Before the Basics: Understanding Your Assignment
- Do you have a topic provided or can you select your own? If the choice is yours, save issues down the research road and confirm the appropriateness of your topic with your instructor.
- Do some background research | reading and identify an angle. Make it manageable. If your topic is too broad, you will have too much information to sift through. If too narrow, finding resources will be more difficult than it needs to be. Embrace your inner Goldilocks!
- The type of information you need directs where you will search for your information. Are you allowed to use more popular sources? How current does the information need to be? Your instructor may stipulate in the assignment or your strategy could inform.
Match potential topics to their appropriateness as a research question.
Types of Resources
Before you begin your research, make sure you understand where you should look for sources. In some cases, your potential resources will be determined by your instructor. Make sure to see if the assignment stipulates types of sources e.g., use only academic sources for your work.
Other than using your instructor’s recommendations, the type of information required will determine which resource type(s) your search. Make sure you understand the differences among types of resources.
*With gratitude to Ontario’s The Learning Portal
Books and eBooks
From an information perspective, print and ebooks are similar. The main difference between them is access. Print books are physical items, whereas ebooks are digital files, that can be accessed from a variety of devices.
Book publication can take a long time. First, the author researches the topic, then they write a draft. The unpublished manuscript is then sent to a published, edited, rewritten, and finally … published. This can be a lengthy process and explains why even if a book is released in 2016, it likely doesn’t contain up-to-the minute information.
Journal Articles
In a research article a researcher, or group of researchers, present findings of their research.
Academic journals can also contain opinion pieces, book reviews, literature reviews, etc.
Research is multidisciplinary. In order for an article to be published in an academic journal, it has to go through a formal submission process, and often, a peer review process.
Peer reviewed journals have a board, or panel of subject experts, who review articles submitted for publication, often working with authors to edit their articles before publication. Not all academic journals are peer reviewed. Be careful when you limit to peer review; it is a very specific subset of academic journals. Not all topics are well represented in peer reviewed research and that research is usually heavy on quantitative research methods.
Trade Magazines
Trade magazines print articles aimed at people working in a particular field. Often, articles published in trade journals are written by practitioners in the field. The content in trade journals focuses on working in the profession, trends, news related to that field, or trade, rather than academic research.
Consider trade journals to be more practical than the more theoretical and philosophical academic journals.
Popular Magazines
Popular magazine articles typically focus on information from pop culture. Articles are usually short, and with images embedded throughout.
Websites
Websites are the most prolific of online resources, and can be found using a search engine (like Google). Websites can serve a variety of purposes, here are a few examples:
- Individuals – showcase work in a portfolio, to communicate a message
- For profit companies – promote their brand, or market their products
- Non profit companies – promote their cause
- Governments – educate citizens, and publish government based research
- Educational institutions – publish information related to programs and courses, as well as information relevant for the academic community
Social Media
Social media posts can be a great source of information. Social media can also add to information overload. In order to tap into the most relevant information, identify relevant #hashtags, @profiles, conversation threads, and blogs on your topic of interest.
Here are examples of the different types of social media platforms:
- Facebook – Pages and Groups
- Twitter – #hashtags and @profiles
- Blogs – personal reflections, and sharing
- Wikis – crowdsourced information
Confirm Your Understanding
