"Your research project is likely to be one of the things you remember best from your time as a student. Unlike most of your formal teaching, such as ‘systems’ modules, it will give you the opportunity to work with a considerable degree of independence. It will make demands on you that you never envisaged. At times, it will drive you crackers. At the end of it, however, if you have fully engaged with your project and given it your total commitment, you will emerge not only with a great dissertation but with a much enhanced understanding of how research ‘works’ and, I hope, a strong desire to do more. Make the most of it. Go for it, and enjoy!"
Source: Beardsmore, Caroline. How to Do Your Research Project : A Guide for Students in Medicine and The Health Sciences. Somerset, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 5 September 2014.
The following seven steps outline a simple and effective strategy for finding information for a research paper and documenting the sources you find:
Step 1: Identify and develop your topic
Step 2: Find background information
Step 3: Search the online catalog to find books
Step 4: Find articles (print ot electronic)
Step 5: Find internet sources
Step 6: Evaluate the information you have found
Step 7: Cite what you have found, using a standard format for your bibliography
Check the other tabs of this guide for more detailed information on each of these stеps.
This guide is dveleoped to help the students taking ENG1002 Writing Academic Research Papers course with their research process.
According to the Academic Catalog, students taking this course will have to be able to "critically assess sophisticated source materials and integrate outside sources into their own persuasive arguments."
This guide with help students both in finding, assessing and documenting these sources.
These skills are integral for the 21st century student (and citizen) for becoming information literate members of society - literacy of utmost importance for the Information Age.
