Referencing, Essay structure & Grammar
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Before you begin

A quick way to find out more about your topic is to do an internet search ... BUT remember to think critically about which websites you use. For example, JStor is definitely more reliable than Wikipedia. Wikipedia has great coverage of many topics, but you need to be aware that this information is contributed to by lots of different people and now results in a lot of circular reporting. If you are using this site, it always pays to check the information against that on other reputable and authoritative sites.

Remember you need to produce your own work and say (cite) where it came from. Plagiarism is an automatic NA grade.

Where do you start?

​You will need to use a variety of resources to complete assessment tasks ​
​This often includes both primary and secondary sources. ​

What skills will you need for research?

Step 1: Task Definition

The first requirement is using the right language and Boolean operators to create a focused non-time-wasting search. 

'Decoding' and 'unpacking' simply means you start by READING THE QUESTION from beginning to end, once, maybe twice, fully. This will help you understand everything that you will need to do for this task. You need to know what kind of ideas you need to record: focus your approach to the topic before you start detailed research.

Then, you decide what the main words (keywords) in the question are. These words tell you what your answer should be about. Once you know what to look for you can move on to break down the question. Here is an example:

Source: markedbyteachers.com

​Identifying the keywords will also help you find information in books (via the index), in databases and on the internet. It will help you to avoid putting your whole question into a search engine too!

Whole questions often elicit Quora-type results which generally do not pass an authorship/expertise test, and rarely contain verified facts.

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Step 2: INFORMATION seeking strategies: BOOKS, DATABASES & THE WEB/ai

Your second step is to decide WHERE TO LOOK to gather information to help you answer your question(s). 

​A huge amount of time is spent in this 'finding stuff' phase. This is the enemy of the researcher and can spiral out of control. You will have a deadline so don't get caught here for too long! Instead, you should only be finding relevant stuff, not just anything that is vaguely related to your topic.

There are plenty of great places to look for information. Here are some of the best:

Books

Firstly, books. There are pros and cons to using book information.
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Pros include:

• it is edited, verified information written by experts. It has therefore already been evaluated as an accurate source for you to use.
• it contains information not available on the open internet because experts expect to get paid for their information. It's their job, after all!
• you need to write your assessment in your own words and books can help by not being so available to cut and paste from.

Cons include:

• once it is published, it can't be updated, so you will need to check its currency.
• sometimes books simply are not written about your subject so you will need to rely on other sources
• books are limited to one place so you will need to photocopy/scan and email to yourself anything you need in order to work from home. Click here to see if we have any books or eBooks useful for your topic.

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​Use your main keyword(s) to search. This is covered in Step 1.

Databases

Now, databases. There are also pros and cons to using database information.
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Pros include:

• it is edited, verified information written by experts, just like books.
• it contains information that is not available on the open internet.
• It is available from anywhere at any time. Within the school it is password-free; from home you will need a password. This is: cashmere and 12cash

Cons include:

• sometimes there are simply no articles written about your subject so you will need to rely on other sources
• sometimes you will find opinion articles and you will need to assess these for bias.

Click here to see the databases we have at CHSL. Use your main keyword to search. Through this CHSL site we also give you access to online encyclopedias such as Britannica (School edition).

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Internet / AI

Finally, the internet & AI. Here are the pros and cons of using internet information.
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Pros include:

• It is available from anywhere at any time, and is therefore hugely convenient!
• It contains an enormous amount of information.
• it is very easily searched using your chosen search engine.

Cons include:

• you must EVALUATE every site on the internet before using it.
• it contains so much information that it is sometimes difficult to find really good sites.
• some search engines are better than others. Most search engines use algorithms to push certain sites to the top of the list.​

If you are going to use AI for research, please make sure you are not using generative AI to WRITE your assessment. This is plagiarism. Instead, use Bing (CoPilot) AI or ChatGPT to research your question. You MUST ask the AI to 'cite your sources' in your questions.

AI sometimes 'hallucinates' and makes up answers; this will help prevent misinformation for you.

