Research Techniques

Today I used an internet resource The Internet Detective ( http://www.vtstutorials.ac.uk/detective/). 

My tutor asked me to do this activity as I plan to research much of the information for my project on the internet.  The Internet Detective showed me that carrying out academic research has different requirements than everyday internet searching.  I will have to remember that I must avoid sites that are inappropriate ie not academically sound.  I should check that information on sites is accurate and free from bias.  I must also remember to include a reference to acknowledge where I sourced information from.  Simply cutting and pasting without a reference is not allowed, it is plagiarism and will earn me a fail. 

According to the Internet Detective site the key skills I must develop are:

Be able to do my own independent research
Locate and use a wide range of information sources
Critically evaluate the information I find
Synthesise information to form my own original piece of work
Present a balanced and well-informed argument leading to my own conclusions

The site also gave me good advice on how to carry out effective research:  to know what information I need, to work out the best sources and then (only then) to turn to the Internet. 

I already know that I want to find out about team-working skills and I plan to use a primary source (interviewing someone I feel is a skilled team-worker) and I will start my Internet research with a respected site called Mindtools.com.  If I do find other internet sources I will identify and verify the site and if in doubt email my lecturer to check.

I feel that this activity has taught me how to research more effectively than before and I was surprised because I thought my internet search skills were already pretty good.  I guess that it reminded me that others can have valuable contributions and that I can benefit from them.