Research
Most written assignments will require some sort of research. This might be to provide evidence to support your arguments or just for background information. The previous chapter discussed identifying suitable information sources. Research is normally done before writing of the assignment starts, but is also an iterative process. As writing the assignment progresses, it is not unusual to find that additional information is needed.
The first thing to do when conducting research for an assignment is to deconstruct the assignment question. This means looking for keywords (which identify the topic) and task words (which identify the type of analysis that is required). Also look for any limit words which narrow the task such as to a specific time period or location.
The course notes, assigned textbooks, and recommended reading are often a good place to start researching. They can give an overview of the topic and suggest areas to explore in more detail. The next step is to use academic search engines and databases to identify relevant articles, books, and reports. Use filters to narrow the results to certain date ranges or only peer-reviewed articles.
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Identify the task words and keywords in the assignment.
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Use the keywords as part of a search strategy to identify introductory chapters or review articles.
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Read these introductions and reviews to get an overview and to suggest main ideas for your assignment.
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Refine your search terms and look for additional articles.
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Review the retrieved resources for their relevance (prioritise peer-reviewed articles).
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Read the articles and make notes on information you want to include in your assignment.
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Create an outline for the assignment.
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Expand the outline into a full essay.
It should be possible to complete most undergraduate assignments solely using online resources. A trip to the library to locate a specific book is seldom essential. If you can’t find a particular source, then don’t spend too much time searching. Usually, there are many suitable sources, so simply move on to the next one. As an undergraduate, you aren’t trying to write the definitive research paper on a given topic, so no particular source is essential.
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Tip
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As an undergraduate, don’t spend too much time trying to locate a particular resource. In most cases, there are many adequate substitutes. |
Reading Strategy
When reading a text, there are two things to keep in mind. Firstly, read with purpose. Always keep in mind why you are reading a text and what you want to get out of it. Secondly, read efficiently. This means reading some parts carefully, skimming others, and even skipping some parts all together. Case in point, some science articles have an extensive statistical analysis section. Since you won’t generally need this level of detail, skip it and go straight to the discussion section, which covers any important findings and their implications.
When trying to decide whether a particular book or article is worth reading, start by skimming a few key parts.
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If it is a journal article read the abstract and the first few paragraphs of the introduction.
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For a book, read the preface and skim the table of contents.
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Use headings and subheadings to decide on relevance and locate information.
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Tip
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For most undergraduate assignments, you won’t be expected to have a large number of references. Instead, focus on selecting a small number of high quality references. If you want to boost the reference count, one option is to just read the abstracts of some additional articles. |
Taking Notes
Note down any information you want to use later, but be careful to keep track of what is written in your own words and what is a quote. Both sources need to be properly attributed in your essay or report. Failing to indicate a direct quote can lead to accusations of plagiarism even if you reference the source.
Different ways of organising notes are possible. Some people prefer to use one document for all notes, whereas others have one document for each source. If you are using one document for all sources, be very careful to distinguish between the notes from different sources. It’s easy to get confused and then not be able to correctly reference.
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Carefully distinguish between summarising, paraphrasing, and quoting.
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Record the source and page number of the information.
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Caution
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To avoid the risk of unintentional plagiarism, carefully distinguish between direct quotes from a text (that you have copy and pasted) versus material that has been paraphrased or summarised. |
A variety of software is available to manage references, however the complexity of this software may not be worth it for undergraduate students who have a relatively small number of references to manage. If you plan to pursue larger research projects in the future, see which software is popular at your university and what support is available.