Research Skills

Choosing a Topic


Where do TOPICS come from?
Your teacher assigns them - Make sure you understand the purpose of your assigned topic. Before you get too far into it, ask if you are headed in the right direction.
Your interests - If you could spend your time learing about anything, what would it be?
Places you've been - Think geographically and historically and consider places you have imagined.
People you have met - Not just the rich and famous. An interesting friend will often make a good research topic.
Books you have read - Browse the shelves to jog your memory.
Videos you have seen - TV? Movies? Home Videos?
Magazines you have looked at - National Geographic and Kids Discover are just two of the good browsing magazines you can probably find in your library. Ask the librarian for other suggestions.
Things you have always wondered about - What are the big questions you have always wanted to know?
Things you have opinions about - This isn't as easy as it sounds. This choice will require information as well as strong feelings and a willingness to explore the opposite side.


Refining the Topic


Once you have selected a topic, you have a lot to do before you can begin gathering information.
To do the best project you can, you must: Let us imagine a situation where you are studying Ancient Egypt and decide to do a project on hieroglyphics.

General Refining Steps For our example
Choose your topic Reason? You like to draw and are curious about hieroglyphics.
The first step in generating KEYWORD search terms is to ask yourself "What do I already know?" and write down your answer. Ancient Egypt writing
Look at a summary source like an encyclopedia or textbook to get an idea of the scope of your topic. In an enclyopedia you find:
"Hieroglyphs are pictures or symbols used in writing. The hieroglyphic code of Ancient Egypt was translated using the Rosetta Stone now housed in the British Museum."
THIS IS THE BIGGIE!
Based on what you already know, generate the questions that will guide your research.


What questions do you still have after reading the summary?
What kind of information is the teacher expecting from your research?
Who, Where, and When are good ways to ask factual questions.
How and Why make better research questions.
Although you need both, make sure you have more How and Why questions.
You should expect to add and subtract from your original question list as you continue the research process.		 Where did the term "hieroglyhpics" come from?
Were there any early guesses about what the symbols meant?
Is there any structure to teh language?
How did the Rosetta Stone guide the translation process?
How do hieroglyphics fit into the whole process of language development?
Make a list of all the KEYWORD search terms you have so far. You may have added some when you generated your questions. You will use any or all of these in the resources you find.
hieroglyphics
Ancient Egypt
Rosetta Stone
codes
British Museum
language
Do you need to NARROW or EXPAND your research topic? If it looks as if there is not enough information on hieroglyphics to complete the assignment, you might want to look at exploring all aspects of communication in Ancient Egypt. If there is too much, you might decide to just focus on the translation of the Rosetta Stone.


It is often helpful to put these questions and keywords into some kind of graphic
organizer to keep track of your thinking.
  Defining the Task: Graphic Organizers
  Graphic organizers are a quick way to keep track of the research progress.
  • It allows us to see what we have done and what we still have to do
  • It allows us to keep track of new ideas and questions as we discover them in our research

The one that works best depends on the nature of your project and the way you think. The program INSPIRATION is a popular electronic graphic organizer you can also use.


Using our hieroglyphics example, here is how some samples might look:

Webs (Mind Maps)

Using a WEB, also called a MIND MAP, allows us to think about all the smaller ideas in our big topic and how they are connected.
A WEB is more graphic and feels a little less structured than an OUTLINE. If you prefer, you can use pictures with words to create your WEB.
Here is how one might look in our hieroglyphics example:



You would fill in the ovals and add others as you did in research. The ovals can be filled with brief sentences as well as single words.

Outlines


To make an outline, you need to think about your topic from bigger to smaller ideas. Traditionally, we would use a combination of Roman numerals, letters, and numbers. You would need to add and subtract categories as you continue your research. Here is what it might look like for our hieroglyphics example.

TOPIC: Hieroglyhpics
I. Ancient Egypt
          A. record keeping
                1.
                2.
          A. architecture
                1.
                2.
II. Rosetta stone
          A. discovery
                1.
                2.
          B. translation
                1. who?
                2. what languages
                      a. Greek
                      b. dometic
                3. process
          C. description
III. Language
          A. heiroglyphics compared to earlier languages
          B. place in the development of language
IV. Codes
          A. symbols
          B. structure
V. British Museum

Tree Diagrams


The tree diagram is a combination of the graphics of the WEB/MIND MAP and the order of the OUTLINE. Here is how one might look for our hieroglyphics example.


Organizing your
Thinking


When is this project due?
  • The smart researcher will create a time line for getting things done that allows for all the other time demands of your life (family, sports, other assignments). Even if you can't hold exactly to this schedule, it will help you see just how much time there is to do.
  • Divide your task into: Time to locate information, Time to gather the information (This includes READING what you find). Time to write or construct.
What requirements have been set by the teacher?
  • If you are given verbal instructions only, write down what you think you have to do and show it to the teacher to be sure you have it right.
  • If this is a group project, you need to plan group time and be clear about your particular task.
  • Is your audience your class or some other organization of adults with additional requirements who may not have the background information your class shares?
What will the final product look like?
  • Play to your strength - if you have a choice, do what you know you are good at.
  • Follow these guidelines for creating and presenting your project.
What are the best resources available?
  • In the school library? In the public library? In the world around me?
  • Afount the "internet only" trap. Consider various reference tools among the library resources you look for.
How am I going to record my research?
  • You need to be able to link all your information to the source it came from and the research questions it answers.
  • The quick and easy way is to copy or print pages from books or the internet and highlighting the "important facts". There are some problems with this quick and easy way:
    --Because this means looking at original source when you write, it often leads to plagiarizing.
    --It also does not connect the information to a particular research question, making organization difficult.
  • There are many other ways to record your research. Here are a couple:
          Graphic Orgainizers
          Notecards
          Grid
          Notebook Files
How am I going to avoid plagiarizing?
  • There needs to be a step between finding the information and sharing the information that involves interpreting, synthesizing, or summarizing the information. This step makes the information your own. Only by writing from your own notes can you be sure you are not plagiarizing.
  • Just changing a few words or phrases is still plagiarizing.
  • Combining sentences from many sources usually leads to paragraphs that make no sense, and is still plagiarizing.
  • You need to know that it is very easy for a teacher to locate a source you have copied, especially if that source is on the internet. The consequences for plagiarizing can be serious.

Now you are ready to gather and record your information.