Starting your research

Whether you are doing an Extended Research Project (EPQ) or simply researching for an A-level assignment, you will need to plan your research.

You will need to consider the sort of materials that you should read and the best way to find them as well as how you record your findings and communicate them to others.

Knowing which information is available at the planning stage is key to your success – too much and you could become bogged down and decide your question is too broad, too little and you might find you struggle to make the word count.

It is generally a good idea to use several different types of resources in your research – some will give you background information and others will provide richer in-depth knowledge.

If you are unfamiliar with a topic, you may wish to use an encyclopaedia or introductory text to gain an overview.

Encyclopaedias

One starting point could be Wikipedia. However, you should check any information that you find on Wikipedia against another source to ensure its accuracy. You can do this, by looking at the sources at the end of a Wikipedia article. Remember, Wikipedia articles can be written by anyone as it is a freely editable crowd-sourced platform. However, it does have a community of volunteers who check and remove spurious information.

A well-known encyclopaedia written by subject experts is Encyclopaedia Britannica. However, no encyclopaedia is error-free.

 

Generally, encyclopaedia articles are written to present facts rather than arguments. Academic research is not about finding facts and regurgitating them; it is about analysing sources and reaching your own conclusions. In order to write academic assignments, you will need to delve much deeper than encyclopaedia articles. Academic texts such as scholarly books and journal articles can provide the depth you need.

Much of the reading that you find in the references section at the end of an encyclopaedia article can be followed up online. Others will refer to chapters in books, which are not readily available via your phone or iPad. This is where understanding how to use a library comes in handy.