Transcript EPQ Research Skills

EPQ
Research Skills
Making a start
• The key is finding and selecting the best
resources
• Make sure you have a variety of resources
• This will show the reader that you have
carried out a full search which increases your
chances of finding credible material
Where do YOU look first?
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Google?
NO
Wikipedia?
NO – why? – Watch Professor Wikipedia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaADQTeZRC
Y
Ask a friend?
NO
The Library?
OF COURSE
Why The Library?
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It is the gateway to all knowledge
It has books
Electronic resources
And the giant human search engine – Mrs E!
Print Resources
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Generally reliable
You can check an author’s credentials
Bibliography useful for further exploration
Currency – don’t forget to check. It can take a
while to write, edit then publish a book. It
may have gone into many editions – do you
have the latest?
Books
• Get hold of reviews and abstracts
• These can often provide an overview and
bibliographic material
• A review is someone else’s opinion of the
work
• An abstract is a resume of the contents
• They can help you decide if the book will be
useful
Journals
What are they?
• Magazines written for an academic audience
• Up to date
• Peer reviewed
How to access print resources
• You can borrow books from:
The School Library
Departmental Libraries
The British Library (via school)
The Public Library
• You may be able to read books at York University
Library
ERY Libraries
http://www.eastriding.gov.uk/cs/culture-and-information/libraries/online-reference-andinformation/
• Via your membership you have access to:
• Encyclopedia Britannica and Britannica
Student
• Know UK and News UK
• Oxford Reference Online
• Oxford Art Online
• Oxford Music Online
and many others
Subscription Databases
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School has access to paid for databases:
Issues Online
Heinemann Worldbook Online
History Today
The Economist
Greece and Rome
Search Tip
• Start on paper
- What do you already know?
- Where are the gaps in your knowledge?
- Think of keywords and phrases
- Use more than one example to widen your
search
- What kind of search engines are you going
to use?
The Web
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There is too much information out there!
Books
Newspapers and Journals
Audio visual
Websites
Searching
You need to use specialist tools:
• Search engines – for comprehensive
researching
• Meta search engines – less precise, but
present findings in different ways
• Subject portals
• Subject directories
Subject Directories and Portals
• Contents arranged by subject area, subject
catalogue
• Selected, annotated and maintained by
specialists
• Good for initial use if searching a general topic
with broad keywords and phrases
• Quick access to best sites
• Fewer results, possible currency issues
Use the Search Tools
• Boolean operators: AND OR and NOT
- you can access these via the Advanced
Search options as well as date restrictions,
field keywords etc.
• Treat “words as phrases” for precision
• Use a ~ (tilde) to search for synonyms
• Search in lower case unless looking for names
• Mine your results, exploit new
keywords/phrases
The Free Web
• Using search engines, meta search engines we
can access most of the free web
• Examples of search engines:
– www.google.co.uk
– Check out the Search Me tutorial:
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp
/www.google.co.uk/en/uk/schools/files/searchtutorial.pdf
Examples of meta search engines:
- www.dogpile.com
- www.ixquick.com
- http://uk.altavista.com
The Invisible Web
• It has been estimated that it is possibly 800
times bigger than the free web
(source: about.com
http://websearch.about.com/od/invisibleweb/a/invisible_web.htm)
• It is the largest and most important part of the
web
• The usual search tools will not help
• It comprises intranets, password coded
collections and databases
Databases
• Organised, searchable collection of materials
• Filtered and evaluated by publishers, authors etc.
• Invisible to robots, spiders and crawlers
OPACs
• Online Public Access Catalogue
• Can be accessed from anywhere
• Examples, British Library, University and Public
Libraries
• Search by author, title, keyword
Search Tip
Use subject headings on catalogue entries to
find more resources
Original
Search
“bovine
tb”
Have a look at
• The Librarian Internet Index:
http://lii.org/
• The invisible web directory:
http://websearch.about.com/od/invisibleweb/The_D
eep_Web_Find_Out_More_About_The_Deep_Web_
Deep_Web_Search.htm
Ask an Expert
• These sites really work – there are experts
who will come back to you with answers!
Recommended sites:
allexperts.com
This site claims to have answered a million questions, which can make searching
through the archives a challenge. Its experts are volunteers and include lawyers,
doctors, engineers and scientists. Advice is free; most questions are turned around
within a day.
Ask A Mad Scientist
Despite the frivolous name, and some horrible design, the question section at
madsci.org is free and informative. With 36,000 questions answered by the 800
scientists on its books, it’s hard to think of something they haven’t already figured
out.
Peake, Mike. "The 10 Best 'Ask an Expert' Websites." Times 31 Jan 2010, Print.
Evaluate your Sources
Are they - CREDIBLE
ACCURATE
RELIABLE
RELEVANT
Use the URL address extensions to check the
type of site:
check credentials of sites, authors, web addresses
compare sources
what is the aim of the site? Check for bias
quality not quantity. Does it answer the question?
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.com or .co.uk
.edu or .ac or .sch
.gov or .gov.uk
.org
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Academic Fraud
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What is it?
Stealing other people’s work or ideas
Copying from a friend
Buying from the internet
Help from others
Cut and paste without attribution
I didn’t mean to do it ...
• The information really did come from a book
but I can’t remember which one
• I can’t express it any better than the website
did, but I changed a few words
• My Mum wrote the summary because I was
running out of time
• I reused a piece of work I did last year – well it
is my own work
How to avoid it
• Credit facts and ideas
• Be organised – keep a record of all the
resources you use
• Ensure all quotations are in “quotation marks”
• Paraphrase
• Summarise/minimise
• Clearly identify your sources – make a
bibliography
• King Edward VI School, Southampton has a
great page explaining the hows and whys of
referencing – why should Mrs E reinvent that
wheel?
http://intranet.kes.hants.sch.uk/api/subwebs/?id=51&pid=221
How to knock our socks off
The bibliography is potentially the most timeconsuming part of your work
Don’t let it be
Use citation machines – simply fill in the boxes
http://www.citationmachine.net/index.php
Remember, it doesn’t matter which system you
use – APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago – as long as
you are consistent
THE END
• And just to make sure I haven’t plagiarised:
This presentation is based on work done by
Jane Whitelaw, Heckmondwike Grammar School
A.J. Edwards
July 2010