1 / 71

Research skills for your EPQ

Research skills for your EPQ. Where to begin. Choosing a subject. Choose a broad subject area and carry out some basic research to find out how much material is available. Refine your research to develop a research question. If you really haven’t a clue what to do:

germane-nieves
Télécharger la présentation

Research skills for your EPQ

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Research skills for your EPQ Where to begin

  2. Choosing a subject • Choose a broad subject area and carry out some basic research to find out how much material is available. • Refine your research to develop a research question. • If you really haven’t a clue what to do: ask your supervisor for advice and read all the academic journals for inspiration.

  3. Starting the search task for real • Finding and selecting the best resources are the key to any project • Use a variety of different resources • This will show the reader that you have researched fully and increase the chances of using credible resources

  4. Where do you look first? • Google • NO • Wikipedia • NO • Ask your mate • NO • The Library • OF COURSE

  5. Why the Library • It’s the gateway to all knowledge • Books • Academic journals • Electronic resources • ….and more

  6. As a post graduate researcher she will be able to help

  7. Print Resources • Books • Generally reliable • Authors credentials can be checked • Bibliography provides list of other useful resources • Currency, check the publication date. Remember that the publication process can take a long time

  8. Book Resources • Reviews and Abstracts • Both can be used to decide whether an item is likely to be of use. • A review is another’s opinion of the text • An abstract is a summary of the contents.

  9. Search Tip

  10. Search Tip • Often an abstract will provide all the information you need about the contents of a book, and provide another item for your bibliography

  11. Search Tip

  12. Search tip • Use the bibliography to find the titles of other resources that might be of use

  13. Accessing Print Resources • You can borrow books from the following • School library • British library – via school library • Public libraries • The Leeds Library – via school library • Use as reference only • University Libraries

  14. Journals • Magazines written for an academic audience • Up to date • Peer reviewed

  15. World Wide Web • There are billons of pages of information on the Internet • Books • Newspapers • Audio video • Websites

  16. Search Tip

  17. Search Tip • To find the right resources you need to select the right tools. Using the best search tool can save a lot of time and retrieve higher quality more relevant resources

  18. Search Tip

  19. Search Tools • Search engines • Meta search engines • Subject portals • Subject directories

  20. Free Internet • Most of us use search engines and meta search engines to access the free internet • Quick and easy to use • Search engines • http://www.google.co.uk/ • Meta search engines • http://www.dogpile.com/ • http://www.ixquick.com/ • http://vivisimo.com/ • http://uk.altavista.com/

  21. Deep Internet • Invisible web • Largest and most important part of the web • Not accessible using the usual search tools • Online books, subject directories and portals and databases requiring a log-on.

  22. Search Tip

  23. Search Process • Focus • Strategise • Refine • Evaluate

  24. Search Tip

  25. Search tip • A good online search starts off-line. Read about your subject. Think about what you already know and what you need to know • Think about keywords and phrases and where best to search • Adjust your search by widening or narrowing the range. Improve it by adding new words that you come across • Decide how credible the document is

  26. Search and Meta Search Engines • How they work and why is it important • Search engines are best when you want to carry out a comprehensive search. • Meta search engines are less precise and are good if you want something less specific or obscure • Meta search engines return results in varying ways which make searching easier

  27. Search Tip

  28. Search Strategy • Dream senario: Getting the best results and in the first few pages • Beware of sponsored links

  29. Search Tip

  30. Search tip • There is always more than one way to describe what you’re looking for • Brainstorm synonyms • Nouns are better than verbs as verbs tend to be vague • Put the most important words first • Incorrect spellings can be a problem – use the spelling help if there is one • Each search tool uses a different syntax or specific language. Need to know this to use the tool properly.

  31. Search Tip

  32. Search Tips • Boolean operators: AND OR and NOT • Use “to treat words as a phrase” • ~ Use a tilde to search for synonyms • Search in lower case unless you are searching for names

  33. Search Tip

  34. Advance Search • Most search engines have an advance search screen. This allows for a more precise search by using parameters to limit the results. • Restrict by date • Specify which field keywords are to be found

  35. Search Tip

  36. Mine your Results • Use new words or phrases that occur to make your search more specific • Use more than one keyword or phrase

  37. Search Tip

More Related