Setting Out My Research Book – A ‘How to’ Guide by Sharie Hasson Holland Park SHS

1 Staple the bibliographic details sheet in the front of your research book making sure that you can still write on both sides.

2 On the first page: write the task question On the next page: write the heading “Definitions” On the next page: write the heading “Who, What, When, Where” On the next page: write the heading “Why, How”

3 Under each heading on these pages write sub questions and that will help you answer your task question. (see the powerpoint on Developing Questions). As you complete your research you will add to these and cross some out as you find out more about your topic. Now you should have a number of pages at the front of your research book full of guiding questions so you know what you are looking for when you are researching. Start each research lesson reading these to remind you what to be looking for and end every lesson adding to, or crossing out, questions.

4 Turn to the next set of 2 blank pages in your research book and set it up in the following way (across two pages).   Source / Page number Notes Reflection

5 You must hand write all of your notes in this book - even internet sources - and they must be in POINT FORM ONLY. After you have taken notes from a source draw a line across both pages to separate from your next source. You should have notes from at least six (6) sources. Make sure to include the details of the sources that you don’t use as well; just write “no notes taken” under the notes section and “useless because ….” in the reflection section of your research book. You must also have used a range of sources in your research: books, internet, videos, magazine articles.

6 As you are taking notes you should also being writing questions or comments in the reflections column about individual points you have written. They should include things like: What point is being made in the information Corroborated by source ______ Contradicted in source ______ Opinion or fact Biased because _____ Reminders (I need to make sure I focus on ____ because I don’t have much info on that; I need more primary/secondary/internet/book sources See the word document Setting up and processing research notes for more information

7 Reorganise your notes according to how they relate to the various parts of your particular assignment task. You can either do this by using colour coded sticky notes to show the various parts or colouring in the individual points. Either way you need to write a legend/key that explains your colours at the start of your research book where you wrote the original task. Not every point will be coloured as you will probably find that some of the notes you took are not relevant. This is OK.

8 Then and only then should you even begin to worry what your actual assignment is going to look like. We will give you a step by step outline of what to do to ensure that you complete it correctly.