1. The EPQ: Developing Research Skills
Educational Engagement
The EPQ: Developing Research Skills
University of Leeds & MRC

2. Developing University Skills: Introduction to Research Skills
Where to look?
How and where can I search online?
Explain to students that this specific session will introduce some new research skills and possibly also put into practice some skills that they are already aware of.

3. Introduction to Research Skills: Types of Resources
Primary Resources
Is a document or physical object which was written/created during the time under study. These sources were present during an experience or time period & offer an inside view of a particular event. Examples include:
Original Documents: Diaries, Speeches, Manuscripts, Letters, Interviews, News Film Footage, Autobiographies, Official Records
Creative Works: Poetry, Drama, Novels, Music, Art
Relics or Artifacts: Pottery, Furniture, Clothing, Buildings
Secondary Resources
Interprets and analyses primary sources. These are 1+ steps removed from the event. They may have quotes, pictures or graphics of the primary sources in them. Examples include:
Publications: textbooks, magazine articles, histories, commentaries, encyclopedias
Students often go in to research thinking that information has to come from textbooks. In reality there are two main types of sources available to you: Primary and Secondary. Both types can be found in libraries, archives, online, but more importantly they are all around us! It is important to emphasise to students the vast amounts of sources that they can use, and possibly have not considered before.

4. Types of Resources: Finding Sources
First clarify any unknown information and definitions
Use dictionaries for definitions; glossaries for specialised terms and encyclopedias for an overview
Identify the main concepts or elements of your topic
Use single words or key phrases
Use related words, e.g. broad/narrower terms; synonyms
Make a list of the relevant keywords & concepts
Example: The impact of computers and the internet on higher education learning
Concepts: computers, internet, learning, higher education
Keywords: computers, information technology; internet www; learning, acquiring knowledge; higher education HE, university, college
Once students have understood a topic/research question and brainstormed what types of sources might be available, then they will need to focus on any concepts or keywords in their question. Although this may appear to be a simple step it will ensure that their research begins by covering quite a broad area (using their concepts) before refining their research area (using keywords). If students are aiming for good marks in any sort of assignment/exam/EPQ it is important that they research all potential avenues and do not miss out on important sources because they have used slightly different wording.
It is useful to think of this process in the three steps shown on the slide.
When coming up with keywords remember to include abbreviations, foreign spellings (as applicable), and terminology used within your subject field. Textbooks, Google (especially Google Scholar) and similar resources can give you a broad overview of the field, thus providing you with important keywords and concepts to add to your list.

5. Research Strategies: Let's Give it a Go
“Discuss the extent to which violence on television affects teenagers”
What do you think the key concepts are?
Violence Television Teenagers
Now we need to think about other ways these key concepts can be expressed…
Why? Authors can use ‘adolescent’ instead of ‘teenager’
Violence: Aggression; Violent; Anger
Television: TV; Telly; Media
Teenagers: Teen; Teenager; Adolescent; Juvenile
Don’t forget: US/UK spellings, abbreviations, synonyms
This slide gives an example of identifying concepts and keywords by using the essay title: “Discuss the extent to which violence on television affects teenagers”
By clicking through the slide you can get them to answer what the 3 concepts are and get them to shout out keywords (the list of keywords are only a few examples) NOTE: when asking for keywords for ‘violence’, a lot of people want to bring up ‘crime’. While this word is often associated with violence it is not an exact and/or alternative way to define violence. So, make sure that you emphasize that we aren’t looking for associated words – at least not yet. There’s enough out there with the keywords there.
It is also good to get students to note how keywords could be singular as well as plural and other uses of words, i.e. teenager vs. teenagers and violence vs. violent.

6. Types of Resources: Search Engines to Databases
Boolean search
Helps to widen or narrow searches
AND: use to combine your different concepts. This will narrow your search
OR: use to combine your alternative keywords. This will broaden your search
NOT: to exclude words. It will narrow your search, but use with caution as you may accidentally exclude useful material
So… in our example essay title with our key concepts and key words this would look like:
(violence OR aggression OR brutality OR anger) AND (television OR telly OR media) AND (teenagers OR teen OR adolescent OR juvenile)
The purpose of this slide is to introduce the Boolean search - this is a simple to use technique that helps to widen or narrow searches in all search engines, from online search engines such as Google Scholar to online databases and Library catalogues.
Make sure that students are aware that they can also combine all three or use a combination of these search commands to narrow your search. To do this: in some search tools you have to add brackets to keywords that you combine with OR, however, for other search tools such as Google Scholar (advanced search) you just add your keywords into the ready-made Boolean search template.
Suggest that students try to use several different combinations of concepts and keywords in their searches so that they can cover a larger breadth of information. Also, highlight the importance of writing down which combinations they have used, because they may need to find particular sources again when writing up and referencing

7. Types of Resources: Search Engines to Databases
Wikipedia: a good starting point?
Google: Fine to start with. But: lots of resources & ranked by their own criteria and not whether its relevant to your area. Make use of the ‘advanced search option’
Google Scholar: Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines
Directory of Open Access Journals: a website that lists open access journals
Google, Wikipedia - it is good to acknowledge that students will often most likely all go to Wikipedia and/or Google to begin researching a topic because it’s easy. This is fine as a ‘starting off point’, but shouldn’t be used much further (the reason as to why can related to critical thinking and the evaluation of sources which is covered in lesson 2). Explain to students that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone and there are people out there who like to put up false information. However, don’t let students be put off from using Wikipedia initially because it could be a good place to find out key words, individuals and concepts as well as similar avenues surrounding your topic.
Google Scholar – for research, even better than Google, is Google Scholar: This will be better for their searching, because it will give them scholarly articles – which are the most objective and academic to use for their EPQ. Not to say they can’t use websites and non-academic sources, but this is a good place to start and to search online.
Directory of Open Access Journals – this is a website for open access journals, unlike academic journals students will not have to pay to access the materials found in this website.

8. Types of Resources: Search Engines to Databases
Exercise on Boolean Searches
See Exercise 3: Boolean Searches
Blank exercise – page 8 of teacher pack, page 4 of student pack
Annotated exercise – page 14 of teacher pack

9. Introduction to Research Skills: EPQ Hints and Tips
Remember to use a few ‘question’ &‘instruction’ words in your EPQ question How this will affect how you go about researching and then answering your question? Remember that you will keep refining your title over the course of the EPQ What primary and/or secondary resources do you plan to use for your research? Why? Where can you look for these resources? Advanced: What are your key concepts and keywords for your EPQ question? How could you use these concepts and keywords in a Boolean search?
Some hints and tips related to the material in the lesson and how students can go away and apply these to their EPQ/own research
The advanced question is suitable only for students who are at the stage of their EPQ where they have a specific question in mind.