Research – using the Internet and other secondary sources and Source analysis Top Tips – get ready to make your own notes!

Google It searches for words in order so put the most important first It puts “AND” between each word you type into the search bar and searches for the words individually Use “” to search for phrases e.g. “Clint Eastwood” It recognises MINUS so use it to say what you don’t want e.g. “animal husbandry” –horses This will bring articles where the words animal and husbandry are written together and horse will not be mentioned in the document Use OR if you want to specify a few words or phrases

Advanced search In order to limit the amount of results you get and refine your search you can use the Google Advanced Search

Contains ONLY academic articles Sometimes you will have to pay to access them, if this is the case copy the title and paste into the normal google or another search engine and see if you can get it for free If you can’t find a free version ask in the school library and Mrs Whitelaw will order a copy or electronic version from the British Library – make sure you have the title, author and journal name

Tell Google what you want Ask it a question, use part of a sentence and it will fill in the rest. Always put your question in “” “is the longest river in Scotland” “David Beckham was born on’ “The Simpsons was created by”

Use site types when looking at your results, look at the web address and decide whether it is going to be of use Identifier Site type.co.uk British company.com US company.ac.uk UK academic institution – university/college.edu US educational institution.sch.uk UK school.org Not for profit organisation.gov.uk UK government.gov US government.nhs.uk National health service

Wikipedia Biggest collection of reference materials on the internet, in the world! Good because it has got information about nearly everything Good because lots of specialists add material Bad because anyone can put information on or change it and it can take a long time for incorrect information to be spotted

Should you use it? Normally not recommended for academic research It can be a good staring point so you might use it to get an overview or some basic facts You will need to check the information from at least 2 other sources to ensure it’s correct Make sure you look at the references on Wikipedia to see where they got the information from. Then you can go and check it’s true and find some more information

Limit your Search: key phrases Imagine what words are going to be in the heading or beginning of your ideal document Example: “BP expects” OR “BP intends” OR “BP forecasts”

Limit your Search: Date Are you wanting to look for information between specific timescales, if so tell google this Example “BP expects” OR “BP intends” OR “BP forecasts” 2014…2025

Limit your search: Country You can ask it to bring back documents that relate to or are from a specific country Example “BP expects” OR “BP intends” OR “BP forecasts” 2014…2025 russia OR site:ru

Limit your Search File type Imagine what your ideal document will be like What type of file is it likely to be? If it’s a published report it’s likely to be a.pdf, If it contains data it might be a spreadsheet.xls Example “BP expects” OR “BP intends” OR “BP forecasts” 2014…2025 russia OR site:ru filetype:pdf

Limit your Search: Site Tell it what website to search, you might know the specific site or you might be able to guess at the type of site e.g. a university website will end in.ac.uk Example “BP expects” OR “BP intends” OR “BP forecasts” 2014…2025 russia OR site:ru filetype:pdf site:

Secondary sources Page Look at the bottom of page 62 – it shows you how to reference webpages – make a note of it – you will need it later! Page 63 gives you some ideas of other sources that could be used to research your topic.

Source analysis - create your chart from the start! Actively reading is important. You should be analysing and evaluating all the time: Do you agree with the writer? Should you do further research into the points that are being made? What questions do you have of the text? E.g. is there enough evidence? What are other points of view? Are there any problems with the text? How reliable is it? Is there any bias? Is it relevant? How useful was the source? Why? Is the date of publication relevant? Is it a UK publication or American/European – does this matter? The AO2 Assessment indicator requires, ‘Evidence of detailed research involving the selection and evaluation of a wide range of relevant resources’. Whenever you use a source you should make a note of it in your table, as well as adding to your notes. ResourceAnalysis Title Date Publisher

What the book saysYour thoughts Main points Key arguments Interesting/new/unusual/con troversial ideas Themes or major concepts discussed Questions asked or left unanswered Other people referred to Why you (don’t) agree with the author Points you don’t understand Points you want to find out more about References you want to follow up Questions or ideas the text provokes for you Anything that is wrong or missing

ResourceAnalysis TitleHow reliable is it? AuthorWhat do you know abut the author? Date Is there any bias? PublisherIs it relevant? How useful was the source? Why? Is the date of publication relevant?

Task: 1. Have a go at using …… And also ……… 2. Set up your source analysis table – ready for when you start your research