Research Skills and Tips

Answer 1

First...

When given a writing assignment, one must first examine the assignment and determine the purpose of the assignment. If the assignment is being done for a class, the instructor may give the student the purpose. However, if the research assignment is self-motivated or being done independently, one must consider the purpose of the assignment and the goals one wishes to achieve. Some various purposes of a writing assignment may be to inform, to entertain, to argue, to persuade, to express one’s feelings about a particular subject, or to evaluate. Many pieces of writing are a combination of these purposes.

The form that the assignment will follow can help achieve this purpose, so this should probably be the next decision that is made along with the determination of the audience that is targeted. The audience is the group of people who are going to read the article. Sometimes a writer may have no idea who will end up reading the article, but most of the time he or she will have a general idea. If not, one should still make a decision about the audience he will target in his writing. There are many forms of writing, the most common being essay. However, other choices can be brochures, power point presentations, charts and graphs, or stories used to illustrate a point, just to name a few.

After determining the purpose, audience, and form in which the assignment will take, one should begin to brainstorm. There are several ways to brainstorm. Typically brainstorming is done with a group of people; however, this is not usually the case when brainstorming a research assignment. Independent brainstorming is very effective when free writing is used. The individual simply uses the topic of the assignment and writes down everything he knows, wants to know, and wishes to accomplish about the subject.

Next, decide whether or not the assignment should be broken down into segments or parts. This is when an outline becomes very helpful. The outline can be simple or very complicated. It really depends on the complexity of the assignment and the preference of the writer. The outline should be broken down by paragraphs, segments, or categories if using a different form other than essay. The important points of each segment should appear under each topic of the outline. It is best to leave enough room around the outline for notes that are taken while researching. This will help tie the thoughts together by paragraph.

While researching it is good to take notes and plug them into the outline that one has created. It is useful to have index cards with the outline topic at the top of the card. That will leave a lot of room for notes on the card. Keep track of the source on each card, and use quotation marks if quoting directly to avoid plagiarism. Make sure notes are organized at the end of each session in the same order as the outline.

• Introduction: Purpose
• Writing
• Definitions for Modes of Writing
• Definition of Brainstorming | eHow.com
• Developing an Outline - The OWL at Purdue
• Student Success Tools - How to Take Good Notes

Useful Resources

There was a time when the only place to find information was the local library. It still remains a very important place to acquire information. The internet, of course, is a vast source of information, which will be discussed later. However, there are sources in the library that one is unable to obtain elsewhere. Books and encyclopedias are still valuable sources of information. Atlases can be found in the library as well as maps and historical documents. Another valuable asset in the library is the librarian who is trained and schooled in research. The librarian can make search and research a much shorter process. Furthermore, old newspapers and magazines are also kept on file at the libraries, sometimes on microfiche, that can be valuable as obscure research articles. For those who do not wish physically to go to a local library, however, many libraries do have online sites now as well, though, they may be limited in their resources.

Library

• Public Libraries
• University of Delaware Library
• Libraries Home - UCSD Libraries
• University of Oklahoma Libraries
• Library of Congress Home

When one searches the Internet for information, that information can come from many different sources. The same encyclopedias that were once sold door-to-door and are found in libraries all across the nation are now online as well. Encyclopedia Britannica, Grolier, and World Book all have online websites, and it is very easy to search within their sites. The articles many times contain text as well as video on a subject. Another popular online encyclopedia is Wikipedia, and many keywords that are inserted into a search engine pop up within a Wikipedia article. Wikipedia is current and may contain information not found anywhere else.

Encyclopedias

• Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
• Wikipedia (TheFreeDictionary.com mirror)
• MSN Encarta
• World Book
• Encyclopedia Americana Help

Many of the other informational sources are dictionaries, thesauruses, atlases, maps, almanacs, newspapers, and magazines. Dictionaries and thesauruses are helpful when one does not know exactly how to word something or when one is discussing a subject and does not want to use the same words over and over again to describe it. A dictionary will tell the reader exactly what the word means, whether it is a noun, verb, adverb, or adjective, its plural, and what other tenses can be used. The thesaurus will give the reader synonyms of a word to avoid repetitive use of a word. Atlases and maps can be used when discussing a subject of a geographical nature. A map can be cut and pasted into a document or a power point presentation. An atlas will give detailed information on a particular area. An almanac is a publication that is released annually from a particular organization that gives specific information on a subject, usually in tabular or numeric form.

