1. Ask questions all the time What do you know? What do you need to know more What do you not know? Never stop asking questions. Treat your research like explorers treat their journeys always looking around them, picking up new – information, thinking about where next to head. So you can use your questions to ask yourself how much you are understanding and what you need to research next to help you complete your coursework tasks. 2. Is what you’re reading relevant? Will it help you answer your questions? There might be times when you can read about the subjects you are studying for personal pleasure and take your time over it enjoy those – moments. More familiar might be the times when you have a deadline pressing and you can’t afford to read anything that won’t be directly useful. Think as you research whether or not what you are reading is helping you. Have you answered your questions about that aspect of the topic? Do you know enough about it for now to move on? What new questions do you have as a result of what you have read? 3. Who is the author? Can you trust him/her? Another question to ask about your research sources is whether or not you can trust them. You need to be sure that the author is trustworthy. Information on sites such as Wikipedia, for example, is not to be relied upon as it may not be objective. One way of testing this is to check the other things you are reading to find out whether or not other authors you have been reading reference them. 4. Why was it written? Who was the intended audience? What’s the author’s agenda? Another test for whether you can trust an author is to ask whether they had hidden motives for what they were writing. That’s less likely with academic sources that have been reviewed by other academics before publication, but still not impossible. 5. When was it written? And is it still up to date?
1. Ask questions all the time What do you know? What do you need to know more What do you not know? Never stop asking questions. Treat your research like explorers treat their journeys – always looking around them, picking up new information, thinking about where next to head. So you can use your questions to ask yourself how much you are understanding and what you need to research next to help you complete your coursework tasks. 2. Is what you’re reading relevant? Will it help you answer your questions? There might be times when you can read about the subjects you are studying for personal pleasure and take your time over it – enjoy those moments. More familiar might be the times when you have a deadline pressing and you can’t afford to read anything that won’t be directly useful. Think as you research whether or not what you are reading is helping you. Have you answered your questions about that aspect of the topic? Do you know enough about it for now to move on? What new questions do you have as a result of what you have read? 3. Who is the author? Can you trust him/her? Another question to ask about your research sources is whether or not you can trust them. You need to be sure that the author is trustworthy. Information on sites such as Wikipedia, for example, is not to be relied upon as it may not be objective. One way of testing this is to check the other things you are reading to find out whether or not other authors you have been reading reference them. 4. Why was it written? Who was the intended audience? What’s the author’s agenda? Another test for whether you can trust an author is to ask whether they had hidden motives for what they were writing. That’s less likely with academic sources that have been reviewed by other academics before publication, but still not impossible. 5. When was it written? And is it still up to date?
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