{"id":488,"date":"2016-03-21T13:13:38","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T00:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/?p=488"},"modified":"2016-03-21T13:13:38","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T00:13:38","slug":"some-tips-on-researching-your-assignments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/2016\/03\/21\/some-tips-on-researching-your-assignments\/","title":{"rendered":"Some tips on researching your assignments"},"content":{"rendered":"
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  1. Start by reading and making notes<\/a> on the relevant study materials in your Stream<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Check your assignment instructions regarding extra\/additional\/outside sources. Sometimes you may be asked to use a minimum of one or more outside sources (i.e. outside your Stream site).<\/li>\n
  3. If you are asked to use outside sources, you can find appropriate academic sources<\/a> on the Discover database<\/a> (it contains lots of peer review journals and academic books, and many are available electronically).<\/li>\n
  4. Use the keywords in your assignment question to guide your selection of relevant extra readings.<\/li>\n
  5. Gist read\/skim your selected readings (read the introduction, the first line of each paragraph and the conclusion) to get a good idea of main points or argument in the article\/book.<\/li>\n
  6. Gist reading will help you identify if an article\/book isn\u2019t relevant and thus save you time, as you won\u2019t waste time reading things that aren\u2019t relevant. In addition, gist reading will help you identify which sections of a book\/article are relevant and again this will save you time, as you won\u2019t read parts that aren\u2019t relevant.<\/li>\n
  7. Read the relevant sections of your selected books\/articles closely and make notes.<\/li>\n
  8. When making notes have a clear purpose regarding what you want to get out of the reading (e.g. a definition or background information). Having a purpose will help you take more focused (and thus useful!) notes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    For more information see:<\/p>\n