Finding Information for Assignments: Researching for First-Year Students
Mastering Research: A guide to university assignments
We start thinking of how to research a university assignment with three objectives:
- To find sources of information and make notes
- To organize these notes
- To create an outline
Assignment Tasks
We focus on our course assignment and the task of researching a country or location. We will complete our research in the three following stages:
1.Research
- Interesting facts about a country / countries
- Paraphrase these facts
- Complete the ‘interesting facts’ work sheet
2.Group & Organize notes
- Groups similar notes
- Complete the Graphical organizer (work sheet)
3.Create an Outline
- Create a structure for an article
- Complete a draft outline
When we do our research we must remember to make a note of the sources of information. A good practice for web-based research would be to note the web addresses (urls) of pages that have details that we have used to make notes.
If we have the web address, and the date we searched this web page, we can come back to get the other details if we later decide to use the information and need to reference the source.
Writing your notes
Assignment Task - example
In the previous mind maps task we used an example of a holiday in Ireland based on the county of Kerry. We also have an idea of what facts we might search for our research. For example, what activities are available, what can we do to relax, or participate?
There is an ‘interesting facts’ worksheet that we can use to note our research. In this work sheet we are required to find, at least, 3 interesting facts about a country or location.
We first of all note the url, the web address. Then we copy & paste the interesting facts from the source text. Finally, we paraphrase, write in out own words, what is this information. We do this for each of the three (or more) interesting facts.
There are also general information details that would be good to add to show the reader. These give us background information about the place of the holiday.
There is a completed example of the ‘interesting facts’ work sheet for Kerry, Ireland available to help students understand the task. Review the example to make sure you understand your task.
In summary,
- choose your country
- research online for interesting details
- complete at least 3 interesting facts from your research
- copy the web address, the text, and write the text in your own words
- finally, add some general details about the country that would interest a visitor
An example of the interesting facts sheet that includes the research notes of the ‘Kerry, Ireland’ example.
Organizing your notes
After collecting your notes, re-read them and notice the similarity between notes. Organizing notes is simply putting the similar notes together into groups.
In business there is an affinity diagram that has post it notes where ideas are noted and then grouped together.
return to the 9 stages of completing an assignment
return to the home page for the Pre-Sessional English Course