How do you begin your research? General tips!

Researching a Topic....General tips!

How do you begin your research?
1.Look at the research topic that has been assigned for this task...bullying.

2.Look at the requirements of each section...from the introduction to the requirements of each chapter. Make sure you understand what each is asking you to do.

3.Decide on the sources of information you will use. Where will you obtain the information?

Useful sources include:-
•Encyclopedias – online (soft copies) and books (hard copies). E.g. Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica.
•Useful websites...look on the Powerpoint presentation set up for ideas.
•Personal experiences ......don’t forget that you could add some experiences of your own. Perhaps your experiences reflect the way other students have also experienced bullying. Do your experiences reflect the reasons behind bullying? Why do you think you were bullied?

References
When you use sources that have been produced by others, for example in a book, you should learn to reference the sources at the end of your piece of work. This requires you to produce a bibliography. During your research phase you should therefore write down where you obtained the information.

The references are written down in a particular way:-
Internet Addresses:
Author, “Title of Item.” [online]. http://address/filename. date of download.
Book References:
Author(s), ‘Title of book’. Place of publishing. Publisher
E.g. Waugh, David and Bushell, Tony. ‘New Key Geography Foundations’. United Kingdom. Nelson Thornes 2006.
Notice the surname (family name) for the author comes before the first name.
The information you need to reference books is usually found on the inside front cover or the back cover.

Note taking
Tips for note taking...
* Read first
•Identify information you need to know
•Ask questions
•Use post it notes to mark pages with useful/interesting information on them
•Pick out key words
•Record where the information comes from

You can use a copy of the note taking matrix similar to thos you have already used for geography and english to help you organise your thoughts. Each box requires you to ask a question and answer very simply in your own words rather than just copying large chunks of text from a book or the internet. When you are researching a topic you have to ask yourself questions in order to know which answers you should be looking for.

You can repeat the matrix to help you remember where the source of your information was.

You may use as many or few boxes as you feel you need. You will need a note taking and reference matrix for each area of your research. Create one for each subject area.
When you have finished each note taking matrix you should then take the written responses and present them in an interesting way. You should add some detail to your notes.

Good Luck
Ms Butler