Dictionaries

• Dictionary.com
• Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online
• Your Dictionary
• Cambridge Dictionary Online
• OneLook Dictionary Search

Thesauruses

• Thesaurus.com
• Roget's Thesaurus Online
• Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus
• AFS - Ethnographic Thesaurus
• Thesaurus Search Page — Infoplease.com

Atlases and Maps

• World Atlas including Geography Facts, Maps, Flags - worldatlas.com
• Rand McNally
• Atlapedia Online
• CIA - The World Factbook

Newspapers and Magazines

• Thousands of newspapers on the Net
• Search over 10,000 Newspapers Online!
• USA Today
• TIME Magazine Online
• Salon.com
• National Geographic Magazine
• Librarians' Internet Index Magazines

How to Find Information

The research tool of choice today is the World Wide Web, or Internet. There is no limit to the information that can be found online with the click of a mouse or the power of a search engine. A search engine is a program that uses keywords to search the World Wide Web for “hits” on a particular subject. The search engine then indexes all the hits and ranks them according to relevance and presents them in a list with a short description. It is helpful to use words such as “and,” “or,” and “not,” when presenting keywords to a search engine to limit the number of hits that come back. This is referred to as a Boolean search. Using the word “near” in a search means that you wish to have a particular phrase as closely to exact as possible. Another strategy is using as many words as possible that are relative to the subject. The sites with every word noted in the keywords will be listed first. Some search engines, such as WebCrawler and MetaCrawler, rely on the other more popular engines to conduct their searches. This allows for more hits to come back.

• What is search engine?
• Yahoo.com
• Google
• Bing
• AltaVista
• WebCrawler Web Search

How to Properly Cite

It is imperative that one cites sources correctly when using them in an assignment. Otherwise plagiarism could occur, which is the use of another person’s work or words in an assignment. This can be illegal in some instances and is cheating in all instances. It is considered academic dishonesty when it occurs with a student, professor, or in a research assignment. It can be more severely judged when it appears in print for the public to read such in journalism or print media; it is considered a breach of ethics. All direct quotes must be placed in quotation marks and cited. All thoughts, examples, and ideas that are expressly learned from a particular source should be cited as well.

• Plagiarism
• Avoiding Plagiarism - The OWL at Purdue
• Office of Research Integrity

There are several formats that can be used to cite sources. The most common are American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), and Chicago Manual of Style (CMS).

In APA format

, one should list works by author and date within the text. There should be a bibliography at the end of the article as well. The reference page should be titled “References”, and the citations should be listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. Double space the reference list and italicize titles of books and journals. Chapters and articles are in plain text.

Example of book (within text): “Moral distinctions, it may be said, are discernible by pure reason,” (Hume, 1957, p. 4)

Example of book (at end of article): Hume, (1957) An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company

Example of electronic media (within text): One of the sticking points of the health care debate is that the government would put itself in direct competition with private companies to sell healthcare. (Espo, 2009)

Example of electronic media (at end of article): Espo, David (2009, November 21). Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle. Associated Press. Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

• APA Citation Format
• APA Citation Style

In MLA format

, one should list works by author and date within the text with no punctuation separating the two. One should include a “Works Cited” list at the end of the article with the complete name of the book, magazine, or website, copyright, and author.

Example of book (within text): “Moral distinctions, it may be said, are discernible by pure reason,” (Hume 1957)

Example of book (at end of article): Hume. An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals . New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1957.

Example of electronic media (within text): One of the sticking points of the health care debate is that the government would put itself in direct competition with private companies to sell healthcare. (Espo 2009)

Example of electronic media (at end of article): Espo, David. “Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle.” Associated Press . 21 Nov 2009: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

• MLA Citation Examples
• uw-madison writing center writer's handbook

The CMS format

distinguishes between works written for the purpose of the natural and Social Sciences, and those written for the fine arts, history, and literature. The works are cited differently. The first is referred to as author-date style. When referring to fine arts, history, or literature, it is referred to as the notes-bibliography style.

Example of book (within text, social sciences): “Moral distinctions, it may be said, are discernible by pure reason,” (Hume 1957)

Example of book (at end of article, social sciences):Hume. 1957. An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

Example of electronic media (footnote, literature): Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat gives readers the chance to explore deep questions and live on the edge without actually having to take that leap themselves.Katharine Nelson. “Anne Rice: Biography,” http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/rice.bio.html(accessed November 21, 2009)

• Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide - Ohio State University Libraries
• Chicago Manual of Style - Author-Date System

One should place a bibliography at the end of an article. This is a list of books that includes the works that are directly cited in an article and those that were referenced during the research of an article. The bibliography will contain all the information previously mentioned in the works cited section. It is best to keep track of all the books, articles, websites, and journals that one accesses while writing the article, as this will make it much easier to compile the bibliography. There are several websites that allow the user to plug book and article names into its database to be put into the proper format for the bibliography.

• Writing a Bibliography (examples of APA & MLA styles)
• BibMe: Fast & Easy Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian - Free

Answer 2

Some research skills and tips include properly defining research objectives, conducting thorough literature reviews, selecting appropriate research methods, collecting and analyzing data effectively, and critically evaluating and interpreting findings. It is also important to stay organized, manage your time efficiently, and keep up with the latest research in your field. Additionally, utilizing various research tools and resources, such as libraries and databases, can help enhance your research skills.