Finding Information review
Activity
Look at the range of problems that can occur when trying to find information for an assignment. Think about how you would solve them yourself.
Find our suggestions to the problems.
- I don't understand what the assignment wants.
- Re-read it carefully
- Ask the person who set it
- Re-reading the section Understanding your information needs may help.
- There's nothing on this subject
- Analyse the topic further
- Think of narrower or broader aspects
- Think of alternative words
- Re-reading the section Topic analysis and keywords may help.
- I've found some information but it's not what I really want
- Fully understand what type of information best suits your assignment
- Find appropriate sources for that type of information
- Be realistic - the information you want may not exist all in one place - you may have to collect pieces from various sources to get the full picture
- Re-reading the section Choosing sources of information may help.
- I've found some brilliant web sites and a couple of newspaper articles, will it be enough?
- Unless this is exactly what is required for the assignment look at other sources like books and journals as well - they will probably be less biased and more authoritative
- I'm using an electronic database but I'm not finding much
- Make sure the database covers your subject area adequately
- Review your analysis of the topic
- Use any help buttons that are on the screen - you may be entering/combining your words incorrectly
- Check your spelling
- Re-reading the section Electronic databases and searching techniques may help.
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