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Step 3A: Location and access: FINDING RELEVANT WEBSITES using the Internet and AI

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​Your third step is to begin EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT SEARCHING. ​Use the internet itself to help you turn the 'fire-hose' of information into a relevant 'trickle'. ​There are many features that are common to all search engines that can help refine a search effectively and efficiently.
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​​Creating search strings for digital information is an extremely effective way of focusing your search.

The not-so secret language of the internet (left) can help you find what you need.
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Here is our example question:

• "Discuss the issues of gender inequality in the Pakistani education system"

If we wanted some information about how many girls actually attend school in Pakistan, our keywords could include:

• Pakistan
• education
• women or girls
• statistics

The search string would then look like this:

• Pakistan AND education AND (women OR girls) AND statistics NOT wikipedia

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This elicits 76 results as opposed to around 6,340,000 results if you didn't use the tools described above.

​Generally, sites can be grouped the following way:

1. .edu = education site and therefore usually pretty reliable
2. .gov or .govt = government site so (depending on the country and their government!) they are usually reliable
3. .org = organisation and usually not-for-profit, therefore less likely to be trying to sell you something
4. .co. or .com = commercial site. These sites need the most evaluation as they are the easiest sites for just anyone to create

You can use this to your advantage by adding site:.govt or site:.edu to your search string. This will focus you in on quality sites. Once you find a great site, add related: to the front of it to find others like it.

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Step 3B: Location and access: CHECKING THE RESOURCES YOU FOUND

So now you have found some books, database articles and internet sites, the next step is to EVALUATE them. This is the second requirement for your research. This includes all of your books, database articles and internet and AI sites.​

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Step 3C: Location and access: 'Digging in' to find THE SPECIFIC INFORMATION you NEED

The next step is to FIND RELEVANT INFORMATION WITHIN YOUR EVALUATED AND TESTED RESOURCES. 

Finding relevant information relies on THREE things:

1. keeping the question in front of you at all times, so that it can be referred to often (create a document like Google doc, Google slides, PowerPoint, Word document etc., and put the question at the top)
2. reading with a purpose in mind, so you will be able to sort out relevant ideas (this will help with your planning)
3. using good skimming and scanning techniques:

​Skim​ to get a general overview of the text:
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1. 1. Read carefully the introductory paragraph 
2. 2. Read carefully the first one or two sentences of each paragraph, as well as the concluding sentence or sentences. 
3. 3. In between these opening and closing sentences, keep your eyes moving. Your goal is to pick up the larger ideas in the text.
4. 4. Read carefully the concluding paragraph or paragraphs. ​

Scanning is basically skimming but to locate a particular fact or figure, or to see whether this text mentions a subject you’re researching. 
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Adapted from: http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/skim-and-scan/

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Step 4: Use of information: Notetaking

Step 4 is the time to PLAN YOUR WORK & TAKE CLEAR NOTES. Take the ideas you found in your skimming and scanning and start planning. Use mind maps (if they work for you).

Successful strategies for note-taking are:
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• 1. look for: facts and theories that help answer your question, and other people’s opinions about whether specific answers are good ones.
• 2. copy out exact words only when you might use them as actual quotations in your essay.
• 3. compress ideas in your own words. Paraphrasing word by word is a waste of time. Choose the most important ideas and write them down as labels or headings. Then fill in with a few sub-points that explain or exemplify.
• 4. use a highlighter (or a range of idea-specific colour-coded highlighters) and annotate what you highlight.
• 5. save bother later by developing the habit of recording bibliographic information in a master list.

Adapted from: http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/notes-from-research/

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STEP 7: RefereNCING YOUR WORK using aPA: in-text citations & bibliography

You can use CiteThisForMe as your APA referencing tool, as it uses a Chrome Extension. Or you can use the built-in APA referencing in Google docs.

​​PLEASE NOTE: An interview is not considered recoverable data, so no reference to this is provided in the reference list. You should, however, cite the interview within the text as a personal communication.

Examples:

• (J. Smith, personal communication, August 15, 2009) - in-text citation
• J. Smith (personal communication, August 15, 2009) - quote weaving