Canny Minds Blog

Canny tip #6: Brilliant Academic Research

Posted on 07. Oct, 2009 by Jenny in Articles, Canny Tips

A series of eight tips produced by The University of Warwick, are offered as quick reference guides to the simple application of general best practice techniques. Whilst originally developed for students, they could be used by anyone.

What are you researching and why?

• What questions are you trying to answer?
• What do you already know and where are your knowledge gaps?
• How long does your piece of work need to be? Have you planned to do enough (or too much) research?

Don’t just stick to textbooks!

• Remember to look at secondary sources. These include academic journals, books, newspapers, magazines, electronic articles, websites and government statistics, but be sure to…

Evaluate your secondary sources!

• Date published: is the source still current and relevant?
• Author: how reputable is the author? What point is s/he trying to prove and why?
• Relevance: does the source help you to argue your case?

Carry out primary research!

• Gather and analyse your own data by carrying out experiments, surveys and questionnaires.

You must know about:

• avoiding plagiarism
• Intellectual Property Rights…check this out!

Visit the University of Warwick website

Photo courtesy of m00by

Tags: Canny Tips, research