research skills for your controlled assessment
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Research skills for your Controlled Assessment. These bubbles are used for comments you have made about finding information. 2011. What is a Controlled Assessment?. New GCSEs have Controlled Assessment rather than coursework. Controlled Assessment is similar to coursework. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Research skills for your Controlled Assessment
2011 These bubbles are
used for comments
you have made about
finding information
What is a Controlled Assessment?
New GCSEs have Controlled Assessment rather than coursework.
Controlled Assessment is similar to coursework.
The difference is that Controlled Assessment has controls which determine how and
where you complete your assessments and what resources you may use.
Above information taken from http://web.aqa.org.uk/support/forStudents.php?id=02&prev=02
Understand the task
•Ask to see the mark scheme
•Check the due date
•Read/ ask about the rules and regulations
•Choose a question/ topic
Stick to the rules• Hand in work that is your own
• Do NOT allow other students to copy your work
• Make it clear who the author is when you have copied work directly from books, the internet or other sources
• Do NOT hand in work typed or word-processed by someone else without saying so.
Above information taken from http://web.aqa.org.uk/support/forStudents.php?id=02&prev=02
Keep a research diaryYour teacher will help you learn how and
where to research information.
Keep a research diary or folder in which you can:
•make a note of all the books, websites etc that you have used in your research. •keep your notes, ideas and essay plans together. •record your group work as you may be allowed to work in groups on certain activities •give to your teacher to record their feedback and advice to you at certain stages during your assessment.
•Above information taken from http://web.aqa.org.uk/support/forStudents.php?id=02&prev=02
Some places to begin the initial research
•Encyclopaedias
•Thesaurus
•Dictionary
•Information from your lessons
• Encyclopaedia: http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia
• Thesaurus: http://thesaurus.reference.com/
• Dictionary http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ or http://www.thefreedictionary.com
• Your teacher / your notes
Hard to find the start of
the information
Aims of the initial research•Taking the time to do some early-stage research should give you an overview of your topic
•These resources can help you to understand your question and summarise the topic to be investigated.
•You will discover search terms, alternative words and key terms to use for researching the topic
Starting off/
Somewhere
to start
Search terms•Make a list of search terms. You way want to keep this list to add to as you continue researching
•Use advanced search techniques to extend this list
Picking out key terms
Advanced search techniquesNot all search devices (databases, search engines, catalogues) employ the same advanced search capabilities. Some do use this for example: http://www.exalead.com/search/
•Truncation *•Boolean operators AND OR NOT•Proximity searching NEAR or N•Phrase searching “…”•Wildcard favo?rite
PlanNow you have an idea about general area of your project you should get an idea about what sort of information you want to collect, and how you are going to use it.
You may find it useful to brainstorm your idea and develop a plan for your essay.
Organise information and relate it
to case
BrainstormCreate a mind map of what you currently know about your project, or sub topics from your given topic.
Human rights
Political equality
Feminism
SuffrageSocial equality
Amnesty international
Example of a planYour brainstorm may help you to become more specific by focusing on one aspect of a broader issue. Also your brainstorm may enable you to group sub-topics into topic paragraphs to produce sections to consider in larger essays.
Introduction Topic Paragraphs Conclusion
Basic structure
Focusing on one thing
In depth researchAfter you have made a plan, you should be aware of a few sub topics within your subject. You can use these areas of your plan to focus on finding a good quantity of quality information on each important aspect of your subject.
Start on the shelvesCheck the library catalogue: Eclipse for items on your topic using your keywords. Print out lists of items to search through.You can then mark the paper to identify useful topics.If you find a relevant book the way we organise books indicates that other similar books should be located around it. Look for items at the same shelf mark and look for items to the left of your title which should become more general, but have chapters on your topic.
How to use the library catalogue
ECLIPSE
How to access the catalogue
We invested in a new library catalogue this year.
• You can access this through the Intranet Homepage, click on Eclipse (right)
• You will find you are automatically logged in.
Eclipse Homepage – Search bar
Use the search bar
to put in information
about the resource
you are looking for
such as book title or author surname.
Eclipse Homepage – Search tabAlternatively
get into more detail
using the Search
tab.
Eclipse - Search - AdvancedUse the search
boxes to combine
terms with AND, OR, or NOT by
selecting the
appropriate boxes
Eclipse - Search - AdvancedUse the drop-
down boxes to choose
how the search terms
need to be understood by
Eclipse.
If you get lots of results you
could limit to ‘title’
searching, if you get very
few ‘All Fields’ is appropriate.
Eclipse - ResultsBrowse the
records returned by your search
by clicking on the book
covers.
You get lots of information
about the resource including
‘Class’ which is the location of the book in
the library.
Eclipse Homepage - ResultsClick on the
resource types to limit your search
just to textbooks,
books, webpages, generic, or
film.
