Research: B2+. Anneli Williams

       Glossary

      subject discipline In an academic setting, a subject discipline is a particular topic or specific area of study.

       Why do you have to do library based research?

      When you do library based research, you usually have to work on your own. This gives you the opportunity to become a more independent learner and to show that you can think for yourself. These are qualities that are highly valued in academic settings within the English speaking world.

      However, working independently does not mean that your research is not connected to the work of other people. One of the main purposes of universities is to produce knowledge, that is, to create, evaluate and disseminate new information and ideas. Producing knowledge usually involves many scholars working in different times and places. When you do research as part of your course, you are learning skills which will allow you to participate in that wider effort. You have the opportunity to develop the ability to:

       Glossary

      evaluate If you evaluate something or someone, you consider them in order to make a judgement about them, for example about how good or bad they are.

      disseminate To disseminate information or knowledge means to distribute it so that it reaches many people or organizations.

      

Create a research question and an argument to answer it.

      

Evaluate the research that has been done by others.

      

Disseminate your research by writing it up and submitting it for a mark, and, in some cases, by sharing what you have learned with other students on your course.

       How do you know if your research is good?

      In some parts of the world, students are judged according to how well they retain information given to them. In the English speaking world, when your essay paper is being marked, the marker will normally use other criteria for judging how well you have demonstrated the skills involved.

       These are the questions the marker may ask themselves:

      1Has the student understood the question?

      2How well does the student know what other scholars have written about the topic?

      3How skilfully has the student evaluated the work of other scholars?

      4To what extent has the student synthesized the information and ideas available to produce a convincing argument?

      5How clearly has that argument been conveyed?

      6Has the student learned what they were supposed to learn from the course?

       Glossary

      synthesize If you synthesize different ideas, you combine these ideas.

      Some of these criteria may be more important than others, depending on the task you have been set. However, in most cases, students who are good at 3 and 4 tend to receive higher marks. That is because they demonstrate good critical thinking skills.

      Generally speaking critical thinking involves viewing issues from multiple perspectives and weighing up the strengths and weaknesses of arguments. When you do this you demonstrate that you can make fair judgements and take an independent stance.

       For more information on critical thinking skills, see Chapter 7.

       Tips

      

Find out what criteria will be used to mark your paper.

      

Make sure you know what you need to do to get a higher mark.

      

As you do your research, check that what you are doing meets the criteria.

       The research process

      Doing research is a complex process, so it can be helpful to divide it into tasks. How you break down the process depends on your assignment, your preferred ways of working, and your strengths and weaknesses as a researcher.

      Remember, in practice, doing research can be a ‘messy’ process. You may do some tasks, such as making an outline plan, more than once. Or, you may do some tasks at the same time, for example, you will probably continue reading while writing your first draft. However, in general, if you are new to research, you should probably aim to spend about 50% of the time available preparing and gathering information, and 50% writing up. As you gain experience, you can adjust the length of time you spend on each stage. However, students who spend more time preparing tend to score higher marks.

      

Exercise 1

      Imagine you have 30 days to write a 3,000 word essay on a topic related to your course. The tasks you might do are listed in the table below. Tick the tasks that you think are important. For each task you have ticked, write approximately how much time you think it would be reasonable to spend on that task.

Stage	Tasks	✓	Time
1 Preparation	Think about the research topic and the instructions given.
Find out what information is available – do some background reading.
Devise a rough outline plan.
2 Gathering information	Gather books and articles from the library or online.
Read and take notes.
3 Writing up	Write a more detailed plan.
Write a first draft.
Revise your first draft.
Write a second draft.