When was the site last updated?

Is there any indication of how oftenthe site is updated?

f. What do you look for when deciding whether a resource on the web is reliableand accurate?


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5. PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is the submitting and passing off of another person’s work as your own without

acknowledging where the information came from.

This definition is quite comprehensive. It could be someone else’s ideas, their words, their pictures

and so on.

Most plagiarism today takes place from the Internet. Students copy slabs of text, maybe changing

one or two words, and include it as part of their assignment or essay.

Think of it essentially as theft: you are stealing someone else’s ideas and work and passing them off

as your own! Plagiarism encompasses not only direct copying, but also where you have summarised

or paraphrased information and not acknowledged this by the use of either a footnote or a

bibliography.

In your writing, you must give credit

whenever you use information that you

found in a source, unless it is common

knowledge. You need to quote your source

for:

Quotations (exact words).

Paraphrased information.

Summarised information.

Facts that are not common knowledge.

Ideas, including opinions and thoughts about

what particular facts mean.

Maps, charts, graphs, data, photographs, images and other visual or statistical

information.

g. Have you ever plagiarised before? What sorts of things do you need to do tomake sure you do not plagiarise in your assignments?

Quotations

Whenever you quote a passage from any source, no matter how small or how large the

quotation, you must acknowledge the quote.

For a small quote, place the text inside double inverted commas.

For larger quotes you should indent the quote 1 cm from the left hand side.

You must then acknowledge the source of your quote by stating author’s name, title, date

and place of publication, and page numbers you have quoted from in your bibliography.

There is more information on this in the last section of this guide.


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Paraphrased information

Paraphrasing is a method whereby you state in your own words someone else’s thoughts

or ideas.

Even though you may have changed the way the original idea was expressed, you must

still acknowledge your source by some method such as using a footnote or brackets

citing the author and the source.

Summarised information

When summarising information you are effectively taking another

person’s thoughts or ideas and condensing that information into a

brief statement written in your own words.

Again you must always cite your source when using this method,

as per the paraphrasing technique.

Facts that ARE common knowledge

Facts that are common knowledge are generally well-known facts

that most people are familiar with. For instance, the Eiffel Tower is

a landmark of Paris.

Common knowledge facts do not require you to cite a source.

However, be wary of assuming a statement is ‘common

knowledge’ just because you think everybody is aware of the

information. If in doubt at any time, cite your source as it is always

better to present a citation rather than risk being accused of

plagiarism.

Ideas, including opinions about what particular facts mean:

Again the clear message is – if in doubt cite your source.

For instance, you may want to use certain opinions or ideas taken

from a particular source in order to support your argument and

you would therefore need to cite the source of those opinions and

ideas.

Maps, charts, graphs, photographs, images data and other visual or

statistical information:

This includes data from scientific experiments or information gleaned

from any form of research paper and all sources must be clearly cited.

Don’t forget this also includes giving credit for the use of music and video material as

well as all photographs and images.

Using web-based resources:

Any form of information which you download from the web must also be correctly

acknowledged – not only text taken from the web, but also graphics and artwork.

When using information that you have cut and pasted from the web make sure you place

the information in inverted commas and always acknowledge your source.


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Avoiding Plagiarism

One of the best ways to avoid plagiarism when researching your assignments is to ensure you

employ good note taking skills. Be scrupulous in distinguishing in your notes between your own

ideas and words and the ideas or opinions from other sources.

DOCUMENT AS YOU GO: Document each source as you work. You can keep a running list on

your computer, in a notebook, or on notecards. This list will help you when writing a

bibliography or when you need to locate information.

SUMMARISE AS YOU GO: Summarise long passages of information by recording only the most

important details and data.

RELEVANT INFORMATION ONLY: Don't record

any information that is not relevant to your topic.

HIGHLIGHT: If there are huge amounts of

relevant information, photocopy and highlight.

PARAPHRASE: Try to paraphrase. This will help

you to better remember the information.

Remember that when you paraphrase you keep

the author's main ideas (so will need to

reference them), but you state the ideas in your

own words.

QUOTE IF YOU CAN’T PARAPHRASE: If what is written is so well said or too difficult to

paraphrase, quote the author or organisation.

RECORD CAREFULLY: In your research, when you copy words from a source, put quotation

marks around them so that you do not forget that they were not your own words.

SEPARATE YOUR IDEAS: When your notes include an idea, write in brackets whether it is the

source's idea or your own idea.

Generally you can use this format to cite Web sources: Author name (last name, first name).

"Article Title." Site Name. Article date. Organisation Name. Date of access .

It's very important to include the date that you accessed the Web page. Information on the Web

changes regularly, so it's necessary for you to record the date you visited the page.

h. Do you do all of these things when researching? What steps do you taketo make sure you can acknowledge where information came from later on?


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6. BIBLIOGRAPHIES & REFERENCING

This is an enormous topic and to complicate matters further there are a variety of different systems

available and each school will have a particular system they prefer. Some of the common

referencing systems are Harvard, Oxford, MLA and APA, and even within these there can be

variations. You should look in your school diary, or talk to English teachers or school Librarians to

see what your school requires for bibliographies and referencing.

Sources that you must reference can be books, periodical articles, newspapers articles, journal

articles, encyclopaedias, pamphlets, slide sets, MP3 recordings, interviews, websites, programmes

from television, or CD Roms ... just to name a few!

There are 3 main types of things you have to do with referencing:

DIRECT QUOTES: If you use a direct quote in an essay or report you have to show it has been

quoted directly and the source of the quotation. Different referencing systems have different rules.

E.g. In the APA system: "Engineers are vital to the survival of the planet" (Stewart, 1982, p.6).

IN-TEXT CITATION: If you use information from a book, journal, website - any source other than

what is in your own head, you have to acknowledge this in your work. This does not mean it is a

direct quote, it just means you have

used someone's ideas or referred to

their ideas indirectly or even

paraphrased their ideas. Different

referencing systems will have

different rules.

E.g. In the Harvard system: Working

smarter involves using your head

(Jones 1993).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: All the sources you

have used to prepare your essay

should be listed in the reference list or bibliography. Different referencing systems will have

different ways for this to be done. More on this in the RESEARCH SKILLS unit.

i. What system does your school use for referencing and bibliographies? Doyou know? How can you find out? Has the school given you any guides?


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‘TOP TEN’ CHECK-UP

1. You take time before you start your research to analyse the task to ensureyou are clear on all requirements.

Yes Sort of No

2. You know the difference between ‘outline approach’ and ‘big pictureapproach’ research and which you prefer.

Yes Sort of No

3. You are aware of all of the resources available in your school library such asaccess to journals and databases.

Yes Sort of No

4. You knew most of the tips outlined for effective internet searching. Yes Sort of No

5. You are clear on your school’s policy on Wikipedia. Yes Sort of No

6. You knew most of the tips given on assessing the reliability of printresources.

Yes Sort of No

7. You knew most of the tips given on assessing the reliability of web-basedresources.

Yes Sort of No

8. You understand what plagiarism is and you take the steps outlined to avoiddoing it.

Yes Sort of No

9. You know how to manage direct quotes and in-text citations for thereferencing system your school uses.

Yes Sort of No

10. You know what to include and how to format a bibliography for thereferencing system your school uses.

Yes Sort of No

What are the top 5 things you need to do or change

or implement based on the ideas in this guide?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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