The search shown is limited to
webpages.
Click on a result to see details and summary, some resources do not have covers (as in this case).
Learning Information Centre Website.
• There are links to the learning information centre website: -– Search for ‘Learning Information Centre’ on the ECLIPSE catalogueor
– On our external website: http://www.thomasclarkson.cambs.sch.uk/ then STUDENT AREA
then LEARNING INFORMATION CENTREor
– Through the Eclipse homepage – Newsor
– By using the direct URL http://TCCCLIC.weebly.com
Use the index and contents pages
Textbooks on sociology may have a specific amount of information on Multiculturalism & Feminism. Check the contents at the front of the book and index at the back to find out.
Search for more detail
in books
Public libraryVisit your public library to get a borrower barcode and pin number so you can access the books on their shelves (and any you want to order in) and also access their online resources!
The website for the Wisbech Public Library is: http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/directory/wisbech_library.htm (There is a link to this through http://tccclic.weebly.com/
Online resourcesSee the library website (http://TCCCLIC.weebly.com) for a range of online resources that can be used. Good quality online resources are also listed through Eclipse.
• Sites such as Wikipedia are governed by the general public. The information held on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate and so should not be quoted from in your essays.
Ways to search the internetSearch engines
Subject directories
Meta-search engines
Advanced web searching
Search engines
Search engines contain web addresses discovered from the world wide web by software.
• www.google.co.uk• www.yahoo.com• www.bing.com
• My personal favourite: (check out the advanced search options) http://www.exalead.com/search
Subject directories
The web pages on subject directories are selected by humans.
• http://directory.google.com • http://www.lii.org • http://dir.yahoo.com • www.about.com
• My personal favourite: http://infomine.ucr.edu
Metasearch engines
Searches the databases created by search engines
• http://www.dogpile.com/• http://www.metacrawler.com/
• My personal favourite: http://clusty.com/
Types of information on the internet
Websites
Books
Journal articles
Newspaper articles
Websites
• Use a search engine or subject directory such as Google
Journal articles
• There are lots of free journal articles written by professionals on the web. See http://tccclic.weebly.com/journal-articles.html. A few of the great providers listed here include Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com and the Directory of Open Access Journals http://www.doaj.org/ and many more…
Google Scholar improves results!
Newspaper articles• There are many places on the Internet to gain
access to free news articles.• There is a list of these on
http://tccclic.weebly.com/news-articles.html • The RSS feeds show the top articles on Google
News http://news.google.co.uk/news?ned=uk and also from BBC News
What should we check to make sure the information is useful?
•Homepage•Date•Links•Site ending (.sch.uk) Researching
on the internet and making sure
its valid
What should we always make a note of when we find useful
information?•Citation/ reference•Save them as you go with http://www.ottobib.com/
•Or write them down in your Controlled Assessment diary.
Quotes•Do not paste information from websites into an essay without commenting on what has been said.
•Do not write down any information that has come from a person or organisation without letting your reader know where it has come from by “quoting” and referencing.
•Long quotes can be held in an appendix at the end of your document and referred to in your document in order to free up more words for your own voice. This is especially useful if your piece of work is to a specific word-count.
Academic language•Do not use personal pronouns e.g. I, we, you, etc•Use formal English•Do not use abbreviations. For example use ‘introduction’ rather than ‘intro.’
Illustrations•It looks good to illustrate your work. •However you must engage with an illustration, comment on its use where you have included it.•The illustration must be relevant to your topic.
Introduction•The introduction should clarify the coming structure of your essay: i.e.. What you will include and in which order.
•Use your plan to help write your introduction
•If items included in the essay change, are removed or added return to your introduction and change it to reflect your essay as it is currently.
•State what you hope to learn/ achieve by writing the essay (use the title to help you do this)
Paragraphs•The first sentence of a paragraph should introduce what that paragraph will be about.•The following sentences provide an explanation of that topic.•The last sentence rounds off that topic and paves the way for the topic of the next paragraph.
•Following paragraphs.•First sentence links back to previous paragraph and also introduces next idea of its paragraph…
Conclusion•The conclusion can be brief
•It must however conclude on all aspects of your topic
•Do NOT bring up any new ideas in your conclusion section. Only information from the main body of your essay should be concluded upon.
•Conclude by stating what you have achieved/ learnt/ found by writing the essay. (ensure that this is the same emphasis as the aim in the introduction, if not adjust one or the other to match).
Bibliography•Use a style guide e.g. http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm
•Ensure the full range of resources are accounted for: - newspapers, journals, websites and books!
•Ensure the information you are using is up to date and trustworthy.
Final things•Ensure you do stick to the word limit•Make any necessary changes •Proof-read for spelling and grammar.•Print it out ahead of time to miss the mad rush on the printer on the deadline day.
•And then you are ready to hand it in