Helping you achieve academic success
I am an experienced academic passionate about inspiring individuals to aim high. I have assisted multiple students and early career academics to achieve their goals.
Gibbons Academic © | All Rights Reserved
I am an experienced academic passionate about inspiring individuals to aim high. I have assisted multiple students and early career academics to achieve their goals.
After you have completed step 1 of the 7-step writing process by clarifying and planning the task (see my previous blog on this), the next stage of writing a great assignment is to conduct the research required to enable you to get the content you need for the assignment. You should spend around 40% of the entire time you devote to the assignment on collecting and recording this content specific information. Without devoting the time required to this important research your assignment will likely not demonstrate the depth of knowledge and understanding required!
There are 5 things to consider to ensure you collect and record the best information for your assignment:
Before beginning your search for the content material required for your assignment it’s a good idea to first think about what you need to find out specifically. Begin by writing a list of questions that you need to answer in your assignment by using the assessment brief you have been given and your initial ideas about how you can address what is required. These questions are fundamental in that they will guide your research so it’s worth spending time on them. Also check them with your module leader, another member of the module team or your supervisor for your dissertation/research project. Once you have the questions sorted then you can begin to look for the answers through your research.
In any assignment there are a variety of sources you can draw upon, including the following:
The applicability of these sources varies according to the type of assignment you are doing but it is generally deemed essential to use academic sources such as peer-reviewed journals and academic books primarily. However, other non-academic sources are also very useful for highlighting real-life examples to emphasize or bring life to the academic points you are making. The ability to provide relevant examples demonstrates your knowledge and understanding as well as critical analysis skills.
At this point it’s important to consider any sources you have already read, either for the module you are writing the assignment or in any previous modules you have studied. Ask yourself what you have that may be relevant already.
Most modules have key readings listed in the module guide/handbook for different topics covered during the course of the module so make sure you use any that are relevant to the topic of your assignment. However, it is often (those not always) important to also use sources in addition to those specifically listed in the module guide/handbook as this demonstrates academic scholarship – the ability to draw together sources from diverse places to make your own argument.
Once you know what you are looking for you need to devise a good search strategy to enable you to find what you need. A good search strategy begins with looking at the questions you are trying to address (from the first stage above) and listing all the key words and search terms that are relevant. It’s important to spend time considering all the relevant words and terms so that you ensure you don’t miss anything!
Once you have your list of key words and search terms you can begin searching for relevant material in the following places:
In addition to these, it’s important to note that most UK university libraries offer inter-library loans. This enables you to request access to sources that your university may not have access to directly. There is usually a form to complete on your university library website to request an inter-library loan from another university or from the British Library. There are usually limits on inter-library loans dependent on year or level of study so it’s worth checking what your limit is with your university library.
When you begin to find potentially useful sources you will be eager to use them. However, it is worth being selective to ensure you use the best sources. Ask yourself the following questions to ensure each source is going to give you what you need:
It’s worth re-iterating here that the best and highest quality sources for most assignments are usually (although not always) the academic journal articles and textbooks. Whilst it’s ok to use non-academic material, ensure you are critical of it and certainly don’t rely on it for making academic arguments or as an authoritative source on theory or to supplement proper academic research.
One of the main mistakes I have seen students make over the last twenty years is to do with not recording information they find accurately or consistently. It is very important to record all your key words and search terms and keep a record of where you have searched for what! It is also essential to ensure you record the precise citation information for everything you find so that you can cite the details accurately and easily in your reference list or bibliography at the end of your assignment. I would encourage you to begin your bibliography or reference list as soon as you begin searching and keep adding to it as you find more sources. These days you can also use software such as RefWorks to help you to store your sources.
In addition, when you are reading the sources you find it is advisable to go beyond simply highlighting relevant information but to make notes in your own words. This will help you to make sense of what you are reading and to learn and retain the information. Here are some of the many things that you should consider keeping accurate records of and making notes on:
You can read more about researching and managing information for study in Chapter 11 of Stella Cottrell’s Study Skills Handbook.
Check out my next blog to see step 3 of how to write a great assignment: how to organize and link the material you have collected for your assignment.
Get help from Gibbons Academic with your academic writing NOW by booking an online session or sending your draft work for review and detailed written or verbal feedback with suggestions for improvement from an expert.