Notes
The article gives an extensive guideline on how to handle research writing. It looks at:
Developing a plan for the essay
Developing the research plan
Structuring the essay
Getting search term
Gathering evidence
Finding sources
Summary
The chapter gives extensive advice on how to handle a research project. It gives a step by step account from determining the topic of the research project to coming up with relevant sources to support the topic and arrive at a conclusion. It shows the reader how to determine appropriate sources like the encyclopedia and also gives advice on how to handle other sources of information that may be valuable but non-authoritative like Wikipedia. It shows how to conduct library and multi-media search.
Response
The reading is a helpful guideline in handling a research project. I particularly appreciate the part about the preliminary steps to the research project about determining the topic, getting background information on the research topic and determining the sources to use. Many students often have trouble determining the topic of their research, defining the scope and finding relevant resources. The information will be applicable in my class work; where I will use it in handling my research papers and even the final dissertation. The reading went into great detail on how to search for books in the library and on how to search for information online. I found this detail unnecessary since library use is a skill acquired at start of learning. On the other hand, use of online search is common to many young people. Generally, I found the reading informative and rewarding.
